Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for Louis Vuitton

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for Louis Vuitton

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for Louis Vuitton

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are used to tackling each other on a football pitch, but in a Louis Vuitton advertisement, they play chess instead.     France's esteemed house of luxury presented their new advertising campaign with the phrase, Victory Is a State of Mind, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. This was released on Saturday in anticipation of Sunday's kickoff for the FIFA Qatar World Cup.     This campaign follows Vuitton's 2010 Core Values campaign featuring legendary players Pele, Maradona, and Zinedine Zidane playing table football. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stare intently at chess pieces placed on a Louis Vuitton Damier attaché case's checkerboard canvas.     In the Wall Street Journal book Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World's Game, players dominated soccer for over a decade.     Over the past decade, every Ballon d'Or award, given to the world's best male footballer, has been claimed by either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, and over that time, the two players faced each other twice on the pitch in league matches.     Since neither Lionel Messi, 35, nor Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, have won the sport's most coveted prize despite their individual achievements, the stakes are high heading into the World Cup.     Given Argentina's Copa América win last year, Leo Messi hopes to lead his country to victory for the first time since 1986. In contrast, Cristiano Ronaldo is working to lead Portugal to their very first World Cup win in spite of his break with Manchester United.     Previously, Vuitton had partnered with football governing bodies, most notably the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).     A capsule collection of soccer-themed leather goods has been launched alongside the World Cup trophy travel case.