Comparing Messi and Ronaldo’s records over their last 500 appearances: Goals, assists… | OneFootball

How do Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stack up against one another when you compare their prime and vintage years?

That’s the question we’re answering today, looking at Messi and Ronaldo’s last 500 appearances for club and country and how their stats in those games compare.

Going back 500 matches for both players takes us back to the summer of 2016, when Messi was 28 and Ronaldo was 31.

For Messi, if you go back 500 matches, you go back to his Barcelona pomp – and a memorable game, in fact, in which the Argentinian assisted both of Barcelona’s extra-time goals in their 2-0 Copa del Rey final victory over Sevilla.

Over the past nine years, Messi continued to amass silverware with Barcelona, PSG and Inter Miami, and he remained an extraordinary difference-maker in his latter years in La Liga, but he arguably hasn’t played in a truly great club side in that time.

Barcelona declined in his latter years, while PSG continued to struggle in Europe. He hasn’t appeared in a Champions League final in this time, but he has claimed a record-extending sixth, seventh and eighth Ballon d’Or, the latter two thanks in large part due to his exploits on the international stage – winning the Copa America in 2021 and World Cup in 2022.

While Messi has continually racked up league titles, it’s with Argentina that he’s really shone in the latter half of his career, captaining his country to back-to-back continental titles either side of the World Cup, finally ending their long quest for silverware.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, was just on the cusp of his first major international honour – Euro 2016 – if you go back 500 matches in his career.

He’d just won his third Champions League title, and second with Real Madrid, and would retain the trophy in the next two years before his move to Juventus.

Silverware has otherwise not been quite as forthcoming in the 40-year-old’s twilight years. He has won two Nations Leagues with Portugal, while he won the Scudetto in his debut season in Italy, but his second stint at Manchester United yielded no trophies and he’s yet to win a major honour out in Saudi Arabia.

Their stats are otherworldly, but Messi just edges his era-defining rival over the past 500 matches in terms of pure numbers.

Ronaldo has scored a few more goals, and hat-tricks, but considerably more penalties – almost twice as many as Messi over the same period. Messi has scored more non-penalty goals and is considerably more prolific when it comes to goal contributions, having notched well over double Ronaldo’s assists over the past 500 matches.