He's won a title for his country.
Look.. I don't think Cristiano is better than Messi. At best he's matched him. At best. I think he's a better fit in most teams. You pretty much have to build a team around Messi. I think at their respective peaks you could have played Cristiano in any number of ways but it was always far more limited for Messi. Does that make him a better player? No. But you would certainly have to think about it if you were building a team from scratch. I can think of few players with the sort of close control Messi has. He's absolutely phenomenal and a joy to watch. You probably think I don't like him. I do. I just think the idea of him being the GOAT is absurd
See, that's a post of substance and nuance, that I'd gladly debate without feeling that its content is offensive even if I don't agree.
I think Ronaldo has succeeded in every position he's played at. He initially started as a right winger for Man Utd, then switched to a left wing forward for Madrid, and occasionally a right wing forward, before playing a lot as a pure striker or a second striker. In all these positions he's succeeded.
But then, so did Messi. When he first started in Barcelona under Rijkaard, he played as a right wing forward. I think he, alongside Arjen Robben revolutionized the concept of the left footed winger because it started the trend of playing them on the right side so that they can cut inside to their left and shoot, and generally gave them more options. He continued in that position in his first season under Guardiola until he famously switched him to a false 9 against Real Madrid and Barcelona hammered them at the Bernabeu 6-2 with Messi scoring a brace. Again next season, he was deployed in that position (which led to some incompatibility with the newly acquired Ibrahimovic), before having a pure free role the following season in 2011 with David Villa as a striker who occasionally moved to the left side. In 2012, after Villa broke his foot, Messi played as a striker and a false nine, and scored 92 goals in one year, which is beyond prolific and it's the sort of numbers no goalscorer in the modern era has even sniffed since Gerd Muller. In 2015, under Enrique, after acquiring Suarez, Messi went back to playing on the right, before now settling in a pure number 10 free role position playing behind the striker. In all those roles, he's been exceptional, including in his role as a pure play-maker for Argentina (we can bring up him not winning the WC, but nobody can seriously claim he hasn't been great for the national team...just look at his numbers).
As far as who's a better fit on most teams, that's tricky and very interesting. I tend to agree with you about Ronaldo in that regard. You can throw him anywhere. However, the reason behind that (other than Ronaldo being amazing) is very nuanced and somewhat ironic. The thing about Messi is, and this is what I think people don't always take into account, he's so talented that wherever he played over the past 5-6 years (mainly since Xavi declined), he IS the system, rather than being part of the system. This is true for Barcelona now more than ever, and has always been true for Argentina. He is the playmaker, the top goalscorer, and the main source of assists. In other words, he literally has to do it all, meaning more is expected and required of him. Because of that, you need a specific brand of players to compliment him, while Ronaldo can be surrounded by a variety of players and he's still going to do his job, which these days is almost exclusively limited to scoring (which don't get me wrong, is a HUGE burden on anyone and obviously the biggest aspect of the game). I just think Messi has to do that, and more.
