Steve McManaman exclusive: Winning Euro 2016 does not make Ronaldo better than Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo’s first big triumph at international level with Portugal at Euro 2016 has led some observers to suggest he has now moved ahead of Lionel Messi in the battle to be the greatest player of his generation - but I don’t buy in to such a simplistic assessment.

The critics have stated that Messi can never be put on the same level as the likes of Pele or Diego Maradona unless he is a winner in an Argentina shirt, but that is a ridiculous argument to throw at a player who earned the right to recognised as one of the all-time greats long ago.

Messi’s continued failure to inspire Argentina to success on the international stage is one of the more baffling facets of his remarkable career, with their defeat in the Copa America final last month the latest hammer blow to the Barcelona star and his team-mates.

When you look at Argentine teams featuring the likes of Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and the rest, it's baffling that they have not picked up a few Copa America titles and possible even the World Cup as well.

Yet every time Argentina get to the final few hurdles of a major tournament, they tend to come up short and Messi is often blamed for their failure, as he is the talisman expected to carry them to success.

His great rival Ronaldo had a similar tale of woe on his record until last weekend, before Portugal finally ended their long wait for a first major trophy by beating France in the Euro 2016 final. Amazingly, when the magic moment finally happened for Ronaldo on the international stage, he was a frustrated observer after being carried off, but he certainly played his part with enthusiastic encouragement for his team-mates from the touchline.

What the stories of Ronaldo and Messi with their national teams have confirmed is that great individuals are not enough to get you success in these big tournaments, where teams deploy plans to stop star players strutting their stuff, with the lack of entertainment we witnessed at Euro 2016 confirmation that entertainment is not the priority for international managers.

Now that Ronaldo has won a major title with Portugal, I hope people don’t offer up sweeping conclusions suggesting his legacy in the game will be greater than that of Messi because it is nonsense to suggest as much.

We don’t need to try and separate these two great players and instead, all football lovers should celebrate the fact that we are living through an era of the game when they are providing us with so much joy and setting so many records.

In years to come, we will look back at the goal scoring stats on Messi and Ronaldo and their ability to remain at that incredible level for so many years and wonder how that was possible.

These two guys are scoring 50 goals a season on a regular basis and their brilliance has made the miracles they produce year after year seem like the norm, which of course it is not.

Ronaldo deserved to celebrate his great moment with Portugal in Paris as while he was not at the centre of this triumph, he has put his heart and soul into trying to bring success for his national team for a decade and more.

Meanwhile, Messi appears to have given up on achieving glory with Argentina after announcing his retirement from the international game following his latest Copa America heartache, but no one will be surprised if he is back to have one more go when the football world gathers in Russia for the 2018 World Cup finals.

I have to admit, this is not a tournament I am looking forward to as Russia is a vast country to travel around and from what we saw of their fans at Euro 2018 as they were fighting in the street with anyone they can find, it might be a tournament fraught with difficulty.

Hopefully Ronaldo and Messi are there for the next major international competition because we need these two inseparable masters to be on the stage for the party to be complete.