[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore the 21st century, the greatest soccer players of all time were Diego Maradona and Pele. They were named co-players of the 20th century. Pele scored 650 goals in 694 appearances just for clubs in his senior career, and topped it all off with 3 world cups while holding the record for most Brazil goals of all time. Maradona scored 259 goals in 491 appearances at the club division in his senior career and led Argentina to win the 1986 world cup. They were the figureheads of soccer for years, until 2003.[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””][/perfectpullquote]

The Next Generation

In 2003, Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo. He immediately began progressing to being named the best footballer on the planet in 2009. He was quickly followed by Lionel Messi, 2 years his junior, who was signed by FC Barcelona in 2004. He too soon advanced to stardom and beat Cristiano Ronaldo to win the 2011 Men’s Player of the Year Award. In the years that followed, soccer’s greatest rivalry would begin.

A Rivalry in Numbers

Most of the debate on who the best player is has been centered on statistics. They do, believe it or not, actually mean something. Some analysts isolate certain parts of a career to try to give their side an edge, but when you look and Messi’s and Ronaldo’s stats over their entire careers, it is surprisingly one-sided, even though Messi is 2 years younger.

All-Time

The data from Messivsronaldo.net shows that in Messi’s all-time career he has 629 goals and 258 assists in 777 appearances. He scores a goal every 1.24 games, assists every 3.01 games, and is directly responsible for a goal 1.14 times per game. In Ronaldo’s all-time career he has 665 goals and 212 assists in 927 games. He scores every 1.50 games, creates an assist every 4.37 games, and is directly responsible for a goal every 1.06 games. Basing the analysis on the categories goals scored, assists made, Time per goal, time per assist, and time per direct responsibility of a goal, we can determine who the better player is overall. In this scenario, Messi ends up winning four of the five categories, only lagging in goals scored. In short, this shows that Messi is a better all-around player than Ronaldo since he is able to create more opportunities and has played a larger variety of roles on the field in his career. He has been praised by some of the greatest players ever as a fantastic player and it is a common belief that Messi is better than Ronaldo among these legendary players.

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League

Messi’s league career is equally impressive. His stats are 390 goals and 154 assists in 427 appearances. He scores every 1.09 games, assists every 2.78 games, and is directly responsible for a goal 1.27 times per game. This means that on average Messi will contribute to the scoreboard every single game. Ronaldo once again does not match this, only winning goals scored by putting up 405 goals and 130 assists in 530 appearances. Scores every 1.29 games, assists every 4.02 games and is directly responsible for a goal 1.02 times per game. Ronaldo also meets the status quo of being responsible for a goal and least once per game, but still does that 0.25 times more than Ronaldo. In this comparison, Messi once again wins 4 of the 5 categories. As they both play in arguably the most competitive league in the world, these achievements are very impressive. Since both of them perform at a very high level consistently, people will tend to judge who plays better based on leadership and how well they can make their teammates play better during a match, instead of purely stats. This is where soccer legends’ opinions of who is the finer leader will influence the debate for who is the greatest soccer player.

International

The 3rd type of game statistic is the international division. Messi has put up 65 goals and 40 assists in 128 appearances. He scores every 2.00 games, posts an assist every 3.20 games, and is directly responsible for a goal every 1.22 games. Ronaldo comes closer this time with 85 goals and 28 assists in 154 appearances. In this division, he scores every 1.81 games, assists every 5.5 games, and is directly responsible for a goal every 1.36 games. This division comes closer, but even with fewer appearances for his country, Messi wins 3 out of the 5 categories. This means that overall Messi is the better player. He never lost an assist category in any of the divisions, establishing the fact that he is a better team player than Ronaldo and is highly capable of making his teammates better and raising the team to new heights. He is also a fantastic scorer, putting in 629 goals in his career. If statistics were the entire story, this would hardly be a debate, but the greatest football players in history have decided to enter their opinions into the fray.

