Record Records - Part 9, Soccer-I: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
We’re adding another sporting code to our portfolio this week, as we turn to the biggest sport on the planet (regardless of what you call it).
Scrutinising sport is a funny thing. It’s a competition of physical prowess, mental toughness, team work, preparation, all that jazz that coaches go on about. But it’s hard to put a number on mental toughness, hard to precisely define how prepared an athlete is, hard to objectively state the team work at play. But we want to know these things! The inherent nature of competition drives the desire to quantify who is competing the best, and those really invested in the culture and fabric of a sport know that winning titles and medals doesn’t always reflect this. And so we get statistics, analytics, numbers based solely on output and production by the athletes, an imperfect but inescapable surrogate for what we really want.
This series is a celebration of those in their sports that have statistical achievements so impressive I don’t think they’re likely to ever be bettered or even repeated. This is by no means supposed to fulfil some perfect list of the most impressive records and statistics across the sporting world, these are just records that are interesting and incredible in my opinion, and are therefore of course very much centred on the sports that I love or pay attention to. This series of articles is focused on sports that I am attached to, so, apologies for inevitably missing some incredible record in a field I’m ignorant of.
For other articles in this series, so far we’ve covered:
the many records of Tom Brady
the incredible feats of Wilt Chamberlain
an intro to cricket stats and the parallel achievements of Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralidaran
a discussion on the unparalleled dominance of Captain Meg Lanning
a delve into the remarkable peak of Eric Dickerson
Now, let’s talk soccer.
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not the person to ask regarding the merits of association football, or as I was raised to refer to it, soccer. I’ve never been given the education by a die-hard fan as to why I should enjoy it, and throughout my own untutored viewings I have struggled to engage. I understand the argument as to why it's the global sport from a playing perspective: it’s easy to learn, easy to have the right equipment (a ball and some goal markings…), it’s not a high collision sport so less major injuries, and it’s very fun to play. But as a spectator sport, I struggle to correlate its popularity with the spectacle and entertainment offered. Maybe it’s because of my upbringing, I haven’t had the requisite hundreds of hours watching the game to understand the nuances unfolding throughout, or just why a given play is so spectacularly special.
I was also raised in a nation (Australia) not known for its soccer success, recent impressive efforts by the Matildas withstanding. Perhaps if my country had more collective interest and pride in the game, that would bleed into my own sporting identity. But then, I don’t really follow Aussie Rules, Rugby League, or swimming, sports in which Australia has long dominated and that get the nation talking when we do well (or don’t do well for that matter); so maybe the conditions I was raised in is a moot argument. Besides, I can’t talk, most of the world finds cricket (and especially test cricket) an absolute bore, whereas I can’t get enough. Who knows what factors could have led to me loving soccer. Probably being more coordinated as a child and enjoying the sport more would have helped, or perhaps having close family who love it and evangelise it. But as it is, I have always struggled to get into it.
All of that said, I can appreciate the skills on display, the competition that comes from it being the most popular sport in the world, and the drama and scale of the FIFA World Cup. There is a sort of romantic element to soccer, the grace and artistry of the super stars is different to the exemplars of other sports. And, I do understand the argument that the low scoring nature of the game results in tension that builds in ebbs and flows, where you can’t take your eyes off the contest as any moment could translate into a match winning play. Hmm, maybe I should watch more soccer?
Talking to fans of the game, many struggle to put into words why they love it, what makes it entertaining compared to the other mega sports on offer. I think this is an important aspect of soccer; it has a sort of ethereal, intangible aura, something that the converts can appreciate but not articulate, and which mystifies the uninitiated. Certainly soccer fans can be amongst the most intense sports fans, the Simpsons even made light of this with reference to soccer fans proclivity for a riot:
And that same episode has one of my favourite examples of how the game is viewed by those who are steeped in its history, romanticism, and nuances, as opposed to those who aren’t:
But we’re not here to discuss the merits of entertainment to be found (or not?) in a game of soccer. We’re here to talk about the stats. How do fans of the game compare the best of the best? What tools are at their disposal when debating who the greatest soccer players are? (I know, it’s “football”, but get used to it, reader) Well, from my preliminary research, a lot of these arguments are less based on numbers and more gut feel, or impact the player has, or how attractive the plays and shots at goal are. But, this happens in all sports, and soccer still leans heavily on the stats to back up these more subjective arguments. And just like in other sports, soccer has core stats that are recorded for all players, and then it has more advanced and specific stats that the hardcore care about.
