Messi vs Ronaldo: A goalscoring comparison

Many people have compared Messi and Ronaldo on a goalscoring basis, and some even just restrict the debate to that section, which is a massive injustice to Messi. Ronaldo's position has been more of a fox-in-the-box position since he joined Real Madrid, while Messi has consistently been a winger/attacking midfielder. But even then, I will show proof in this entry that Messi is the better goalscorer than Ronaldo. So without further ado, let's look at the numbers.

Messi has scored 729 goals, while Ronaldo has scored 767. But this is misleading since Ronaldo has played 145 more games, or 11522 minutes specifically. Their goal ratios per game are 0.806 to 0.73, or 0.888 to 0.81 when taking their per 90 ratios. And without penalties, the total goal tally is 633 to 631 for Ronaldo, or a 0.697 to 0.6 ratio per game. Quite a difference between the two. In the league, Ronaldo wins 470 to 463 goals, but the ratio is 0.91 to 0.78 in favor of Messi. And in the Champions League, although Ronaldo wins 135 to 119, Messi wins ratio-wise with a 0.8 to 0.75 per game.

Another important thing to note is Golden Boots since Messi wins 6 to Ronaldo's 4 and Ronaldo hasn't won the award since the 2014/15 season. And although Ronaldo beats Messi in UCL top-scorer awards, his 2 offside goals in the 2016/17 season won him the award ahead of Messi (12 to 11). If it wasn't for those goals, Messi would have won it and it would be 7-6 for Messi overall.

Then there's other records/milesones like Messi having the record for most goals in a calendar year (91 to 69), most goals in a season (73 to 61), 3 seasons reaching 50+ non-penalty goals (Ronaldo has never achieved that), Messi being the youngest of the two to reach 100 goals all the way to 700, etc.

Against top sides, Messi has more goals against the top 3, top 4, top 5 and top 6 despite playing less games against all of those top sides. And against England's top 6, Messi has 2 fewer goals with 47 fewer games. And in finals, Messi has a ratio of 0.69 goals per final, while Ronaldo has a ratio of 0.59. And in head-to-head games, he has 22 goals to Ronaldo's 21.

And finally, when looking at their shooting % Messi wins overall 18.9% to 15.3%, or 5.28 to 6.54 shots taken per goal. Outside the box, the % is 8.79% to 4.63% (11.38 to 21.58 SPG), a massive difference, and inside the box it's to 27.14% 23.36% (3.68 to 4.28 SPG), again, quite a difference.

Overall, it can be seen that it's in fact Messi who is the better goalscorer of the two. I hoped you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.