Kaizer Chiefs star Itu Khune stirs up hornet's nest calling Messi the GOAT

Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune stirred up a Messi vs Ronaldo debate storm Twitter on Thursday night with a post in which he sympathised with Argentina star Lionel Messi by calling him “G.O.A.T.”.

“GOAT” is an acronym used in social media referring to someone as the ‘greatest of all time’ but most of his followers vehemently disagreed with him and instead pointed at Messi’s long-time rival and Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo.

Argentina captain Messi and Ronaldo‚ who have competed for the mantle of best player in the world for the past decade‚ have had vastly contrasting World Cup fortunes at Russia 2018.

Real Madrid star Ronaldo has scored all four of Portugal’s goals‚ including a hattrick in the 3-3 draw against Spain and again in the 1-0 win against Morocco‚ to almost singlehandedly guide his country to the verge of the second round.

Messi has been virtually anonymous as Argentina have sunk to a 1-1 opening draw against Iceland‚ where the Barcelona star missed a penalty‚ and in Thursday night’s 3-0 defeat against Croatia that have left the South America giants on the verge of bowing out in the first round.

Messi is under immense pressure to redeem himself in Argentina’s final group match against Nigeria‚ where they have to win and hope the result between Iceland and Croatia goes their way to progress.

After the Argentina’s humbling against Croatia‚ Khune‚ who failed to help Bafana Bafana qualify for the World Cup in Russia tweeted: “Not his #WorldCup18 ‚ it happens to the best – you remain a G.O.A.T mate.”

Khune’s tweet went viral and garnered hundreds of comments within minutes and although there were a few who agreed with his view on Messi‚ the majority disagreed and hit back strongly at Mzansi’s number one goalkeeper.

Some used derogatory words on his timeline and he threatened to block them while others went as far as reminding him that he has not tasted success at Kaizer Chiefs‚ who have gone three seasons without winning a trophy under former coach Steve Komphela.