The key numbers accumulated in a game of soccer by the players are:
Minutes played
Goals (and shots at goal)
Assists
Passes (and passing completion %)
Tackles (number of and success of)
Interceptions
Fouls given and times fouled
Yellow and red cards
Then the more hardcore numbers not routinely talked about include:
Dribbles
Times dribbled past on defence
Through balls
Key passes
Long balls
Clearances
Bad controls
Times dispossessed when on offence
Blocks
Own goals
Honestly, a few of those terms go over my head, despite reading glossaries of soccer terminology when researching this. But suffice to say that if you’re a great defender, you don’t care so much about shots at goal, or even assists, but want to have high tackle rates, few fouls given, lots of interceptions, and from an advanced perspective, few dribbles past and plenty of clearances and blocks. Whereas, for a striker, most of those numbers are meaningless if you’re top of your peers in shots at goal, number of goals, passing success, assists if you’re not scoring yourself, and if you can accumulate some fouls you’re doing something right too. The strange fluidity of positioning in a soccer team, (seriously, the different formations and their merits is mind boggling to me) means players often find themselves filling a range of roles across a season or even a game, unless you’re the goalie of course.
On top of these raw numbers generated by the actions on the pitch, there are also aggregate statistics such as ratings for both teams and individuals. These combine the raw numbers in different formulas, the nature of which varies on what aspect of the game is weighted as important by the creator of the formula. Finally, as with all sports, players are also valued by their accumulation of silverware, through both championships and awards. These are both tied to the various forms of professional football players partake in. The structure of professional soccer is as confusing to me as to why it’s so popular in the first place. Well, I’m trying to address that latter point, so let’s try and untangle the layers of soccer competitions.
The top level should be the most straightforward to explain, international soccer, with matches dating back over 150 years. The highpoint of representing one’s nation comes in the form of the FIFA World Cup, the first of these 4 year cycle tournaments was hosted by Uruguay in 1930. This is the most prestigious association football event, and subsequently the most watched sporting event on the planet. There are other tournaments organised based on local regions, such as the European Championship, and Copa Americana, which are also very popular and prestigious. But international soccer is confusing (because of course) because beyond these, most internationals are considered “friendlies” and aren’t as hotly contested or highly regarded. Even the Olympics has not been held in very high status for a long time, as for much of the 21st century it was exclusively amateur players allowed, and while that has been lifted, it’s been restricted to players under the age of 23 since 1992. So the superstars of the game, who dominate domestic competitions, have been either ineligible on account of being professionals, or being too old.
Instead, outside of the World Cup and regional championships, the most prestigious international tournaments are not the type where players must be nationalised, they are tournaments where the international part comes from the location of the club, and the players themselves can come from all over. These are typically a combination of the best performing clubs from domestic leagues, vying to see who is the best in a region, regardless of national borders. These are typically more important to most players than anything outside the World Cup. What I mean is, Barcelona winning the UEFA Champions League is a bigger feather in Messi’s cap than anything else in his career outside of Argentina winning the World Cup.
So, where do the clubs come from for these amalgamation international tournaments? They comprise the best clubs from the domestic comps in the geographical area. These domestic comps typically comprise tiers of club football, where the worst teams each season are relegated to a lower tier and replaced by the best teams from said lower tier. This is fundamentally confusing, as every country has differing numbers of levels, quantities of teams being promoted and relegated, and structures around nationwide competitions that combine teams across the tiers for some reason.
For example, in Spain, the highest level of club footy is La Liga, where 20 teams compete to take out the title. These are clubs like Barcelona FC and Real Madrid. At the end of the season, the worst 3 drop down to Segunda Division, the best 3 of which take the now vacant spots in La Liga. The worst teams in Segunda are in turn replaced by the best teams from the Primera Federacion league, and so on and so on, for a total of 5 professional tiers, and then another 5 amateur tiers beneath them. But then, every year, they also have the Copa del Rey, where all the teams of the top few tiers compete in a knockout tournament. Then, to make it even more confusing, there is another cup held between the top 2 teams of La Liga and Copa del Rey. And every country in Europe does things the same way! With multiple professional tiers, even more amateur tiers, and knockout tournaments involving all of the tiers.
