Paolo Maldini didn't play outside of Italy but we didn't need him to play away from AC Milan to know he's the best defender of our generation.
Juventus win the league EVERY YEAR for the past 7 years. They don't need him to do that so the premise that CR7 carried Juventus to a Scudetto and that's something to support he's better than Messi is hilarious.
You place Messi in that 03-09 Manchester United side or the current Juventus side, he's matching that level of performance. And I'm of the opinion anyone who GENUINELY believes that is being incredibly disingenuous.
Players like Hazard, Aguero, David Silva have dominated the EPL for the past 6-7 years. There's not been one dominant player in Serie A ever since they returned in Serie B in 2011, but do not try to tell me, that Lionel Messi would struggle in either leagues.
Now, are there things that CR7 is on the same level of Messi or even superior too? Yes, for sure. However, Messi does what CR7 can do at his best (score goals) and MORE. That is ultimately the crux of the argument. When Messi was strictly an inside forward, he was the best. When Messi moved to the false 9 role/central forward role, he was the best. When he moved back out wide as an inside forward x playmaker in 2014/2015, he was the best. As a RW, as a CAM and as a CF, he's been the best.
Whilst I do believe CR7 has as good if not more of a clutch gene, OVERALL, that doesn't make him a better player. What we're not going to do, is pretend Messi isn't clutch.
Celebrate CR7 and Portugal 2016 victory, but FFS, he didn't even win best player of the tournament. Let's stop conflating team success with individual performance. As if Messi couldn't score goals against fukking Hungary, loooool.