Lionel Messi holds a record that Cristiano Ronaldo may never break: most goals for a single club. We examine Messi’s incredible achievement at Barcelona and why it’s likely to remain unmatched.
If there is something that the world of soccer constantly talks about, it is the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, born from what both stars showed and show on the field. While the statistics are even, there is a historical record that the Argentine holds and that, probably, the Portuguese will never be able to overcome: being the top scorer in the history of the same club.
It is clear that Lionel Messi’s best moment has already passed, and although today they dazzle with their appearances in Inter Miami, during his time in Barcelona he reached most of his achievements, such as the one mentioned above. In total, the Rosario native reached 672 goals and left behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who in Real Madrid reached his best mark: 450 goals.
However, there is another striking fact to consider regarding this achievement of Messi, and that is that the second place in this ranking is not occupied by CR7 but by Pelé, the Brazilian star who scored on 643 occasions with the Santos jersey. For his part, the Portuguese was in seventh position below other figures.
In any case, Ronaldo fans can rest easy, because although he has been far from that record of Messi, he still surpasses him in the number of official goals, with 931, 75 more than the captain of the Argentine National Team.
The complete Top 10 of top scorers is composed as follows
- Lionel Messi – 644 goals with Barcelona
- Pelé – 643 goals with Santos
- Gerd Müller – 573 goals with Bayern Munich
- Josef Bican – 534 goals with Slavia Prague
- Uwe Seeler – 490 goals with Hamburg
- Eusébio – 473 goals with Benfica
- Cristiano Ronaldo – 450 goals with Real Madrid
- Ian Rush – 349 goals with Liverpool
- Telmo Zarra – 335 goals with Athletic de Bilbao
- Raúl González – 323 goals with Real Madrid
A record that may stand the test of time
With this panorama, Cristiano Ronaldo has an advantage of 75 goals, but Messi has played 175 fewer games. During their periods in the Old Continent, both number 7 and number 10 have played a fairly similar average number of games per season, between 50 and 60. However, the captain of the Portuguese national team has had two more years of career. And, although it would seem that his retirement is not around the corner, Leo could take advantage of a few more years.
