The first-leg of the Supercopa de Espana was barely short of intrigue and drama, especially with the ones surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo.
Casting our minds back to about four months ago, Lionel Messi resorted to a rather eccentric celebratory gesture after scoring a late winner in Barcelona’s 3:2 victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in La Liga.
Now, after scoring a sublime screamer at the Camp Nou in the first-leg of the Spanish Super Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo, cheekily mimicked what the Argentine did at his side’s home grounds. The celebration has since been at the center of numerous debates in days gone by with many bitter Barcelona aficionados and media outlets claiming that Ronaldo copied Messi.
Wait, what?! Earnestly, and with all due respect, how unintelligent can some fans be? First of all, it isn’t as if the shirt celebration was invented (or is copyrighted) by Lionel Messi. Yes, he caught the eyes of many by somehow making a statement via the late goal.
However, under no circumstance does it warrant that what turned out to be the most pointless celebration (Barca, after everything, conceded La Liga title to Real Madrid) was minted by the Argentine. Besides, it does not require much I.Q to figure out that Cristiano Ronaldo was purely trolling the Barcelona number 10!
Better still, it was Marcelo who urged the four-time Ballon d’Or winner to go to that mile and mock his eternal adversary by raising his shirt to the disconcerted Camp Nou cultists. Now, regarding Marcelo, a photograph that emerged as the subject trended on social media confirms that he himself has used that exact celebration before.
When the man (Marcelo) who invented the celebration tells you to do the celebration, YOU JUST DO IT! #HalaMadrid #SuperCopa pic.twitter.com/Y9IZPrBbzf
— Rey (@FigoMadridismo) August 14, 2017
“Cristiano imitates Messi” – Mundo Deportivo’s editorial joke
For starters, the content of the snapshot above is grossly amusing. Just like always, the Catalonia media’s bias propaganda is in full swing with this one. Mundo Deportivo, among other media outlets, claims Cristiano Ronaldo copied “Messi celebration”.
They further emphasized that despite superstar winger’s display in the cup game, Messi is still the superior among the duo, using the catch phrase that the Barca man’s “shadow is very elongated”. These superficial affirmations confirm that some folks have definitely not been watching football properly in recent years.
That withstanding, let’s not even get started on the nonexistent correlation between Messi being superior and Cristiano Ronaldo getting a second booking for an unjust call.
Some footballers who lifted shirts before Messi
In any case some fans are still unconvinced that Lionel Messi isn’t exactly the pioneer of the “shirt lifting” celebration, here are some throwback photographs of some of the sport’s finest doing it.
1. Inzaghi at Milan
2. Isco and Marcelo during La Decima celebrations
3. Ruud van Nistelrooy in Higuain’s honor 
4. Ronaldinho at PSG 
5. Neymar in Rafinha’s honor 
