{"id":241615,"date":"2026-05-03T17:22:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/former-barcelona-star-claims-prime-ronaldinho-admitted-a-young-lionel-messi-was-better-than-him\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T17:22:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T17:22:02","slug":"former-barcelona-star-claims-prime-ronaldinho-admitted-a-young-lionel-messi-was-better-than-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/former-barcelona-star-claims-prime-ronaldinho-admitted-a-young-lionel-messi-was-better-than-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Barcelona star claims &#8216;prime&#8217; Ronaldinho admitted a young Lionel Messi was better than him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5162672\" data-slug-id=\"2777049\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former Barcelona ace Maxi Lopez has revealed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/ronaldinho\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Ronaldinho<\/a> admitted while still at the club that a young Lionel Messi was already the better player. The pair of superstar number 10s played together at the Nou Camp, with Messi coming through the youth ranks with a big reputation. <\/p>\n<p>Lopez spoke about his time at Barcelona on Olga, revealing that Messi&#8217;s genius was clear for all to see from the moment he set foot in the first team. He pointed out that Ronaldinho, who had just won the Ballon d&#8217;Or, stated clearly to other teammates that the teenage Argentinian was already better than him at the time. <\/p>\n<p><template id=\"template__newsletter-inline-banner-form-combo-widget\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<p><img id=\"subscribe-img\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\nThanks for the submission!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I could already see that this kid was 16 years old and he could hold his own against 30-year-olds. He had such strength and speed&#8230; We older guys were talking about how he was going to be different. Ronnie [Ronaldinho] used to say &#8216;this guy is better than me.&#8217; Ronaldinho in his &#8216;prime,&#8217; you know what that was? It was the year he won the Ballon d&#8217;Or, and he&#8217;d say that to me. Those who are different, they can tell&#8221;, he said (via GOAL). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/lionel-messi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Lionel Messi<\/a> played alongside Ronaldinho 80 times while the pair were on the books of Barcelona, combining for eight goals. The Argentine&#8217;s first goal for the club came after he was intentionally set up by the older superstar, and his celebration was telling, as he jumped on Ronaldinho&#8217;s back. <\/p>\n<p>Ronaldinho introduced Messi to basketball icon Kobe Bryant as the next big thing during that period, as well, pointing to the amount of trust he had in Messi&#8217;s potential. The Argentina international has lived up to everything he was thought as, going on to become arguably the greatest footballer of all time. <\/p>\n<h2>Barcelona star eclipses Lionel Messi&#8217;s record<\/h2>\n<p>Barcelona midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/pedro-gonzalez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Pedri<\/a> has overtaken club legend Lionel Messi as the youngest player to reach 200 starts for La Blaugrana. The Spain international made his 200th start for the club in their 2-1 win over Osasuna in LaLiga on Saturday May 2nd. <\/p>\n<p>Pedri was aged 23 years and 159 days old when he lined up in Pamplona, ensuring he reached 200 starts quicker than Messi did. The eight-time Ballon d&#8217;Or winner was 23 years and 227 days old when he started his 200th game for the club in 2011. <\/p>\n<p>Lionel Messi witnessed the start of Pedri&#8217;s Barcelona career, with the Spaniard having played alongside him aged just 18 in the 2020-21 season. He has since gone on to play 242 times for the club, despite a series of battles with injuries. <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Sulayman Salahudeen<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/news-former-barcelona-star-claims-prime-ronaldinho-admitted-young-lionel-messi-better\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Barcelona ace Maxi Lopez has revealed that Ronaldinho admitted while still at the club that a young Lionel Messi was already the better player. The pair of superstar number 10s played together at the Nou Camp, with Messi coming through the youth ranks with a big reputation. Lopez spoke about his time at Barcelona [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-241615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}