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Khabib Nurmagomedov: observation

12 Aug 2026 Lex Fridman Podcast #500 – Khabib Nurmagomedov: Dagestan, MMA, UFC, Islam, Conor, Fedor & Football

“Individually, he won the Golden Boot, top score in the Champions League, the Premier League, every major trophy. But the point is that at Manchester, he spent five years performing at the highest level under enormous pressure.”

— Khabib Nurmagomedov

Source trail

Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
observation
Recorded
12 Aug 2026
Publisher
Lex Fridman Podcast

Transcript context

…Yeah, look here. Three Premier League titles came during his time at Manchester United. Look at 2008 specifically, what he accomplished then. He won the Premier League. He won the UEFA Champions League. Individually, he won the Golden Boot, top score in the Champions League, the Premier League, every major trophy. But the point is that at Manchester, he spent five years performing at the highest level under enormous pressure. Then he spent nine years at Real Madrid. After that, he moved to Juventus, but only for a short time, and this is the part people tend to forget. He spent three seasons at Juventus, and he also won both the Italian championship and the Super Cup there and scored 100 goals. And just the fact that for 20 years, let’s say 22 or 23 years, he’s been at the highest level. Look at how many goals he scored, and now he’s closing in on 1,000. Will Messi ever reach that number is the big question. Next season, he scores 40 goals in a season, and he’s less than 40 goals away from the 1,000-goal mark. That’s how unique he is in that regard. But just because I’m a Real Madrid fan doesn’t mean I downplay what Messi has achieved. It’s impossible to downplay what Messi’s done. You have to give him the credit he deserves, but I wouldn’t want to put one of them above the other. If I’m being honest, both of them, watching each other, competing with each other, they stayed there. Would Messi be Messi without Ronaldo? Would Ronaldo be Ronaldo without Messi? Those are big questions. I’m convinced they watched each other closely. They always have, and they still do now. For almost 20 years, they’ve been watching each other, pushing each other, and constantly improving. They were already the best, but that drove them even further. By competing against one another, they pulled so far ahead of the rest. Whether you’re talking about achievements, trophies, and all that, and in that sense, their rivalry truly elevated the entire sport. More people started following football because of them, watching the games. So I believe both of them deserve tremendous respect. Yeah. I’d say I completely agree with you that if Messi hadn’t had Ronaldo and Ronaldo hadn’t had Messi-…

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