Both have been at the top of their game for quite some time
The duo will rekindle their 2-decade long rivalry when Juventus host Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Lionel Messi has scored only five fewer goals than Cristiano Ronaldo at the club level despite playing 117 fewer games than the Portuguese.
Messi, 33, has spent his entire senior career at Barcelona and has managed 636 goals for in only 737 appearances for the Catalan giants. His Portuguese counterpart has represented four different sides at the senior level and has scored 641 goals in 854 club games.
The Barcelona superstar consequently manages a better goal/game ratio (0.86) than Ronaldo (0.75) who left Real Madrid to join Juventus in the summer of 2019. Messi has also won more trophies at the club level (34) than the former Manchester United winger (28).
Given the fact that Messi (33) is two years younger than Ronaldo (35), the abovementioned gap could further widen between the two players before either/both of them decide to bid farewell to their trophy-laden football career.
Ronaldo has represented the senior Portugal side 167 times in his career and has scored 101 goals for the South European side. He therefore manages a goal/game ratio of 0.6 and has also helped his nation win 2 trophies at the national level.
Messi’s form at the international level is phenomenal as well. The 33-year-old has scored 71 goals in 140 appearances for his country and thus manages a more-than-respectable goals/game ratio of 0.51 goals per game.
But the Argentina superstar hasn’t had the same impact on his nation’s football team’s fortunes as that of Ronaldo – with Argentina yet to win a single trophy with Messi in their side after he led them to Olympic Gold in 2008.
With both the player’s locking horns in La Liga for almost a decade, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they have faced each other 35 times in their career.
Messi has had the last laugh in 16 out of those 35 games, with the Argentina superstar seeing his side draw 9 and lose 10 of those games.
Similar is the case when it comes to individual records. Messi has won six Ballon D’Or trophies in his star-studded career to Ronaldo’s five.
All these stats won’t matter much one both the superstars will come face to face in their sides’ 2nd game of the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League on Wednesday.
Both Barcelona and Juventus won their opening games in the competition and will be looking to defeat the other side to cement their grip on the top spot in Group G.
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