Novac Djokovic skips Ronaldo, picks his favourite between Messi and Neymar Jr

The battle for the Greatest of All Time football players is generally between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Tennis great Novak Djokovic has skipped the latter and picked his favourite footballer between Messi and Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr. The South American pair have been two of the best players of this generation. They have scored 744 and 360 goals respectively for their clubs and add to it, the number of times they’ve found the nets for their country.

Messi and Neymar were teammates at Barcelona for four years before the latter made a shift to Paris Saint Germain (PSG) for a record-breaking fee of 222 million Euros fee in 2017. Interestingly, Messi joined PSG as well in 2021 after his deal with La Blaugrana expired in 2021. 

Overall, the star duo has shared the pitch for a staggering 16362 minutes in their career across 206 matches and combined for 67 goals. Coming back to Djokovic, he was recently asked in an interview to pick one of the two legendary players he preferred. In comments via Telegraf, the Serbian superstar picked the Argentina skipper but clarified he likes the way Neymar plays as well.

“Yes, Messi for Sure. But I like Neymar too,” Djokovic said.

After spending time together at PSG for a couple of years, the duo left in the summer of 2023. While Messi joined hands with Inter Miami in the MLS, Neymar Jr went to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia for a reported fee of 90 million Euros.

When Neymar expressed feelings about reuniting with Messi at PSG

Last year, Neymar Jr opened up on the feelings after Lionel Messi joined PSG in 2021. They played together for Barcelona from 2013 to 2017 and reunited again in 2021. The star duo won the UEFA Champions League, two LaLiga titles and three Copa del Reys during their time together.

Recalling the reunion, Neymar said, “I was very happy for the year he had, but at the same time very sad, because he lived on both sides of the coin. He went to heaven with the Argentina team, won everything in recent years, and with Paris he lived hell, we lived through hell, both he and I.

“We get upset because we're not there for nothing, we're there to do our best, [to] be champions, try to make history; that's why we started playing together again; we came together there so we could make history. Unfortunately, we didn't make it.”