A Bright look at the most goal Scorer in the world, where Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are always on top.
Lionel Messi scored his 500th goal for FC Barcelona in the latest El Clasico. His longstanding rival Cristiano Ronaldo sits on 518 strikes in his club career, but achieved this at a much slower rate.
The Portuguese scored his tally in 710 appearances for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and Real Madrid. Messi, meanwhile, needed only 577 appearances to reach the 500-goal mark.
Messi is one behind on five wins. He was outright winner for four straight years from 2009-2012, before sharing the accolade in 2014-15 with Ronaldo and Barca team-mate Neymar, when they all struck 10 times in that campaign.
1 – @cristiano has now scored at least twice as many CL goals as any other player in the QF's (20), semi-finals (13) and finals (4). Giant. pic.twitter.com/FCVuatToJy
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) June 3, 2017
The Argentine scores at a rate of 0.87 goals a game, while Ronaldo averages 0.73 strikes per appearance.
In addition, Messi is three years younger than the Los Blancos talisman, which means he could finish his career with more goals than the Portuguese if he stays in the game as long.
Ronaldo needed to reach his 500th club career goal and found that Messi achieved the impressive milestone in 112 fewer games.
Ronaldo – who then managed 16 goals last term, one off his own competition record – pulled ten clear of the Argentinian but Messi’s hat-tricks against Celtic and Manchester City this season closed the gap before losing ground in the knockout phase. Ronaldo, whose subsequent double at Bayern München made him the first player to score 100 times in UEFA club competition, now leads 105-94; in overall UEFA club competition goals it is 108-97 in his favour.
Cristiano Ronaldo Beat Lionel Messi To 100 UEFA Champions League Goals
The 32-year-old reached his 500th club goal after 689 games, when he was 31 – two years older than when Messi reached the milestone.
Similarly to the Albiceleste captain, Ronaldo also scored his 500th club goal in injury time, during Real’s FIFA Club World Cup clash against Club America on 15 December 2016.
While Messi netted all his goals for the Catalan giants, Ronaldo netted five for Sporting, 118 for United and now 395 for Los Blancos.
Even Messi and Ronaldo’s UEFA Champions League strikes since they first found the net at this level and picked out some noteworthy stats amid all the numbers.
- Messi has only been on the losing side three times when he has scored
- Ronaldo has netted twice or more on 29 different occasions
- They are level 7-7 in hat-tricks
- Ronaldo did not score until his 30th game in the competition
- Ronaldo had notched in both round of 16 legs five seasons running until 2016/17
- Ronaldo is the first player to 50 knockout goals
- Ronaldo is the only player to score in three UEFA Champions League finals
- Both have nine goals against one club: Ronaldo v Bayern München and Messi v Arsena
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