Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

Former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre says Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, football's two most celebrated modern superstars, would be far better served facing each other from opposing MLS benches than sharing the same locker room, should Ronaldo ever make the jump to American soccer.

Speaking to Goal.com, Silvestre, who played alongside Ronaldo at Manchester United for five seasons, weighed in on persistent speculation about whether the 41-year-old Portuguese forward could eventually follow Messi to Major League Soccer, reviving one of sports' defining modern rivalries on a new continent.

Why Silvestre favors keeping them apart

Silvestre said he would not rule out Ronaldo eventually making a move to MLS, given the flexibility Ronaldo has shown throughout his career in choosing where to play. "I don't know if he would want to go to the US, but definitely that's something that you can't take out of the picture for him. If he plays in Saudi, he can play anywhere to be honest. I wouldn't rule this out," Silvestre said.

But when it came to the idea of Ronaldo joining Messi specifically at Inter Miami, Silvestre pushed back, arguing that keeping the two on rival teams would serve the sport better than uniting them. "I think it would make more sense to have them in a different team and compete against each other. It would be more attractive, more fun. I don't think they can be in the same dressing room," Silvestre said. He pointed specifically to Messi's standing as a locker-room leader as a key reason the pairing might not work. "In terms of Messi's mind, being the leader, you can only have one."

A view echoed by another former teammate

Silvestre isn't alone in that assessment. Giuseppe Rossi, another former Manchester United player who has weighed in on the speculation, offered a similarly skeptical take on the idea of the two sharing a roster. "I don't want to see Messi and Ronaldo together. That would be kind of weird. Just keep them separate," Rossi said. He specifically floated Orlando City as a landing spot that would allow the rivalry to continue rather than dissolve into a partnership. "If Ronaldo wants to play in the US... Orlando. So at least they could have a good rivalry there."

A more optimistic view from elsewhere

Not everyone close to the situation shares that skepticism entirely. Former Wales international Robert Earnshaw suggested Inter Miami remains the most plausible venue if the two were ever to end up on the same team, crediting the club's ownership structure as the key variable. "If there was a place that could happen, it would be somewhere like Inter Miami. Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever happen... but if there was a chance, I think David Beckham would be the one to make that happen," Earnshaw said, referring to the Inter Miami co-owner and former England captain.

Messi's current standing in Miami

Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023 and has since delivered the club its first major trophies, including the Leagues Cup, the Supporters' Shield and the MLS Cup, while collecting multiple MVP awards along the way. He has been joined in South Florida by a string of familiar faces from his playing days in Europe, including former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez, along with Argentina international Rodrigo De Paul and, more recently, Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, continuing the club's ambitious roster-building strategy since Messi's arrival.

Where Ronaldo's future stands

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has a year remaining on his contract with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr. He has spoken previously about a desire to eventually play alongside his son, Cristiano Jr., a comment that has periodically fueled speculation about how long he intends to continue his playing career and where it might ultimately take him. With Messi under contract at Inter Miami through 2028, the timeline for any potential reunion, whether as teammates or rivals, remains open for at least the next several years.

A rivalry that has always drawn outsized attention

Messi and Ronaldo have never played as teammates at any point in their careers, despite facing each other 36 times, most memorably during their years as opposing figures in Spain's El Clasico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid. That history has made any suggestion of the two joining forces, even hypothetically, a recurring topic of conversation among former players, pundits and fans in the years since both departed European football.

Silvestre's comments are the latest in a string of similar remarks he has made on the subject over the past two years, having previously described a potential Ronaldo-versus-Messi matchup in MLS as something that "would be amazing" and "a dream for football fans," while consistently expressing doubt that Ronaldo would ultimately make such a move given his standing in Saudi Arabia.

With no formal indication that Ronaldo is actively pursuing a move to MLS, and Messi's Inter Miami contract running for several more years, any scenario involving the two sharing a league, let alone a locker room, remains speculative for now. Still, the recurring nature of the conversation, and the range of opinions offered by former teammates and league observers alike, underscores just how much interest persists in seeing football's two most decorated modern stars share a stage again in some capacity before their playing careers come to a close.

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