u/Fluid-Decision6262

If you walk around Toronto and the GTA, it's quite common to see people wearing Yankees, Dodgers and other baseball hats that are not the Blue Jays.

On the surface, it may seem a bit odd since Toronto has an MLB team but at the same time, it probably comes down to the fact that a lot of people in Toronto just liking wearing baseball hats for fashion purposes and don't actually follow the sport.

This is the definitely the case in Europe when I go there for travel as I see many people (particularly younger people under age 40) wearing Yankees hats but if you asked them about the Yankees they'd give you a puzzled stare and say they thought it was just a New York hat they saw celebrities wear.

What are your thoughts on this rather common phenomenon?

If you're even semi-aware of soccer/football in the last 20 years, the two players you hear all the time are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, which is totally fair because they've been the 2 best players of their generation and are easily 2 of the greatest players to ever live.

However, in my opinion, there never should've been such a heated debate lasting over a decade because since day one, it's crystal clear that Messi is and always has been the better football player and as their careers progressed, this only become more obvious. The only reason why this became a rivalry was having the two best players in the world play for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona for nearly a decade of their primes was way too good of a storyline and global marketing opportunity for the media.

If we measure the two players in every way possible, Messi clears Ronaldo in virtually every aspect as a player to the point where there shouldn't be a serious debate.

In terms of team/individual accolades:

- Messi has won 46 career trophies in his professional career vs 35 by Ronaldo

- Messi has won the World Cup and 2 Copa Americas vs 1 Euro Cup and 0 World Cups by Ronaldo

- Messi has won Ballon D'Or for World's Best Player 8 times vs 5 times by Ronaldo

- Messi won the Golden Shoe 6 times vs 4 times by Ronaldo

- Messi won the Golden Ball in 2 World Cups and 2 Copa Americas vs Ronaldo who's never won a Golden Ball at a World Cup or Euro Cup

- Messi has been named to FIFA's starting XI 17 times vs 15 times by Ronaldo

- Messi has won La Liga Player of the Year 7 times vs 1 time by Ronaldo during the years they both played in La Liga together in their primes

- Messi was also La Liga's leading scorer 5 times vs 3 by Ronaldo during the years they both played in La Liga together in their primes

In terms of stats and attributes as an individual player, this is even more damning to this debate:

- Messi has scored 919 goals in 1196 games (0.77 goals/game) vs Ronaldo who's scored 976 goals in 1366 games (0.71 goals/game)

- Messi has dished out 418 career assists vs Ronaldo who's dished out 257 career assists

- Messi has completed 3425 successful dribbles in his career (4.6 per game) vs Ronaldo who've completed 1702 successful dribbles in his career (2.2 per game)

- Messi also has successfully completed an astounding 60% of his career dribble attempts vs Ronaldo who's only successfully completed 41% of his career dribble attempts

So overall, Messi has had a more successful career than Ronaldo in terms of winning more trophies, winning every trophy in the bag after the 2022 WC, and collecting more individual accolades at club and country level. The only argument Ronaldo has over Messi is being the greatest Champions League player of all time which I give him full credit for but in every other aspect, he's cleared by Messi.

As a player, Messi is the greatest triple threat we've ever seen as he is an equally prolific goal scorer as Ronaldo (with a higher goals/game ratio), but is also one of the greatest playmakers and dribblers of all time, whereas Ronaldo is undoubtedly a prolific goal scorer but is an above average passer and dribbler. In short, Ronaldo is one of the greatest goal scorers of all time while Messi is one of the greatest goal scorers, playmakers and dribblers of all time put into one.

Besides the major powers like the US and Russia who would be the obvious answers, which countries are known for being very good at both winter and summer sports?

With Norway and Canada's breakthrough performance at this year's World Cup (quarters for Norway and R16 for Canada; two countries historically more known for winter sports), I feel like both of them have to be among the front-runners for this question.

In summer sports, Norway has the world's best striker (Haaland), a 9x NY Marathon winner (Grete Waitz), the best middle distance runner in the world (Ingebrigtsen), one of the best hurdlers in the world (Warholm), a 3x grand slam finalist (Ruud), top 10 golfer in the world (Hovland), and the greatest chess player of all time if that counts too (Carlsen).

In winter sports, Norway needs no introduction as they regularly top the medal count at the Winter Olympics with some of the greatest winter athletes in the world in alpine skiing, biathlon, speed skating, and cross-country.

For Canadian summer sports, they have one of the world's best LBs (Davies), the b2b reigning NBA MVP (SGA), one of the greatest decathletes of all time (Warner), the world's best female swimmer (McIntosh), two top 10 players in men's/women's tennis (FAA and Mboko), one of the GOATs of women's football (Sinclair), two of the world's fastest men in their eras (Bailey and De Grasse), a former F1 world champion (Villeneuve), and a former Masters Champion (Weir). They also produced one of the most badass dudes of all time, Terry Fox.

In winter sports, the Canucks need no intro either as they're a modern powerhouse in the Winter games, especially in disciplines like ice hockey, curling, freestyle skiing, figure skating, and speed skating.

Historically though, I think neither of them can top Sweden as Sweden, especially in the late 20th century and into the early 2000s, was truly a global sporting powerhouse in several winter and summer sports.

It’s not a secret that U.S. and UK both catch a ton of strays online for their food culture.

For the U.S., their reputation is that the food is processed and filled with excess fat, sugar, calories and chemicals, with their main culinary export globally are fast food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and Burger King. When Americans say they have good food at home, people will counter by saying it’s because they were imported from other parts of the world by immigrants who brought it to the USA.

For the UK, they are often clowned for beans on toast, mushy peas, black pudding, and other dishes that prompts people to say they eat like they are still at war with the Germans. When British people say their national dish is actually butter chicken tikka masala, the common response is that it’s Indian and not British.

While there is some truth to both, how come Australia and Canada are not slandered in the same way even though they both share several of the same characteristics that both the U.S. and UK are often laughed at for.

Pretty much every food dish that is commonly consumed in Australia and Canada are directly imported from abroad, either by British settlers during the colonial days or by immigrants in more recent decades. Before the 1960s when immigrants began arriving in both nations from more diverse backgrounds, the food in Canada and Australia was probably just as basic, bland, and void of seasonings as it was in the UK.

Canadians and Aussies are also two of the biggest consumers in things Americans often get made fun of for like deep fried dishes, processed food, soda, fast food, and added sugar/calories.

To put it bluntly, Maradona is not a well liked sports figure in the Anglosphere for a variety of reasons and his immense talent was definitely overshadowed by all his controversies.

In the UK, Maradona is still hated by English fans for the hand of god and all of his despicable acts off the field, but especially for the former given how Maradona has openly boasted about it in the decades after.

In the U.S., Maradona is best remembered for being expelled from the U.S.-hosted World Cup in 1994 after testing positive for ephedrine, and as a vocal supporter for left-wing political parties across LATAM that opposed of the U.S., with his most famous quote being, “I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength."

This begs the question. How is Maradona viewed across different countries in Latin America?