There is a funny saying that the football world is divided into two types of people: Ronaldo fans or Messi fans. Which side are you on? Everyone has their own reasons to admire these two great superstars, but it cannot be denied that there are many statistics that show that Ronaldo is better than Messi. Let’s see why that is so!
5 reasons that prove Ronaldo is better than Messi:
- Ronaldo is a more comprehensive player
- Ronaldo scores more goals
- Ronaldo often shines at important moments
- Ronaldo has won more at a high level
- Ronaldo is better in fixed situations
Ronaldo and Messi: The competition has no end
The debate about who is the better player – Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi – is the most controversial topic in football and sports in general. Over time, the argument has evolved from “who is the better player” to “who is the greatest of all time”, also known as GOAT (greatest of all time).
Ronaldo and Messi – who is better? (Photo: Internet).
Everyone has their own opinions and preferences, but many sports experts agree that Ronaldo is a better player than Messi, and there are many undeniable reasons to prove this statement. Before getting into specifics, let’s look back at some of the careers of these two geniuses, because they also contain many factors that led to today’s results.
Summary of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career
His full name is Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, commonly known by the nickname CR7, a Portuguese born on February 5, 1985.
Ronaldo started playing football at Sporting Lisbon Club (Photo: Internet).
Ronaldo officially started his football career at Sporting Lisbon Club (Portugal), going through the U15, U17 and U19 teams. His impressive performance for Sporting Lisbon – especially in the 3: 1 win against the famous Manchester United before entering the new season – made Manchester United decide to recruit him in August 2003. with a transfer fee of 19 million euros.
At Manchester United, Ronaldo established himself as one of the best players in the world by winning 3 Premier League championships, 1 Champions League Cup, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cup championships, and many other titles. another. In the MU shirt, the young man at that time impressed fans around the world with his comprehensive playing style, stable ball handling skills, good dribbling ability, and consistent scoring and assisting. regular.
Impressive performance has brought Ronaldo many individual titles, the pinnacle of glory being the 2008 Golden Ball, an award that cemented his number one position in football. Since then, Ronaldo has never slowed down and has flourished, setting a world record for transfer value when joining Real Madrid in 2009 and continuing to establish himself as one of the greatest players in history. world football history.
Ronaldo has won 5 Golden Balls to date (Photo: Internet).
CR7 then moved to Juventus and has now returned to Manchester United. He is also the captain of the Portuguese national team and has won two international titles, Euro and Nations League.
Summary of Lionel Messi’s career
His full name is Lionel Andres Messi, born on June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina.
Messi’s career is closely associated with Barcelona Club (Photo: Internet).
Lionel Messi began his football career in 1994 at Newell Old boys before moving to Barcelona’s training academy in 2000, at the age of 13. His natural football talent helped him be promoted to the top teams. the club’s youth team, and after only 3 years was debuted in a friendly match against FC Porto on November 16, 2003 at the age of 16.
But Messi’s first official match was nearly a year later, the away derby against Espanyol Club on October 16, 2004. Since then, Messi has increasingly improved for Barcelona, scoring his first goal in 2005 and gradually establishing himself as one of the greatest football players, winning 6 Golden Balls and 10 La Liga championships. Liga, 4 Champions League cups, and many other titles.
5 reasons that prove Ronaldo is better than Messi
Of course, it is not easy to conclude who is better, because both Ronaldo and Messi have dominated the pinnacle of world football for more than a decade, winning almost every desirable title, and so on. So both of them deserve to be honored, not compared to each other. However, for loyal fans, the debate about who is the real GOAT is inevitable. So why do many people think Ronaldo is better than Messi?
1. Ronaldo is a more comprehensive player
Messi is a genius, his strengths are his skillful left foot, his ability to dribble like “magic” and play with the ball naturally. But actually Messi also has some huge weaknesses such as his ability to head the ball or his body shape when in a tense dispute with the opponent.
Clearly Messi is not as good at heading the ball as Ronaldo (Photo: Internet).
On the contrary, Ronaldo has almost no weaknesses: he can use both feet skillfully, can score with his head and has excellent physical strength. His ability to jump high and hit the ball perfectly has even earned him nicknames like CR7 Airways. And if we follow young Ronaldo from his early days at Sporting Lisbon, MU and Real Madrid, we will see that he is very good at dribbling and creating.
Another characteristic that proves Ronaldo’s comprehensive football ability is that he can threaten the opponent’s goal in every minute of the match: statistics show that Ronaldo is the first player in football history to score a goal. at every minute of the 90 minutes of official competition.
In addition, Ronaldo has 57 hat tricks in his career, an amazing number even though Messi is only 2 hat tricks behind. But the special thing is that CR7 scored 9 “perfect hat tricks”, that is, 3 goals scored with both left foot, right foot and head in one match. Meanwhile, Messi has never scored such a perfect hat trick.
2. Ronaldo scores more goals
Up to now, CR7 has 798 goals in his career compared to Messi’s 755 goals. Ronaldo is also the person who scores the most goals in the Champions League and is the player who scores the most goals for the national team: 103 goals compared to Messi’s 70 goals.
Ronaldo can score goals anytime, anywhere (Photo: Internet).
3. Ronaldo often shines at important moments
A great player is someone who can overcome pressure and shine at important moments to lift the team. Ronaldo is a typical example of that. He has “carried the team” many times in big arenas, even helping the team come back successfully from a position of being behind. Meanwhile, Messi sometimes “disappears” in important matches.
4. Ronaldo has won more at a high level
Ronaldo not only possesses the ability to play football more comprehensively and score more goals, but also proves his position in the top 3 world tournaments he has been to (England, Spain and Italy), as well as like winning the highest continental tournament for clubs and national teams. It can be said that wherever Ronaldo has gone, he has left an indelible mark.
Ronaldo and the Portuguese team won the Euro 2016 championship (Photo: Internet).
Messi can boast of a greater number of titles won with Barcelona, but he has failed to replicate the same form if he leaves the club, especially with the Argentina national team as a starter. captain role but has experienced 4 defeats in finals including FIFA World Cup and Copa America. In 2021, the Argentina team won the Copa America, but Messi’s performance was not very impressive.
On the contrary, Ronaldo has never lost his top form at Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and now returns to MU, and is also the captain of the national team that won the Euro 2016 championship – this was Portugal’s first major international title.
5. Ronaldo is better in fixed situations
Fixed situations are very important, sometimes they can be the key to winning or losing a match, including penalty kicks, direct free kicks and corner kicks.
Ronaldo is a master of set pieces. This is proven by the statistics up to this point: CR7 has scored 141 penalties (out of 169 total attempts) compared to Messi’s 101 goals (out of 130 total attempts). Thus, Messi’s penalty kick success rate is 77.7% compared to Ronaldo’s 83.4%. Ronaldo’s stable performance when standing in front of the penalty spot has caused opponents’ fans to call him “Penaldo”.
Ronaldo’s penalty kick success rate is higher than Messi’s (Photo: Internet).
Regarding direct free kicks, Ronaldo currently has 56 successful shots compared to Messi’s 58. But if you look closely, in recent years Ronaldo has been given free kicks less often than before, while Messi is almost always the first choice when the home team gets a free kick.
Finally, there are corners. Although Ronaldo hardly takes these free kicks, he is still a huge threat in front of the opponent’s goal thanks to his incredible jumping ability and powerful, accurate headers. , factors that helped him score many goals when his teammates took corner kicks.
Above is an analysis of 5 reasons that prove Ronaldo is a better player than Messi. Do you agree with this comment? Please leave your comments below in the comments section!
