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In a recent podcast, Jimenez confessed that he preferred playing against Ronaldo as the former Real Madrid star provided enough chances to make a save. Messi, on the other hand, seemed like a nightmare to Jimenez.
Roberto Jimenez. (X)
Former Spanish goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez shared his experience of playing against Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. During his heyday, Jimenez represented several La Liga outfits including Atletico Madrid, Espanyol, Real Zaragoza and Malaga. He faced Ronaldo and Messi on several occasions in the Spanish league. In a recent interview on the Los Fulanos podcast, Jimenez confessed that he preferred playing against Ronaldo as the former Real Madrid star provided enough chances to make a save.
Messi, on the other hand, seemed like a “nightmare” to Jimenez. He met the Barcelona legend as an opponent in seven matches. Messi scored in all of those games, registering 13 goals. His tally included four braces and a hat-trick.
“I could never stop Messi. Whenever he got close, he scored. Cristiano plays differently and gives you more chances to stop him, so it is more fun,” Jimenez said on the Los Fulanos podcast, as per the Mirror.
Jimenez who featured in 150 La Liga matches had a hobby of collecting jerseys of legendary footballers. The Spaniard felt so humiliated by Messi that he never asked for his shirt. “Messi has been an absolute nightmare for me. I have the shirts of all the great players I have faced and those of my friends, but I never wanted Messi’s,” Jimenez recalled.
“Now I regret it because when time passes, you say, well, ‘I’ve played against him’. If he drove me crazy it’s because I was there too, on the same field as him, but I never asked him for his shirt because he always humiliated me. I didn’t have the strength to go up and ask him for his shirt. He made me feel ashamed,” he added.
In 2020 when Messi struck his record-breaking 644th goal for Barcelona, he collaborated with Budweiser to send beer bottles to the 160 goalkeepers he had scored past.
“I know how many goals he has scored against me because, I don’t know if you remember or know, that a few years ago a beer brand gave a beer to each goalkeeper that Messi had scored a goal against. So of course I have the beers at home. I have thirteen,” Jimenez shared.
The former Atletico Madrid man is not the goalkeeper to concede the most goals against Messi. Against Real Madrid icon Iker Casillas, Messi has struck 18 times, while ex-Valencia star Diego Alves tops the charts with 21 goals.