Messi vs. Ronaldo: Who comes out on top?

A year-by-year comparison of the goals scored by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo yields surprising results.

World soccer fans have long argued for their favorite players, and two of the most prolific scorers in the last two decades are Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who plays for Barcelona during the club season, and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and most recently, Juventus.

While many metrics come into play — starts, assists, and penalty kicks for example — none is perhaps as widely regarded as a measure for success as goals scored by season. According to data from FBRef, each of the players has had impressive seasons, particularly in the last decade, but the winner isn’t as clear as some may think.

It will not serve to merely analyze career goals for each, since Ronaldo has been playing longer than Messi and has had more opportunity to score goals in his extra time. Additionally, each player has not started for his country an equal amount of times, which makes factoring in for-country goals likely to result in biased results. However, one can examine the goals each has scored for his club in the years where they both were players and the results are very interesting.

Messi scored the most club goals in a season with 50 in the 2011–2012 season, but he also had the lowest scoring season with just one goal in the 2004–2005 season. Ronaldo has proven more consistent overall, but when one measures the total goals during those years, the result is surprisingly close: Messi scored 444 goals between 2004–2020, while Ronaldo scored 443.

That they should score so closely should not be entirely surprising. According to Bleacher Report, a technical analysis of the two players results in a tie. Aside from each player’s impressive stats, they have varying work ethics, passion for the game, attitudes towards teamwork, and tactical abilities.

Statistically, Lionel Messi has a slight advantage, factoring in time played, but measuring each of these is not a simple task, and there will probably never be a clear answer as to which is really the greater overall player.