Messi VS Ronaldo, Who is the best?

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest footballers of all time. Interestingly, both players have dominated the game for over a decade. The question is, Messi VS Ronaldo who is the best?

Our team compares both of them in a variety of categories and lets you decide the ultimate winner.

Detailed Profile of the Player

Messi VS Ronaldo Who scores more goals?

When Messi and Ronaldo were at their peaks, both averaged more than one goal per game, which really ignited this rivalry. All competitions, Messi and Ronaldo scored a goal every 85 minutes during Ronaldo’s 9 years at Real Madrid. Their goal scoring has been adjacency – matching blow for blow – over the years.

It is Messi who has scored more goals per game throughout his career, with 0.79, compared to Ronaldo’s 0.72. In terms of goals per minute, Messi scores one every 104 minutes, and Ronaldo scores one every 113 minutes.

Despite this, Ronaldo still has more all-time career goals than Messi (818 against 785), but he has played 146 more games.

While Messi dominates the overall ratio, Ronaldo spent most of his formative years as a traditional right winger, only starting to focus on goalscoring as his primary function around 2006, three to four years into his career. As a nippy winger, Messi took 2-3 years to become a player hungry for goals above all else. This differing beginning would result in even closer ratios if we took it into account.

It is most difficult to separate them by goal scoring out of all categories. There is no clear winner here.

 Ronaldo vs Messi  Stats

Messi Vs Ronaldo  Penalties, who’s the best?

There is no doubt that Ronaldo’s penalty numbers are superior to Messi’s, although perhaps not by as much as some people believe. While the media portrays Messi as an unreliable penalty shooter whereas Ronaldo as the ultimate ice-cold penalty king, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Over the course of his career, Ronaldo has scored an impressive 145 penalties (with 29 misses), while Messi has scored 104 penalties (with 30 misses).

In comparison, Messi’s penalty conversion rate was 78%, while Ronaldo’s was 83%.

While Ronaldo’s stats are clearly better than those of other elite strikers such as Lewandowski and Ibrahimovic, they are hardly as reliable as they are sometimes portrayed to be, with other elite strikers such as Lewandowski and Ibrahimovic boasting higher conversion rates.

Messi missed a big penalty in the 2016 Copa America final shootout against Chile, as well as from the 2012 Champions League semi-final against Chelsea when he missed one from the spot.

As Ronaldo knows, one of his biggest penalty misses occurred in the 2008 Champions League final shootout against Chelsea (his Manchester United side would ultimately win as a result of John Terry’s miss), while the other was in the 2012 Champions League semi-final shootout against Bayern Munich (which was to prove fatal for Real Madrid).

Messi Vs Ronaldo Who Won  More Trophies.

Messi holds the lead when it comes to trophies, with 41 trophies to Ronaldo’s 34 trophies (including Messi’s Olympic triumph in 2008 as well as his U-20 World Cup triumph in 2005).

In terms of league titles, Messi has 11 while Ronaldo has 7, but Ronaldo has the advantage when it comes to Champions League titles as he has 5 while Messi has 4. There’s not a lot in it, but the overall figures means Messi currently winner.

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Ronaldo Vs Messi Who Provide More Assists?

Assists are won by only one player. He has the numbers to prove his playmaking abilities are one of the best.

In 994 career appearances, Messi has contributed 346 assists, whereas Ronaldo has contributed 234 assists in 1140 matches.

In contrast, Messi has a clear ascendancy when it comes to assists, so people often underestimate Ronaldo’s abilities. In comparison to other mere mortals who play the beautiful game, Ronaldo’s assist numbers are still impressive.

Although Ronaldo has played 26 more matches than Messi, Ronaldo still has 42 assists in the Champions League.

Messi takes this category comfortably based on his overall assist statistics.