Ronaldo thoroughly deserved it. Messi just wasn't decisive enough in the most important games. Had he showed up in the CL against Atletico & again in the Copa America final shot-out vs. Chile then maybe he would've won. It's funny that everyone lambasted Higuain during that shoot out when Messi the captain stepped up and missed the opening penalty himself. Not to mention that the Copa America is a considerably weaker tournament with less games en route to the final than the Euros. Every team Portugal faced in the KO were considerably better than all the teams present in the Copa America barring Chile. The likes of Croatia, Poland & Wales are much stronger than teams like Mexico, USA etc. So really Messi had it in his hands.
In la liga I'd say they were about equal. Suarez was the primary reason Barca won it and in fact Ronaldo's 2nd half of the season form was better than his and was one of the reasons Real came only within 1 point.
In the CL, Ronaldo was clearly the best player overall despite his substandard showing in the final but the team would never have made it that far if not for his hat-trick against Wolfsburg to overturn a 2 goal deficit from the 1st leg (which was the best individual performance in the tournament last year ). Overall, you could say he had a weak Euros (but was still decisive) and a slow start to the season (coming off a 2 month injury @ 31years old). Other than that anyone can tell me what big games in 2016 Messi was decisive in. He accumulated his stats in easy games like Ronaldo is often criticised for.
Sure
He scored/assisted more than 70% of Real Madrid's goals in the CL including the hat-trick against Wolfsburg that enabled them to progress to the semis in a game they had no business winning if he was absent. Sometimes I wonder if people just make things up as they go along.
Imho, Ronaldo at his absolute peak (late 2006 ~ late 2012) is the greatest European player ever or at least top 3.
Not sure whether you watched both of them play in those matchs or do you smoke weed ? . Let me clear few of the myth's which you uttered here
first of all scoring a penalty in final isn't the criteria to judge the best player for a calendar year . if yes Chokeman shouldn't have been ranked third ahead of suarez , whom you rated as the primary reason for Barca's la liga win . Chokeman missed a penalty vs Real in ucl final as well as in Calderon which bottled their Ucl as well as La liga .And yes Messi wasn't decisive against Atletico were as penaldo showed up vs 8th ranked bundesliga club and 4th ranked Italian club . soon as he played vs a decent defense , dude was invisible ( City in Sf ) and was a absolute garbage in final .
You mentioned Higuain right ? dude who missed three open chances in three finals ? had he scored from the chance which Messi created in 2015 final , Messi wouldn't have left wounded . out of 5 penalty's which Messi took for Argentina in all shoot out's this was the first one he missed. This after creating chances after chances for garbage's like Aguero till the last minute . And yeah Ronaldo performed much better than Messi in final as a manager .
Now about Messi facing easy teams in conmebol . Teams that penaldo faced in group stages was freaking iceland , Austria and hungary,out of that he managed to score only in one match against a 40 year old fatty . Got the most easy ruote to the final . was in Srna's pockets for entire 120 minutes in PQ ,ghost vs poland and scored against a wales team that didn't had their first choice CB ( Ben Davis) playing . Not to forget their best player Ramsey also missing the Sf . Now if venezuela was such an easy opponent Argentina should have easily won against them without Messi this august . Instead they went 2-0 down and scrapped through for a draw without him . A team which Messi destroyed in Copa . Another fun fact , USA Knocked out penaldo's Portugal in 2014 Wc .
Now let's move to la liga : Again another rubbish statement that penaldo was their best player in second half of season . It was Bale who made all the difference . penaldo couldn't do shit all vs Atleti in Bernabue when Bale missed out due to injury and penaldo ended up blaming his teammates for the lose .He was literally invisible till the 65th minute when Marcelo created the equalizer out of no were in classico .
Despite Messi missing out on injury for 8 league match's he either created or scored Barca's important goals throughout the season along with Suarez
1) scored in two legs vs Atleti . One after coming off from the bench and later one when we were trailing in camp nou .
2) Assisted suarez in Mestella , game which ended on a draw
3) scored a brilliant Fk vs sevilla when we were trailing 1-0 ,
4) saved our asses against a determinant kamini (hope you know him) in Rosaleda with a brilliant bicycle kick
After we lost 3 back to back match's , rest 5 fixtures were must win one
1 vs Betis ( Assisted suarez in Benito Villamarin)
2) vs Gijon ( scored the opening goal)
3) vs Deportivo (Assisted twice and scored)
4)vs Asspanyol ( scored the opening goal with a Fk)
This what you call a inferior performance to penaldo in La liga ? were out Ronaldo's 35 goals 12 were vs Espanyol and Getafe and most of them coming in after Real were leading .
Let me remind you the forgotten fact that , Messi's two assist's helped us win Copa Del rey final after going down to nine men . Yes Gerri was our best player that day but Leo's pass to Alba was dead accurate which gave us the opener . He scored and assisted against sevilla later in Super copa de Espana as well. Next time don't forget to mention Every factor's instead of cherry picking what ever you want . I hope i have mentioned those big match's were Messi was decisive
