Brazilian football icon Romário has acknowledged that the era dominated by Messi and Ronaldo diminished the pleasure of watching the sport.
Romário 🗣️: “As much as I feel bad saying it, I just have to say it. The Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo prime era actually ruined football because of their goals and assists.
Back in my era, people watched football because of the dribbles, skills, and tricks of players like Maradona, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho, not just because of how many goals or assists they had to produce in a match.
But ever since the two of them came around, and of course started scoring a huge number of goals per game, people stopped focusing on their overall game, dribbles, and skills, and only cared about their goals.
For me, that takes the love and essence of football away because football is a game of joy, and those dribbling tricks make football fun to watch, not just the goals or assists players produce.”