Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi chants in Saudi Arabia: What happened at Al Nassr game, Ronaldo's Instagram reaction

​​​​​​There are few rivalries in sport that have been spoken about as much as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi's in football over the past couple of decades. 

Arguably the two greatest football players of all time who have enjoyed illustrious careers at the same moment, the pair have always been compared to one another. Their nine-year long direct fight in La Liga when playing for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively also saw the pair produce some of the most stunning individual campaigns in living memory. 

With Messi helping Argentina to win the World Cup in 2022, many critics and players, both past and present, saw that as ending the debate in his favour but it's that level of debate amongst media and fans that has largely propelled this rivalry, rather than Ronaldo and Messi themselves. 

That said, in the last week, that's changed slightly, especially on the side of Ronaldo who has publicly been at the forefront of fuelling the fire. 

MORE: How many goals has Cristiano Ronaldo scored at Al Nassr this season? CR7 stats in Saudi Arabia in 2023-2024

What happened at Al Nassr's latest game with Ronaldo?

On October 31, Al Nassr played Al-Ettifaq just one day after Messi lifted his record-breaking eighth Ballon d'Or award in Paris following on from a season that had seen the maestro help Argentina to win the World Cup. 

In the ensuing King Cup match in Saudi Arabia a day later, supporters of Steven Gerrard's side Ettihaq began to loudly chant 'Messi, Messi' throughout the match in an attempt to wind up his rival. 

The situation came to a head as Ronaldo came to the sideline to grab the ball to take a quick throw in as the crowd's chanting grew louder. After a few seconds, the Portuguese striker turned to the supporters and shushed them for the chanting. 

جماهير نادي الإتفاق تردد أسم الفائز بالكرة
الذهبية الثامنة الأسطورة ليونيل ميسي لاستفزاز
رونالدو 😂 pic.twitter.com/V91PWvMbUl

— Messi World (@M10GOAT) October 31, 2023

Sadio Mane would eventually go on to score the only goal of the game as Al Nassr ran out 1-0 victors. After the late winner, Ronaldo cupped his ears and celebrated in front of the Ettifaq fans. 

In the same match, which was filled with tension throughout, Ronaldo had also gestured for the referee to be substituted following his disallowing of an Al Nassr goal as the Portugal international was deemed to be interfering with the play. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's Instagram response to Lionel Messi drama 

That wasn't the end of the story though as Ronaldo then took to Instagram to voice his thoughts on Messi's eighth Balon D'or title following on from his side's match. 

Spanish journalist Tomás Roncero posted a video in which he stated, "Hello friends. What we knew happened, they were going to give Messi another Ballon d'Or again. He went to retire in Miami, even though he already looked like he was retired at PSG preparing for the World Cup. He won the World Cup, yes, good, but with six penalties... The World Cup was ten months ago, it's November. Messi has eight Ballon d'Ors, he should have had five. He has Iniesta/Xavi's Ballon d'Or, Lewandowski's who won six trophies in one season and Haaland's who was the top scorer."

In response, Ronaldo commented four laughing face emojis below. 

It's not fully known what Ronaldo meant by the response though fans were quick to point out their thoughts on the reply. 

Ballon d'Or: Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi

On October 30 in Paris, Messi picked up the eighth Ballon D'or title of his career, beating out close competition from Manchester City's Erling Haaland and PSG's Kylian Mbappe along the way who are both largely expected to battle it out for the award over the coming years. 

The win continued his title of being the player to win the most such awards, that eighth time of winning the prestigious individual trophy seeing him lead Ronaldo's tally of five who has the next most on the list. 

Many football fans and pundits alike have previously labelled the award as being 'rigged', but even still, it remains football's top individual title and thanks largely to his exploits during Argentina's winning 2022 World Cup performance, Messi was placed top of the pile this time around. 

Multiple Ballon d'Or winners

Below is a list of all players who have won the Ballon d'Or more than once.

A reminder, the award was also only eligible to European-born players until 1995 when that rule was changed, opening up the award to all players contracted to European clubs. From 2007, any player in any league in the world could be nominated.