Well this is a bit pathetic.
We all know that the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo fans is beyond tiresome. It seems you can't praise or criticise one without a throng of angry 'what-abouters' making a pointed comparison with the other. And whatever you say, it doesn't matter because 'you're biased anyway'.
It is partly symptomatic of the heated rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona, but it goes beyond that. People who have no particular allegiance to either club also get involved in a toxic game of superstar top trumps that paints no one in a good light. It is a twisted form of celebrity cultism.
It doesn't help that the Madrid and Catalan-based media are often just as bad. You only really get a sense of what's going on if you read/watch reports from both and split the difference. And yet the latest example of partizan reporting is possibly the most petty we've seen.
In a report on Ronaldo, Barcelona-based channel TV3 went to be totally unnecessary trouble of photoshopping out the Real man's impressively defined six-pack in order to make him seem less physically endowed. Their ham-fisted efforts even rid the player of his belly button.
The absolute state of this...
https://twitter.com/PhilKitro/status/753511651278745600
https://twitter.com/noegonzalezvare/status/753599846402195456
https://twitter.com/RMCFormaDeVida/status/753553637444550658
