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Nieuws
- 1 hour ago
'Barcelona forced me to say Messi is better than Ronaldo' admits former star
Martin Macdonald
- 1 Dec 2025 09:00 CST
- 6 min read
Nieuws
Former Barcelona player Kevin-Prince Boateng has revealed that club executives forced him to say Lionel Messi was better than Cristiano Ronaldo when he was unveiled as a new signing.
In January of 2019, the Ghana star completed a surprise loan switch to Barcelona on a temporary basis from Sassuolo. He would only register a handful of appearances and the club opted not to sign him on a permanent basis, though he did win La Liga with the team.
Prior to signing for Barca, he played for big clubs like Tottenham, Milan, Schalke and also spent a period in Spain with Las Palmas.
When he signed for the Blaugrana, he was pulled into the Messi versus Ronaldo debate and the perennial question of who the better player is.
The two players defined a generation and many fans consider the pair to be the two greatest footballers in history.
Even though Boateng was a fan of Ronaldo and Real Madrid, he was forced to lie when he was presented as a Barcelona player.
“I had to lie at the press conference [laughs],” he said on Josh Mansour's UNSCRIPTED podcast.
"Because prior to that, two years before, when I played in Las Palmas, they asked me who’s the best player in the world, and I said Cristiano Ronaldo. And I said my favorite team is Real Madrid.
"Signing for Barcelona, they told me to say, ‘Your favorite team is Barcelona, and the best player in the world is Lionel Messi.'
“They said, ‘otherwise you can’t play here; it’s impossible.’ And I know it happened to other players as well. And I sat there at the press conference; the first question was, ‘Who’s the best player in the world?’ I said Lionel Messi. I openly lied, but I had to because I wanted to play [for Barcelona].”
Boateng also revealed that legendary Barcelona star Messi had final say on whether the club actually signed him or not.
"There were two sporting directors at Barcelona. One was Eric Abidal," he recalled.
"They said, 'We want him.' The president (Josep Maria Bartomeu) and the coach (Ernesto Valverde) also wanted him, so I said, 'OK, let's sign tomorrow.'
"Then they said, 'No, we have to speak to Messi first.' I asked, 'What do you mean?' and he replied, 'We have to speak to Messi. He has that kind of authority.'"
"I went to sleep hoping Messi would like me or consider me an important player for the team. I thought I could sign the Barcelona jersey tomorrow, but if Messi had opposed it I would not have been able to sign the contract."
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