I think I shouldn’t have written that second paragraph above, it just obscured the main point I wanted to make: direct comparison is literally impossible because the rules of the game are different now. Not just the equipment or the strategy, but the rule book.

Messi would but Ronaldo not so much.

The reality is they didn't receive the same training. CR7 and Messi have received 10x training.

In the real world, we don't evaluate people relative to how better training they have received. So, better training is not an evaluation criteria.