Then, the winners of all the tier 1 tournaments get together to play the European champions league, oh, but there’s also a league for all the winners of the national wide knockout tournaments, and this is repeated across each continent, though the European is both the oldest and largest of the regional formats. It’s insane, the number of professional clubs we’re talking about is eye-watering, and dwarfs every other sport I’ve ever looked into. Players aren’t tied to a particular tiered system either, I mean, naturally the various leagues are predominantly populated with players raised in those environments, but plenty of the stars playing in La Liga aren’t Spanish, just like how the Premier League in England is populated with an enormous number of international talent. This is what makes it funny when Spain claims to win the “international tournament” that is the UEFA Champions League if say Barcelona or Madrid take out the title, when few or none of their players might actually be Spanish.
Still, the inherent tribalism of the domestic format leads to incredible viewership and popularity, and when this is then taken to the bigger stage of pitting the best of the local leagues together in one epic champions showdown, you can see why it’s so popular. What this means for us, is that soccer has more silverware and accolades up for grabs then other sports, so when we break down the record performances of the all-time greats, it will include looking at their game performances, with all those statistics we talked about before, as well as their impact on the game, how many of these crazy amount of trophies they can accumulate. This also means they accumulate statistics across multiple types of games: domestic leagues, cross league matchups, pan-national cups, international fixtures, and so on. These are all referred to as games at a senior level.
With all that covered, let’s look at some footballers who have accumulated more accolades than anyone else, the modern titans of the game:
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo - Being Very Good at Football
Growing up, I wasn’t all that aware of great soccer players. I had heard of Pele, Maradona, Beckham, but that was about it, with the exception of the occasional reference on the Simpsons. But in the last 10 years, it’s been hard to escape the media-fueled war surrounding the question: who is the greatest modern (or perhaps all-time) player: Christiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi?
A rare instance when the best to ever play a sport play in the same era. Picture taken from here
Their careers have overlapped so well, their achievements both so far above their contemporaries, their physique and styles sufficiently different (well, as different as can be expected while both scoring goals in soccer…), it was inevitable that they would be depicted as being locked in battle, an all-time rivalry for soccer greatness. This is contrary to all reports of the actual relationship between the two men, which is apparently pretty much non-existent off the field, but certainly cordial and without ill-will. But the media never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, and a rivalry between two of the best to play the sport is one of the favourites. Think Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraser, Djokovic and Nadal, Michael Clarke and most of his own team-mates; the rivalries add additional layers and compelling narratives to the sport, elevating the entertainment further.
So regardless of their real-life relationship, the battle for football’s GOAT crown is one of the more compelling narratives in world sports. (Although a goat-Crown sounds more like a compelling narrative from a George Martin novel, but let’s stick to the acronym version). And it’s all the more compelling for how close the argument is. You will find deeply entrenched views either way across the internet, with Ronaldo’s fans pointing to his slightly superior scoring record and more dominant style of play, while Messi’s fans point to his slightly bigger trophy cabinet and more impressive advanced statistics (and I’m referring to the large number of trophies and accolades within the cabinet of course, who cares how arbitrarily large the actual cabinet is. Though I suppose once it reaches a certain size it does become impressive in its own right).
Well, today we are looking at the record achievements of these two modern giants of the game. But, and I need to stress this from the get-go, this is not in any way my attempt to settle the GOAT argument one way or the other. If you finish this piece thinking that one of the two is better than the other, well that’s your call, though you’ll need to do some more reading about other greats of the past before settling on a greatest of all time. Or you know, just go with your gut, it’s your opinion after all.
Let’s take a quick tour through Messi’s and Ronaldo’s careers to date to provide some context for the records that they have amassed. I will try to tell their stories in sync with one another, not only to keep things chronological, but in an effort to illustrate how similar their careers and portfolios really are.
Christiano is the slightly older of the two, and was also born much closer to Spain, the country where they would spend 9 years locking horns. He was born Christiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, in 1985, on the island of Madeira, technically part of Portugal but closer to the shores of Africa than Europe. Lionel Andrés Messi on the other hand was born in 1987, in the town of Rosario, in the North East of Argentina. Both came from humble backgrounds, with the Aveiro family consisting of four children (Christiano the youngest) to Maria and José, the former a cook and cleaning lady, the latter a gardener, but also crucially the part-time kit man for the local football club. The Messi family, on the other side of the Atlantic, also consisted of four children (Lionel the 2nd youngest) to Celia and Jorge, the former worked in a magnet manufacturer and the latter managed a steel factory. Both had strong football culture surrounding them growing up, with Ronaldo joining the club his father worked for at the age of 7, while Messi joined his local club at the age of 6. Both were sought for youth contracts with major clubs but suffered health setbacks. Ronaldo was diagnosed with tachycardia and had to undergo laser heart surgery at the age of 15, while Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency at the age of 10 that required intensive growth hormone treatment for years. In both cases, the young boys would not have received sufficient treatment to ever play soccer again without the financial assistance of football organisations.
