Piers Morgan aims DIG at Lionel Messi in Cristiano Ronaldo comparison
Piers Morgan hits DIG at Lionel Messi for ‘quitting elite football three years earlier than Cristiano Ronaldo’ amid report he signs for Inter Miami… claiming Argentina will escape ‘destructive, mocking pieces’ in double standard
Piers Morgan claims Lionel Messi is ‘quitting elite football’ ahead of his proposed move to Inter Miami – yet he will avoid the ‘scathing’ criticism Cristiano Ronaldo faced when he left for Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo forced his way out of Manchester United after a scathing interview with Morgan that focused on the club and his manager Erik ten Hag.
The Portuguese star was widely derided for being a mercenary and made a mega money deal to join Al-Nassr, rather than continue at the top level in Europe.
With Messi, 35, leaving French champions Paris Saint-Germain and heading to Major League Soccer, Morgan wants – but doesn’t expect – the same level of criticism.
“So Messi retires from elite football at 35, three years before Ronaldo,” he tweeted. “Presumably now we will all read/hear the same scathing, mocking pieces from sportswriters/pundits they wrote/said about Cristiano – right? (Spoiler alert: we don’t.)’
Messi, the reigning World Cup champion and captain of Argentina, has reportedly decided to join Inter Miami.
According to prominent Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, Messi has made the decision to leave for the South Florida club this summer.
This follows reports from the French newspaper L’Equipe on Wednesday morning, it said the South Florida-based club was ‘on pole’ for Messi’s signature after the Argentine received formal offers from Saudi Arabia.
Morgan has repeatedly made it clear that he finds the double standard in discussing Messi and Ronaldo unbearable – an example of this was at the FIFA World Cup last winter.
The outspoken presenter attacked the BBC for ‘fan-girling’ about Messi after he scored his 789th career goal in his 1,000th appearance in professional football.
Messi has been praised by pundits Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Pablo Zabaleta and Rio Ferdinand after helping Argentina to the quarter-finals of what will almost certainly be his last World Cup, but Morgan didn’t take the words too kindly on Twitter.
Morgan labeled the praise “unbearably subservient” as Lineker and Co praised Messi on-air.
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Morgan is famously linked to Ronaldo (left), whom he interviewed in 2022