“He’s such a manchild”: Cristiano Ronaldo sparks outrage over alleged mockery of Lionel Messi ahead of World Cup 2026

With the World Cup 2026 being just days away, both the football legends, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, seem to be completely focused on it.But it seems, the Portuguese star player Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent actions have sparked a heated debate as many have called him out for seemingly trying to shade Lionel Messi.A few hours ago, a page on Instagram posted a clip of Kevin-Prince Boateng appearing on Unscripted by Josh Mansour where he opened up on lying about his favorite player to be Lionel Messi instead of Cristiano Ronaldo when he signed for Barcelona.While this was a shocking confession, Cristiano Ronaldo commented on that post with laughing emojis and this has sparked a heated debate.Some feel the Portuguese star player is trying to insult Lionel Messi just days ahead of the World Cup 2026, others feel he is laughing about Barcelona’s rules.A fan wrote, “He lies when he says he respects Messi. He and his family don’t respect Messi and never have. He and his sister always make comments or posts against Messi. It’s crazy a player of his caliber has a personality like this…”Another fan posted, “I will have so much fun hate watching Ronaldo this WC again🙏 We will be there.”A third fan wrote, “He wish to be Messi so bad he tried everything but still couldn’t catch up 42 and he still playing all cos of Messi…”Another fan noted, “He’s laughing at Barcelona you silly b**tard not Messi, it was Barcelona the club that told Boatang to do that…”However, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi has responded to the speculations yet as they keep their eyes on the World Cup.For the unversed, Kevin-Prince Boateng said, “I always said I wanted to play for Real Madrid. I had to lie in a press conference because prior to that, two years before when I played in Las Palmas, they asked me who my favourite player was and I said Cristiano Ronaldo and I said my favourite team was Real Madrid!”The star player added, “Signing for Barcelona, they said to me ‘your favourite team is Barcelona and the best player in the world is Lionel Messi’. They said ‘you have to otherwise you can’t play here, it is impossible’. I sat there in the press conference and the first question was who was the best player in the world and I said ‘Lionel Messi’.”