Endrick, a new football star recruited to Real Madrid, quoted Cristiano Ronaldo as his idol. This is also seen with Haaland, Mbappe, Saka, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Kvara. So many young players today all state Ronaldo as an influence for them. Messi has more accolades than Ronaldo, but the only young players I can think that stated him as an influence is Julian Alvarez and Jude Bellingham. Why do you think most young players respect and admire Ronaldo more than Messi?
I don’t agree at all with people in here. The real reason is because Ronaldo looked cool. He was much more flashy than Messi. He sort of invented a free kick style as well.
Everybody was wearing Ronaldo’s mercurials and such, everybody wanted to be number 7.