Messi

Ronaldo

The Heir of Football

Many people copy their opinions based on celebrities’ viewpoints. This is also true in the world of soccer. Many of the greatest players in the world have given their take on the rivalry. In October of 2018, Wayne Rooney told The Express that “Ronaldo has gone from a winger to a striker and a goalscorer.” He went on to say, “Messi is a bit of everything – you see him score goals from playing probably a deep midfield role at times, and where I’m probably still walking on the pitch he’s scoring. So he is probably the best.” Wayne Rooney, who is one of the most prolific players in English soccer history, and has played head to head against Messi several times, believes he is the best. His expertise in games against the two led him to believe Messi is better. Messi used his extreme capabilities to defeat the Rooney led Manchester United team in the Champions League final in 2009 and 2011. Ronaldinho is a player who is known for his time at FC Barcelona and AC Milan. He played alongside Lionel Messi while he was still young and believes firmly Messi is the best. He describes their playing time together to Goal.com, saying, “I’d love to take the pitch with him one more time.” Already the expertise of prolific players in history lean towards Messi, but I’ve left out Pele and Maradona so far. Pele told ESPN that he thinks Messi is a superior player to Ronaldo: “Messi is the player who was the most consistant all those years, no doubt.” [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Messi is the player who was the most consistent all those years, no doubt.”[/perfectpullquote]

Pele was voted the greatest player in the history of soccer, over Maradona, Messi, and Ronaldo. The final player I will mention here is Diego Maradona. After Maradona retired, there was large speculation as to who would become his heir and take control of Argentinian football. In 2006 he declared his heir to The Telegraph saying, “I’ve seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football and his name is Messi.” Messi even went as far as to replicate the goal that Maradona scored which won goal of the century. He dribbled 60 yards past 5 players and scored in a match, cementing his place as Maradona’s successor. With the two greatest football players of the 20th century backing Messi in their analysis, I believe that Messi is better than Ronaldo.

The Accolades

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The Ballon d’Or is a prize given to the greatest soccer player in the world from that year. Messi and Ronaldo tie for a record 5 Ballon D’Ors and are the only 2 players to win it in the last 10 years. They each have won top scorer 16 times, and they each combine for 6 UEFA best player in Europe award and Men’s best player of the year award. Because of this, to determine who is superior, we must look to team achievements and how each player impacts their team. According to TransferMarkt articles on Ronaldo and Messi, for club and country, Ronaldo has 28 titles, while Messi holds 35. Messi’s team plays creates more titles and higher success for his club. This also makes the players around him better. Since Messi is 2 years younger than Ronaldo and already holds 7 more titles, people believe that Messi is superior because he will have far surpassed Ronaldo’s achievements by the time he reaches that age.

The Clutch Factor

The one area where Messi has struggled in his career is during the most important games. Taking the UEFA Champions League for example, the last time Messi scored in the quarterfinals or later was in the 2015 semifinals. According to Business Insider, Ronaldo has scored 16 goals in the quarterfinals or later in the tournament since the last time Messi scored. In these matches, Messi’s productivity is poor compared to Ronaldo. Messi scores or assists a goal every 97 minutes, while Ronaldo cuts this time in half, taking only 50 minutes to do this. Probably the most famous example of Messi’s struggles is from the 2014 world cup final against Germany. He had a free kick in extra time that if scored would send the

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game into overtime. But no. He shoots it way over the net, not even close to a goal. That major mistake, aside from the form of the team, cost Messi the world cup title, the most coveted title of all. Messi’s only international awards are a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 1st place in the U20 World Cup. Ronaldo, on the other hand, has won one of the world’s finest awards, the Euro Cup. Ronaldo’s accomplishments on the grand stage prove that he is by far the better player when the stakes are at their highest. This is one of the biggest arguments as to why Ronaldo is better than Messi. Ronaldo always performs at his highest level when it matters, while Messi tends to fall quite short of his capabilities. This is one of the ways that Ronaldo is actually better than Messi.

Longevity: Who will burn out first?

My final reason for believing Messi is better is his longevity. Messi is short, standing only 5’ 7”, and uses agility and precision to beat defenders. He also uses his low center of gravity to quickly change direction and score goals. His body type enhances his natural agility and is perfect for his style of play. Because his size forces him to use his ball-handling skills almost all the time, instead of just blowing by players with his size, his style uses less athleticism than Ronaldo’s. Ronaldo plays quite differently than Messi. Standing at 6’ 2” tall, he is extremely athletic and will easily run by defenders and outplay them by using his athleticism to pull off exceptional strikes. The only problem with Ronaldo’s game is that he won’t be able to bicycle kick his shots as often in a few years when he’s 37 or so. He can’t stay in the best shape of his life forever, so his athletic decay will force his shots to become more conservative, lowering his productivity and establishing Messi as the greatest player today. Since Messi is 2 years younger and already has passed Ronaldo in many achievements, he will be able to perform longer because of his age and playing style and will influence younger generations more because he will play into their childhood longer than Ronaldo. Since Messi will influence younger generations more, his model of the game will be used more and will serve as a model that many young strikers will try to emulate for years to come.

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