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  • Sporting rivalries
  • Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have forged modern football
  • A new book explores their influence on and off the pitch
  • Messi vs Ronaldo. By Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg. Mariner Books; 320 pages; $29.99 and £25

    WINNING THE Ballon d’Or, an award given to the best male footballer in the world, is considered one of the crowning glories of a player’s career. Only a handful of athletes have won the prize twice; Marco van Basten, Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini each prevailed three times. For a decade, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo turned the Ballon d’Or into a duopoly. Between 2008—when Mr Ronaldo first won the award—and 2017, the pair claimed every Ballon d’Or between them.

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