Even though Lionel Messi is playing in the US for Inter Miami and Cristiano Ronaldo is playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, both continue to strive for an important goal: to become the all-time top scorer.
How many goals is Messi less than Cristiano Ronaldo?
There is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo has left an indelible mark on world football thanks to his outstanding goal scoring ability. From his early days at Sporting Lisbon to his current time at Al Nassr, he has scored a total of 878 goals in 1,211 matches in a 21-year professional career. This extraordinary record makes him the leader in the race to become the all-time top scorer.
Ronaldo has scored 878 goals in his career
The most recent goal that Ronaldo added to his impressive record was in the match against Al Ain in the second leg of the Asian Champions League quarter-finals. When the score was 3-3, the Portuguese star successfully took the penalty, bringing the match to a penalty shootout. Al Nassr finally stopped, but CR7 still played sharp this season: 29 goals in 32 matches.
Messi just scored for Inter Miami against Nashville
Although Ronaldo keeps scoring goals, Messi doesn’t slow down either. He started with a goal against LA Galaxy, scored twice in Inter Miami’s 5-0 victory over Orlando City, and set the score 2-2 against Nashville in the first leg of the 1/8 Concachamps round. Most recently, La Pulga scored again against Nashville in the second leg. Thus, Messi has scored 827 goals in 1,053 matches for Barcelona, PSG, Inter and Argentina.
This means that although Ronaldo has an advantage of 51 goals, Messi has played nearly 150 fewer matches. During their time on the Old Continent, both No. 7 and No. 10 played almost the same number of matches per season, from 50 to 60, but the Portuguese captain had two more years of playing time.
Before setting their own records, both Ronaldo and Messi surpassed Josef Bican’s scoring record. The Czech striker scored 805 goals between the 1930s and 1950s. In the list of top scorers in history, Romario takes fourth place with 772 goals, followed by Pele with 757 table, according to FIFA records. In addition, Ferenc Puskas and Gerd Muller are also in this group, completing the Top 7 with 746 and 734 goals respectively.
The gap between Ronaldo and Messi is 51 goals
Top scorers in history
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): 878 goals
Lionel Messi (Argentina): 827 goals
Josef Bican (Austria): 805 goals
Romario (Brazil): 772 goals
Pelé (Brazil): 757 goals