Despite the medical setbacks, both were incredible talents for their age and had professional contracts while in their mid-teens. Ronaldo played for Sporting Lisbon, while Messi relocated all the way to Spain to play for the youth side of legendary organisation, Barcelona FC. After his first full season, at 15 years old, Messi received an offer to join Arsenal in the English Premier League. He chose to stay, and would remain at Barcelona for the majority of his career. His first game with them was in 2002, his last in 2021. Ronaldo on the other hand was wooed by a different Premier League team, Manchester United, who were in the midst of an absolute purple patch, having won the Premier League 3 times in the past 4 seasons. But they had lost a match to Sporting Lisbon, and the United manager was determined to have the up and coming superstar who had just beaten them, signing Ronaldo to make him the most expensive teenaged player in Premier League history.
Messi (15) and Ronaldo (17) after signing with Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon in 2002. Picture taken from here
Now that they’re both being paid to play the game, let’s do some side by side comparisons of the next few years.
Between 2004 and 2007 each made their way from lower tier squads to the starting team for their respective clubs, Manchester United in the Premier League for Ronaldo, and Barcelona FC in La Liga for Messi. They each won titles with their clubs within 2 years of making the starting team, and then 2006 was the World Cup, where both Ronaldo and Messi would play for Portugal and Argentina respectively. Both set records for being the youngest to score goals at a world cup for their respective nations. Ronaldo, the more established of the pair, had a better tournament (he started more games for one), but neither reached the final.
In 2007 they both truly entered the discussion of modern greatness, with Ronaldo and Messi finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively in voting for the Ballon d’Or, THE award for best footballer, and they swapped spots for the FIFA player of the year award, (an award that ran from 1991 to 2010 before being folded into the Ballon d’Or, but then got unfolded in 2016 and is now awarded as the FIFA best men’s player of the year. Not confusing at all right?)
Since 2008 it has been truly the era of Messi and Ronaldo. In 2008 Messi won Olympic Gold while Ronaldo won the Ballon D’Or, and then Messi won it the next 4 years straight (the first and only time someone has won 4 on the trot). Ronaldo would win 4 of the next 5 (the one he didn’t win was Messi of course), meaning between 2008 and 2017, no-one else in the world won the coveted trophy but these two legends. At the end of 2017 both players had:
5 Ballon D’Or trophies (two more than the next most ever)
5 or more premierships (8 for Messi) in top flight leagues
6 or more nationwide Cup trophies
3 or more UEFA champions league wins (super rare)
6 or more top flight league MVP awards
They had each had better careers than most all time greats by the end of 2017. But we’ve had 6 seasons since then! Messi won the Ballon D’Or in 2019, 2021, and 2023 as well, taking him to a truly remarkable 8 in total, and meaning that for 17 straight years, only in 2 of those years did someone not named Lionel Messi or Chrisitano Ronaldo win the most prestigious award in world football.
Throughout these years Messi was almost entirely wracking up titles and awards while playing for Barcelona FC, while Ronaldo was doing it for a series of clubs, going from Manchester United in the Premier League, to Real Madrid in La Liga (the same league as Messi), to Juventus in Serie A, the highest tier of football in Italy. It reminds me of the LeBron James v Michael Jordan argument: which is more impressive, a player building an all-time dynasty with one club, or creating success despite moving between several? Well, at the end of Ronaldo’s stint in Italy they each had comparable resumes, with Ronaldo’s accumulated with three different clubs across three different leagues, while Messi’s was all with Barcelona. Then, keeping the parallel careers going, they both made changes at the same time. Ronaldo returned to Manchester, while Messi finally left Barcelona, signing with Paris St Germain in Ligue 1, the French equivalent of the English Premier League. Naturally he won the whole thing his first season there and then backed it up the year after… For me this is like Tom Brady winning a record number of Superbowls with the Patriots, then proving it wasn’t a system thing by winning another title his first year with a different team. Ronaldo didn’t have the same luck with his change, and didn’t stay long on his return to the Premier League. Likewise, Messi’s stint in Paris, while very successful, was quite brief, leaving after 2 years.
