Former football player Deco has talked about the reason why Portugal failed to clinch the World Cup title in 2022 by giving his insight, Sportskeeda reported.
Thefootball legend, who has represented the national team in 75 matches, believes that even though Portugal have many good players, they don't have Lionel Messi.
Speaking about the World Cup in which Argentina won, Deco said that the team won the major tournament due to Messi — who is a seven-time Ballon d'Or winner.
Messi won theGolden Ball, scoringseven goals and providing three assists.He also scored a brace in the final and converted his penalty in the shootout. Meanwhile,Portugal were eliminated from the tournament in the quarter-finals after losing to Morocco.
“Argentina won the World Cup because they have Messi. For us, Portugal had the best generation of good players, but we don't have Messi," said Deco while speaking during an interview withTR Sports.
Ronaldo just scored one goal in five games in the World Cup and startedon the bench in the two knockout games.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — who are considered football legends — have cumulatively won 12Ballon d'Or awards. However, the debate on who is the greatest of all time still continues to this day.
Deco also shared his opinion on the two players a few years ago. "The guy (Cristiano Ronaldo) is sick, I haven’t seen anyone in training sessions like that. I think it’s really difficult to be like that. They are completely different."Though Messi takes care of himself like a normal athlete, Ronaldo is unbelievable. It borders on sickness because he always wants to be the best at his job. He competes in everything," he had said.
He added: “There is no doubt that Messi is the best player in the world. He does incredible things and keeps on breaking records. I think Cristiano is nearly as good as him."They are both phenomenal footballers but in different ways. They are far and away the best footballers in the world.”