Biopics about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

Two biographical films centered on the two greatest players on the planet today—Messi's story from 2014 and Ronaldo's from 2015—have managed to captivate a massive audience, particularly those who find themselves just as obsessed with cinema as they are with football.

It’s a bit of a letdown that I couldn't find an American English translation for the Messi film online, but honestly, even relying on the original English subtitles didn't take away from how gripping this docudrama actually was. The Ronaldo film, on the other hand, is strictly a documentary, though at least that one is easy to find with subtitles.

If you’ve had the chance to sit through both, which one actually left a lasting impression on you?

Michael Diaz5 said:Two biographical films centered on the two greatest players on the planet today—Messi's story from 2014 and Ronaldo's from 2015—have managed to captivate a massive audience, particularly those who find themselves just as obsessed with cinema as they are with football.

It’s a bit of a letdown that I couldn't find an American English translation for the Messi film online, but honestly, even relying on the original English subtitles didn't take away from how gripping this docudrama actually was. The Ronaldo film, on the other hand, is strictly a documentary, though at least that one is easy to find with subtitles.

If you’ve had the chance to sit through both, which one actually left a lasting impression on you?

For Lionel Messi you can at least find a version with Spanish subtitles here. http://www.prijevodi-online.org/smf/...c,24281.0.html

I honestly suspect an American English version should be surfacing pretty soon anyway...

I’ve watched both, and I personally found the Messi documentary more compelling. Even as a die-hard Real Madrid supporter and a huge fan of Cristiano Ronaldo, I felt Messi's story was told with much more depth. It focuses heavily on his early years, detailing almost every step of his journey. In contrast, the Ronaldo film leans much more into the big moments—the Super Bowl level stakes, the Champions League Final, and El Clásico—while his childhood feels somewhat sidelined. With Messi's version, you truly get a sense of the grind and how he actually climbed to the top. With Ronaldo's, the narrative is mostly about his sheer willpower to be the best, rather than showing the actual process of his ascent.

Jessica Morris6 said:For Lionel Messi you can at least find a version with Spanish subtitles here. http://www.prijevodi-online.org/smf/...c,24281.0.html

I honestly suspect an American English version should be surfacing pretty soon anyway...

Unfortunately, this translation is in some strange alternative format, so I can't even get it to open. Even the ReadMe file explains the situation, so I'll just quote it here:
Dear users,

Due to certain sites failing to respect our translators' signatures, we were forced to upload subtitles in this specific format. Almost all modern DVD and Blu-ray players, as well as standard PC media players, support the idx/sub subtitle format.
Why did we take this step? It was simply to make things more difficult for those who strip this site from their signatures to migrate subtitles elsewhere. As users, you aren't being disadvantaged in any way. The process remains identical to standard formats: just unpack your rar or zip file and rename it to match the video file.

Regrettably, even after renaming the file, the format is so bizarre that the translation won't work for me.

I find myself agreeing with wanderingpanther14 that the Lionel Messi documentary is superior, given how it delves into his childhood details and the raw beginnings of his career, which perhaps makes him feel a bit "closer" to the audience.

It’ll likely get swapped out for an SRT file soon, so I'll give one of the moderators a heads-up. In its current format, though, you should be able to use it just fine if you're watching on a PC. As far as the popular players go, I think only BS Player seems to struggle a bit with it...

It actually worked for me, even in this weird format, because all I had to do was grab this second 54 kB IDX file and pair it with the existing 6758 kB SUB translation file.
Now I can finally sit down and watch the movie again with subtitles that actually make sense, which should give me a much deeper appreciation for the life experience of Lionel Messi.

Jessica Morris6, thanks a ton for the link.

I reached out to the moderator, and they've switched it over to the standard .srt format now. 🙂

leMONZoo, I really appreciate you stepping in to help me out like that. Thanks to your intervention, I can finally use that SRT file to watch things on my WD player without any issues.

And of course, a quick thanks to the moderator for actually listening to you.

This is exactly why we have this community, isn't it? This is what forum colleagues are actually for.

Cheers, I’m sending some popcorn your way 🍿, since apparently there isn't a beer emoji available.