Since then, for the first time in their illustrious careers, both have left the cluster of truly elite competitions based in Europe to join up-and-coming cashed up comps elsewhere. For Ronaldo, this has meant joining Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, and for Messi, joining Inter Miami FC in the United States based Major League Soccer. Both signings were highly publicised and brought new levels of prestige and legitimacy to these competitions, and are credited with bringing more star players to the ranks also, no wonder the signings were so lucrative. Naturally both brought success straight away, with Ronaldo’s club narrowly missing a title his first year but backing it up by winning the Arab Cup (the pan national club tournament in the Middle East). Messi joined Miami too late in 2023 to impact the regular season, but they too won the pan national tournament for their region, taking out the 2023 Leagues Cup, the first major trophy for Inter Miami, and the 44th for Messi. This coming off of 2022, the year Messi finally won a FIFA World Cup for Argentina, further pushing his cabinet of silverware ahead of Ronaldo’s (and everyone else…)
If that 44 trophies number sounds crazy high, that’s because it is, it’s the most trophies ever won at a senior level by a football player. Though, it is only 1 higher than the number 2 spot. Ronaldo makes the top 7 list as well:
But, and this is why I have those black boxes flashing on the gif, 4 of the top 7 trophy winners in football history played for that insane 2010s Barcelona team! Iniesta, Maxwell, and Alves, all have more trophies than almost any other player ever because they played with Messi. This seems a bit unfair, but I mean, Messi has won at other clubs, has won a World Cup and Olympic gold, and none of those other players have ever been in the top 3 for votes for the Ballon D’Or. Then, to further illustrate how far ahead of the pack Messi is, the current number 3 on the most trophies list, Ashour, won all his silverware in the comparatively weaker Egyptian top football league, where the star players are almost non existent as they’ve all been signed to play in one of the major comps in Europe. So let’s ditch those who haven’t won a major individual award or won a major premiership and bring in some other legends of the game to illustrate how crazy this record is:
I mean, look how far back a legend like Pelé is from Messi in terms of championships! This is an unbreakable record. Messi didn’t win more La Liga titles than anyone ever, or more UEFA champions league titles (though almost), or more World Cups or national cups, but he has won all of those, and for most of them, many, many times. And it’s this consistency, winning in every tournament he gets a chance to play in, over a long career, that has put him so far ahead of his competitors. And he’s not done yet! His team are the odds-on favourite to win Major League Soccer this season, even though Inter Miami FC have never won it before, but that doesn’t matter, they have Messi now. And the same for Ronaldo, his team is pipped to take out the Saudi league this season, I mean they were runners up last year despite his late transfer. Then there’s more nation wide trophies to compete in, and more international competitions too. Ronaldo could end up 2nd all time for trophies, and Messi will just keep extending his unbreakable record further.
In terms of comparisons to other sports, it’s a tricky one, professional soccer players get the opportunity to compete for a lot more championships than other sports. With their domestic leagues, nationwide cups, geographic club competitions, and then weird combo structures of the winners of these, not to mention playing for their countries as well. I estimate that the rate of titles up for grabs is about 3.5 times that of other elite professional sports. This would mean Messi has the equivalent of around 13 championships in other sports, more than Tom Brady and Lebron James combined.
But seeing as we’re already talking about unbreakable records, let’s get deeper into the stats.
We’ve already covered Messi’s very impressive haul of silverware, but this was only his championships, won as part of the team. We discussed how he was the main man for these, unlike many of the others in top echelons of trophy winners. But when you also add his individual awards, this is what shows how dominant a player he is, beyond just his team success. And this is another category where Cristiano Ronaldo is unfairly left in the dust. If there had never been a Lionel Messi, Ronaldo would finish his career with the most trophies ever, and the most awards too, as most of the years that Messi won the most prestigious awards, Ronaldo was the runner up in votes. Even without those wins, Ronaldo’s current resume is better than any other player ever, except for Messi.
