Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo?
No matter how many times this question pops up, neither the audience nor the respondee gets bored. Such is the charm and influence of the two sporting greats that the curiosity to know who is siding with who in this eternal story rivalry passes on from generation to generation.
We are back at the business once again. This time, the credit goes to stylish Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana. The 23-year-old left-hander on November 13 decided to interact with her fans on Instagram. The southpaw was swamped by numerous questions from her 1.5 million followers and among those queries she chose to answer was her take on the 'GOAT' debate.
"Messi or Ronaldo" -- the question read. This was her response.
In a strange coincidence, it was around this time last year that Bollywood star Alia Bhatt too conducted a similar Query/Reply game with her followers and the same question was shot at her. The 'Gully Boy' actor, however, chose the Argentine talisman, unlike Smriti.
The pick took Alia into a band of celebrities including Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Rajkumar Rao etc. On the other hand, people including Priyanka Chopra, Shilpa Shetty and Kareena Kapoor would be very happy with Smriti's choice as they are all hardcore fans of the former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward.
Fans across the world have been debating over the topic for nearly a decade but have not come to a clear conclusion so far. Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Juventus last season from Real Madrid, has netted six goals in 13 appearances so far this season for the Italian champions, while Messi continues his domination over La Liga, scoring nine times from 11 appearances.
23-year-old Mandhana is the second fastest Indian to score 2,000 ODI runs and is a star campaigner in global cricket leagues.