Piers Morgan Calls Out Double Standards in Messi and Ronaldo Coverage After Inter Miami Move

Piers Morgan has claimed Lionel Messi is “giving up elite football” after his move to Inter Miami, but believes Messi will escape the “biting” criticism Cristiano Ronaldo faced when he joined Saudi Arabia. Morgan said: “So, Messi leaves elite football at 35, three years before Ronaldo,” he tweeted. Christian, right? (Spoiler alert: we won’t).”

Ronaldo received significant backlash for his decision to pursue a lucrative deal with Al-Nassr rather than continue to compete at the highest level in European football. Now, as Messi prepares to leave French champions Paris Saint-Germain for Major League Soccer, Morgan expresses his desire to see equal levels of criticism, but admits he doesn’t expect it. Morgan has often expressed his frustration with the double standards applied to discussions of Messi and Ronaldo, as evidenced by his criticism of the BBC’s coverage of Messi’s achievements during the FIFA World Cup.

During the tournament, after Messi scored his 789th career goal in his 1,000th professional appearance, experts including Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Pablo Zabaleta and Rio Ferdinand praised his performance. However, Morgan took issue with his words, calling the admiration “unbearably servile” on Twitter. He posted: ‘The relentless Messi fangirling by the entire BBC insider team is becoming unbearably obsequious. I was worried that one of them might have an “accident” in the studio. “Calm down guys. He played a good game against an average team. See how he does against a good team.”