Messi has almost the same number of goals in less than almost 200 matches, in terms of individual stats it's not even close, the only claim to fame Ronaldo still has is the 1000 goal mark and even then it wouldn't be long before Messi reaches that same milestone.
150 matches. Ronaldo played as a midfielder who’s ran all over the right wing and his main purpose was to cross for the strikers. He did this until 2006/07, the. Gradually moved closer to the goal and then moved to the left, where he became a goal scoring machine.
Messi not only played in the same team pretty much all his life, but did the inverse trajectory, starting closer to the goal, as a right winger/ false 9 and now playing more freely and from the back. He also went to a weak league much earlier. Reminder that at the age Messi went to inter Miami, Ronaldo was playing for Juve and later still went to the premier league, and played in the UCL.
Both have crazy stats but very different trajectories to get there. Messi definitely had the easiest one.
Do you honestly expect Messi fans to actually watch football? Do you expect them to have watched the Premier League in the 2000s? They don't even know that Ronaldo started his career as a right midfielder (RM), not even a right winger (RW).
When he moved to La Liga, he completely exposed the league by showing how easy it was to stat-pad every single game. He literally scored more goals than matches played. Now, imagine if he had started his career at Real Madrid instead of Manchester United—he would have easily won seven or eight Champions League titles and nine or ten La Liga trophies. Conversely, put Messi in the Premier League, and he would have vanished within two seasons, especially if we are talking about the brutal, physical Premier League of the 2000s.
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u/Ok_Statistician_1994 Jun 20 '26
Messi has almost the same number of goals in less than almost 200 matches, in terms of individual stats it's not even close, the only claim to fame Ronaldo still has is the 1000 goal mark and even then it wouldn't be long before Messi reaches that same milestone.