Ronaldo’s New Coach Said Messi Was His First Choice

Cristiano Ronaldo’s new coach at Saudi club, Al-Nassr, Rudi Garcia has joked that he first considered signing Lionel Messi following his World Cup heroics.

Since Rudi Garcia’s expensive joke of desiring to sign Messi ahead of Ronaldo went viral, most football enthusiasts believe the Portuguese football icon might be offended by the joke.

Recall that Messi and Ronaldo have been arch-rivals for over 14 years, competing for titles, records, and followers on and off the pitch.

The two iconic footballers have won 12 Ballon d’Or, five for Ronaldo and seven for Messi, to make them the top two in the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) debate.

However, the fact that Messi won the 2022 World Cup, the only major title Ronaldo is yet to win, made most people believe that Messi has won the GOAT debate.

After Ronaldo signed for Al-Nassr, Rudi Garcia was asked about Ronaldo’s arrival in Saudi Arabia on a deal worth an eye-watering £175 million per year, Garcia responded: ‘First I tried to take Messi’ before dissolving into laughter.

Cristiano’s new coach at Saudi club, Al-Nassr, Rudi Garcia laughing after joking that he wanted to sign Messi.

Although Ronaldo wouldn’t be too pleased to be compared to the Argentine, let’s hope there isn’t too much conflict when he comes face to face with the coach.

In June, French coach Garcia, formerly of Roma, Marseille, and Lyon, assumed leadership of Al-Nassr.

Before Ronaldo’s arrival, he insisted that “the great players are the simplest to handle,” despite the player’s disputes with Erik ten Hag at United and Portugal coach Fernando Santos during the World Cup.

Garcia told AS: ‘I think that any coach would be delighted to train a great star like Cristiano and already in November 2021 I was very close to going to United.

‘They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met twice with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher [United’s director of football and technical director respectively].

‘I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go, who wouldn’t be motivated to coach United? Any coach. United’s simple interest has allowed me to be sure of my ambitions for the future.

‘I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma.’