The award most coveted is the Ballon D’Or, the golden ball, awarded to the best football player on the planet every year. Before 2008, no-one had been awarded more than 3 of these highly sought after prizes, and only 3 players made up that 3 award club:
Johan Cruyff in the early 70s (legendary Dutch player)
Michel Platini in the mid 80s
Marco van Basten in the late 80s
And reflecting the “peak” talent aspect of athletics, these guys all won their three awards in short spans, with Platini winning his in consecutive years, and the others taking no longer than 5 years to win three golden balls. Indeed, the biggest gap between first and final receipt of a Ballon D’Or was 4 years. To be the best in the world’s most popular, most played sport is impossible to achieve over a whole career, there’s just too much competition. Well, Ronaldo has received 5 Ballon D’Ors, more than any other player, and his 1st and 5th are separated by 9 years, showing that you can be the best in the world for a very long time. Wait, that’s not the record? Nope, bloody show off Messi had to trump him. He has an insane 8 Ballon D’Or awards, with his first and last (so far…) separated by 14 years! That’s longer than many players' entire career, and he was winning best player in the world awards throughout, including an astonishing 4 years straight. This is also incredibly unbreakable (the 8 awards thing, though 4 on the trot probably is too). I mean, there have only been 10 players to ever receive more than 1 Ballon d’Or, and the guy with the most has 8?! Check out the list of multi-time winners:
Ridiculous right?
But, if you’re looking at that list and surprised by some key absences, there’s a reason for that. The key absences are Pelé and Maradonna, two players universally held as amongst the best of all time. They’re not present because until 1995 only European players were eligible for the award. All the top leagues were European based, and the majority of best players were too, but not all, and so the award did have controversy. I mean, Pelé won 3 World Cups and set insane scoring records, how could he not be the best player in the world during those years? Well, in 2016 they did a re-appraisal of every award given out before 1995, and they identified 12 years when a non-European player should have received the Ballon d’Or. Pelé and Maradonna account for 9 of those, and then there are 3 other individuals. These retroactive awards mean that from our list above, Keegan and Di Stefano become single time winners, but we add the two South Americans, so we have the same number of multi-time winners. Not only that, Cristiano has to slide down a tier in the pecking order:
Pelé joins Messi in the 4 on the trot club, but can’t quite take away his most all time mantle. Plus, they didn’t actually re-write the history books, they just suggested how the award should’ve gone. Officially Pelé and Maradonna have no Ballon D’Or awards, but even if they did, Messi still comes out on top.
Alright, enough on the silverware, how good are they at actually scoring goals? You know, playing the game they’re getting these accolades for. Well, these two legends have scored more goals for their professional clubs and national teams combined than any other player in history. And, this is where Ronaldo’s extra few years at the senior level give him an edge, and where he does in fact hold the record over Messi:
But while Ronaldo has the edge over Messi here, both are incredibly far ahead of the rest of the pack. And to illustrate how unlikely it is that these records will fall, consider that most of those players in the top list are from many decades ago. There are almost none from the modern era, just the two best ever:
This is true for a lot of their records actually. Check out this other one illustrating consistency, Messi has the record for most consecutive games with a goal scored at the professional level (in any league):
And he’s so far ahead! But look what happens when we exclude players from the 50s or earlier:
Almost no one left from the past 70 years!
And then, look at most goals in a single season, the top two spots of which Messi takes, with Ronaldo in joint 3rd:
Honestly, that 2012 season by Messi is insane, to be that far ahead of the next best, which is also him! Unbreakable. Especially when we again consider how rare this has been in the modern era:
Just bonkers.
But what if all these goals are just because they play so much compared to earlier players? Well, let’s instead look at goals per game. To illustrate this I’m going to compare them against other Ballon D’Or winners who won the award as the primary scoring option on their team. Of the past 50 recipients, 8 have managed a career goal rate of 0.5 or better, which means a goal every two games or so. Here they are, sorted in chronological order of most recent award:
So those 8 players all have scoring rates better than 50%, but just look at the number of games played. Cristiano and Messi have had stonkingly long careers while maintaining as good production as their fellow “best in the world” award winners. But, not just production that’s as good, check out the actual numbers for their goal rates:
That’s crazy! Messi and Crisitano have the two best scoring rates of the lot, despite having played more games. Usually longevity comes at the cost of production, but not for these freaks.
But remember, official Ballon D’Or winners excludes two of the very best, so let’s include Pelé and Maradonna as well:
Damn… no wonder this Pelé guy is considered one of the best. He had a career almost as long as Messi’s, but averaged almost a goal per game, just incredible. But despite that, he didn’t accumulate as many titles as Cristiano or Messi.
