With 919 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo is 69 goals ahead of Lionel Messi, the biggest gap between two players in their careers.
Ronaldo’s double against Al Khaleej on the evening of January 21 helped him increase his career scoring record to 919 goals in 1,258 matches, including FIFA-scoring national team matches and official club matches. At the same time, Messi has scored 850 goals in 1,083 matches.
The 69-goal difference is the biggest between two football superstars at any point in their careers. Previously, the biggest gap was 67 goals, created by Ronaldo on 31/5/08 (117 goals – 50 goals) and 19/6/08 (118-51). At that time, the Portuguese superstar had just experienced an explosive season with Man Utd, with a double of Premier League and Champions League titles, then won the first Ballon d’Or of his career.
Messi then continued to score to shorten the gap with Ronaldo, but has never surpassed his senior in his career. The closest gap between the two players since Messi started playing professionally 20 years ago is 9 goals, created by the Argentine superstar on April 2, 2013 (342 goals – 351 goals).
The reason Ronaldo always scores more goals than Messi is mainly because the Al Nassr striker is 2 years older. Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985, while Messi was born on June 24, 1987. Ronaldo scored his first career goal in 2002, while Messi did it in 2005.
If we count by the number of goals through the same number of matches played, Ronaldo has never surpassed Messi since they played their first 31 matches, scoring 5 goals each. For example, in the first 500 matches, Messi scored 388 goals, while Ronaldo only scored 243 goals, a difference of 145 goals. After the first 1,000 matches, the Argentine superstar scored 790 goals, compared to Ronaldo’s 725 goals, a difference of 65 goals.
Messi has played 1,083 matches, and at the time Ronaldo reached that milestone, CR7 had only scored 794 goals. Therefore, if Messi extends his career to Ronaldo’s age, there is a high possibility that the 8-time Ballon d’Or winner will break his senior’s scoring record.
Ronaldo and Messi are considered the two greatest players of all time, taking turns winning the Ballon d’Or for 10 consecutive years, from 2008 to 2017. Since then, Messi has surpassed them by winning 3 more Ballons d’Or, while Ronaldo has not received this award for 7 years. Messi also won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, while Portugal has never reached the final.
