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When Cristiano Ronaldo converted a 72nd-minute penalty against Ukraine on Monday, he touched a rare milestone. Portugal failed to win the game, going down 1-2 at the end of the 90 minutes, but Ronaldo ended the game with 700 career goals.
He became only the 6th footballer in the history of the game to achieve the feat, which shows the rarity and significance of the achievement.
The Portuguese scored his 95th goal for his nation against Ukraine, which means that he is closing in on Iranian legend Ali Daei who is the current record international goal scorer with 109 goals. Ronaldo has so far scored 605 club goals, which includes 5 goals scored for Sporting CP, 118 for Manchester United, 450 for Real Madrid and 32 for Juventus.
Ronaldo will now have his eyes set on Josef Bican’s record of 805 career goals, and will be looking to finish his career as the highest goal scorer in the history of the beautiful game. However, he might be faced with a small problem en route – Lionel Messi.
The Argentinean is currently on 672 career goals, but could very well overtake the Portuguese in a few years' time. Here are three reasons why Messi will finish his career with more goals than Ronaldo:
#3 Age
Messi is two years younger than Ronaldo. The Portuguese first burst onto the scene in the 2002-03 season while playing for Sporting CP, when he finished the season with five goals from 31 appearances as an 18-year-old. The Argentinean, on the other hand, made his senior debut for Barcelona two years later, in the 2004-05 season, making nine appearances and scoring one goal.
While neither of them has shown any signs of slowing down, it is expected that Messi will be active longer than Ronaldo, thanks to his age. And that will most definitely give the Barcelona skipper ample time to catch his rival and even surpass him in the goal-scoring department.
Messi will theoretically be playing for at least a couple of seasons more than Ronaldo, and that is likely to ensure that the Argentinean finishes his career with more goals than the Portuguese.
#2 Form in recent seasons
The recently crowned Best FIFA Men’s Player of the Year has been in scintillating form in the last few seasons. Messi is coming off another record-breaking season with Barcelona, managing 51 goals from 49 games in all competitions.
He did endure an injury-riddled start to the new season, but against Sevilla before the international break, the Argentinean scored a world-class free-kick and showed the world that he is ready for another round of action this year. He is also among the favourites to win the Ballon d'Or this year.
Messi is the only player in the history of the beautiful game to have scored at least 40 club goals in 10 consecutive seasons. He won the European Golden Shoe for a record 6th time last season and also bagged his record-equaling 6th Pichichi Trophy.
Messi even ended the season as the top goal scorer in the Champions League. The Argentinean is hungry for European glory, which narrowly eluded his team last season, and he will be raring to go in the Champions League once again this year.
Messi scored 50 goals or more in two of the last three seasons, which shows that he is hardly finished yet.
Ronaldo, on the other hand, endured a difficult first season with Juventus last year. And even though he has started the new season well, it is hard to see him better Messi’s return this time.
The last time the Portuguese managed to do that was four years ago, in the 2015-16 season, so the Juventus man could see his nemesis catch up to him soon.
#1 Better goals per game ratio
At the moment Messi is 28 goals behind Ronaldo, despite starting out two years later. While the Argentinean is trailing the Portuguese, it is important to note that Messi has played significantly fewer games.
Ronaldo has managed 700 goals from 974 games in all competitions in his career, while Messi has scored 672 goals from 828 games for Barcelona and Argentina.
The Argentinean is averaging 0.81 goals per game in his career, while Ronaldo has a slightly lower average of 0.72 goals per game.
The Portuguese superstar has a better return while playing for his country, where he has managed 0.59 goals per game, while Messi averages 0.5 goals per game for Argentina. But the Barcelona skipper certainly has the upper edge when it comes to club games, where he has 0.87 goals per game to Ronaldo’s 0.75 goals per game.
In Europe too, Messi’s record shines slightly brighter. Despite the fact that Ronaldo is the record goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League, he trails Messi when it comes to goals per game. The Argentinean has registered 0.82 goals per game, compared to the Portuguese’s 0.75 goals per game.
Because of his better goals per game ratio, it can be assumed that when Messi hangs up his boots, he will have more career goals than Ronaldo.