Okay, another record, and this one also illustrates greatness over an extended career: most consecutive years scoring a goal for your national team. Again, this is one where Cristiano’s extra two years of career keeps him ahead of Messi, for now, but they’re both well ahead of the rest:
It’s a short list, because that’s it, only 5 guys have ever scored a goal for their country through 14+ consecutive years, and again, Messi and Cristiano sit unreachable, far ahead of the pack, and they will probably add to those records, they are still first choice selections for Argentina and Portugal respectively.
Cristiano Ronaldo also has the record for most appearances, and most goals, in international games:
While Ronaldo is on top of the pile for both, Messi is the only other player in the top 10 for both categories as well. Indeed, you probably won’t recognise many of the names on these lists, because many of the all time greats have had surprisingly brief international careers. Not our two legends though, they have to do everything.
So, are the records of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi unbreakable?
Yes.
I mean, I could see some of them falling under the right conditions, like every record we discuss. It’s sport after all, nothing is impossible. These two were able to achieve these feats so why couldn’t someone else? It’s just ridiculously unlikely. Look at how few modern players have achieved anything even close to what Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have done, it beggars belief that anyone will break these records in our lifetime.
Here are the major records each has (or is close to having if not for the other):
Most senior level trophies: Messi 1st, Ronaldo 6th, could move up the list before retiring
Most senior level goals: Ronaldo 1st, Messi 2nd, 3rd place miles behind
Most Ballon D’Or awards: Messi 1st, Ronaldo 2nd, 3rd place miles behind
Most appearances in international games: Ronaldo 1st, Messi 6th, could move up the list before retiring
Most goals in international games: Ronaldo 1st, Messi 3rd, likely to retire in 2nd place
Most consecutive years scoring for national team: Ronaldo 1st, Messi 2nd, 3rd place miles behind and each are likely to extend the streak
Most consecutive games scoring at a senior level: Messi
Most goals in a season: Messi 1st and 2nd, Ronaldo joint 3rd
Of these, I think consecutive games scoring and most goals in a season could potentially be broken, in that it just needs a player to have a particularly good patch. And by particularly good I mean the best seasons a player has ever had, so, you know, pretty unlikely, but more likely than maintaining that over a whole career. Still, go back and look at how far ahead Messi is for those records, they might as well be unbreakable.
The 44 trophies (maybe more after this coming season) is also pretty much unbreakable. I mean, maybe a player might transfer between clubs at just the right times to accumulate as many titles, but it feels impossible. I mean, look at how far back Pelé is from Messi, despite being regarded as the greatest soccer player ever. Most appearances and goals for the nation is also a lock for Ronaldo, he is so far ahead of the rest, it’s insane. Ditto for consecutive years scoring for the nation. Scoring goals is hard, and being good enough to be selected for your nation is hard, getting selected for 20 straight years is already a remarkable feat, but to score in every one of those years? Damn.
And then of course there is Messi’s 8 Ballon D’Or awards. This is outrageous when you consider that the best of all time before his first award was 3. This is super unbreakable.
Honestly, researching these two players there are two things that stand out:
They have had insanely similar careers: number of titles, accolades, goals, scoring rates, and overlapping so closely chronologically as well, it’s hard not to think that the presence of each other drove each further upwards
These two really are just very, very good at football, and the best of all time debate has essentially become a two goat race
And they’re still playing! And not like, hanging around because they don’t know when to quit still playing, they’re still getting paid ludicrous sums to do ludicrous things on the pitch. Messi won the Ballon D’Or last year! He’s still considered the best player playing right now. Ronaldo hasn’t been in the top 3 votes for the award since 2019, but he still took his club to a final in his first season there, at the age of 38 and in his 22nd year of professional sport! Both of these players have a slew of unbreakable records between them, and they’re still adding to them right now.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the best to ever play, and we got to see them play at the same time, and against each other. The Ballon D’Or, or golden ball awards tell the story, the 2010’s were truly Anneés d’or du football.
Life’s good when you’re the best there’s ever been (or maybe equal best), and with more award ceremonies inevitable. Picture taken from here
Here are some alternating highlights of the two greatest players of the worlds biggest and most loved sport:
Footage edited from material taken from here and here
Thank you as always for reading.