Paulo Dybala told teammate Cristiano Ronaldo his true thoughts on him, as he had been brought up idolising Lionel Messi during his time at Juventus.
One of the select group of players who have been teammates of both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is Paulo Dybala.
Dybala joined the Giallorossi from Juventus as a free agent this summer and is currently playing for the Italian club. During his three seasons at the Bianconeri, he often paired with Ronaldo in attack.
While Dybala was a crucial player for the Argentina international team, playing alongside their talisman Messi during those years, he has since been part of the South American nation’s squad that won the Copa America in 2021 and participated in the World Cup in Qatar last year.
Together with Ronaldo, Dybala won three successive Serie A titles with Juventus. Ronaldo, who had scored an incredible 450 goals in 438 appearances for Real Madrid, joined the Old Lady(Juventus) in the summer of 2018 and scored 101 goals during his time in Italy.
Dybala recently revealed a conversation he had with Ronaldo before a Juventus game.
He admitted to his teammate that his Argentine background had led him to ‘hate’ the Portuguese due to the intense, long-standing sporting rivalry between Ronaldo and Messi.
“I spent three nice years with Cristiano, the team was very strong and he added something more,” Dybala told an interview with DAZN, in quotes carried byFootball Italia.
“There’s a big rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo in Argentina. Once, we were flying out for a game, I was sitting at the back of the plane and he was slightly ahead. At some point, he came to me, we spoke about life in general for a while, and I told him: ‘As a kid, I practically hated you.’ We laughed about it and we’ve always been on good terms.”
Despite Dybala’s previous thoughts on Ronaldo, it did not hinder the players from forming an understanding and bonding during their time at Juve. Other Argentines, such as Gonzalo Higuain, Gabriel Heinze, and Lisandro Martinez, have also played alongside Ronaldo at the club level throughout his career.
Similarly, multiple Portugal internationals, including Nelson Semedo, Andre Gomes, Vitinha, and Renato Sanches, have played alongside Messi at club level. Sergio Ramos and Keylor Navas are also among the players who have had the opportunity to play with both Ronaldo and Messi at the club level.