Comparing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s club records in the last five years

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two of the greatest footballers of all time – but how have they compared in the last five years?

By the start of the 2017-18 season, Ronaldo and Messi had already scored over a thousand goals between them. The duo had also won nine Ballon d’Ors, 13 league titles and eight Champions Leagues.

Ronaldo was 32 years old at this point and Messi had just turned 30 but they’ve both continued to break records and win trophies well into the autumn of their respective careers.

Messi managed to keep Barcelona on track following the departures of Neymar and manager Luis Enrique in 2017. His brilliant performances helped the club win back-to-back La Liga title in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

His final two seasons at Camp Nou weren’t particularly successful due to the club’s financial mismanagement. But Messi continued to shine, becoming the first player to score 20 goals and register 20 assists in a La Liga season.

The Argentina international then joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in 2021 and had a mixed debut season but still ended up with the Ligue 1 title.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in 2017-18 before ending his nine-year stay at the club and joining Juventus in a £99.2million deal.

The Portugal international won two Serie A titles and scored over 100 goals during his three years in Turin before deciding to return to Manchester United in 2021.

United had a difficult and turbulent season in 2021-22, but he proved that he’s still a prolific goalscorer and was their standout performer.

After using stats from the transfermarkt website, we’ve compared their overall records in club football since the start of the 2017-18 season to see who comes out on top.

 

Lionel Messi

Games: 228

Starts: 209

Substitute Appearances: 19

Goals: 174

Assists: 97

Penalties scored (success rate): 22 (73.3%)

Free kicks scored: 23

Minutes per goal: 110.7

Minutes per non-penalty goal: 126.8

Minutes per goal or assist: 71.1

 

Trophies Won: 2 x La Liga (2017-18 and 2018-19), 2 x Copa del Rey (2017-18 and 2020-21), 1 x Supercopa de Espana (2018-19), 1 x Ligue 1 (2021-22), 1 x Trophee des Champions (2022-23)

Individual Awards: 2 x Ballon d’Or (2019 and 2021), 1 x The Best FIFA Men's Player (2019), 2 x European Golden Shoe (2017-18 and 2018-19), 4 x Pichichi Trophy [La Liga top scorer] (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21)

 

Cristiano Ronaldo

Games: 215

Starts: 201

Substitute Appearances: 14

Goals: 169

Assists: 33

Penalties scored (success rate): 39 (84.7%)

Free kicks scored: 3

Minutes per goal: 108.2 

Minutes per non-penalty goal: 140.6

Minutes per goal or assist: 90.5

Trophies Won: 1 x Champions League (2017-18), 1 x UEFA Super Cup (2017-18), 1 x FIFA Club World Cup, 1 x Supercopa de Espana (2017-18), 2 x Serie A (2018-19 and 2019-20), 1 x Coppa Italia (2020-21), 2 x Supercoppa Italiana (2018-19 and 2020-21)

Individual Awards: 1 x Ballon d’Or (2017), 1 x The Best FIFA Men's Player (2017), 2 x Serie A Footballer of the Year (2018-19 and 2019-20), 1 x Capocannoniere [Serie A top scorer] (2020-21)

 

As the stats show, Messi has scored more goals since the start of 2017-18 but Ronaldo has the better minutes per goal record due to their number of appearances.

But 23.07% of Ronaldo’s 169 goals came from the penalty spot and 87.35% of Messi’s 174 goals were non-penalty goals.

The Argentina international has also established himself as one of football’s best free-kick takers, a title that Ronaldo has lost in recent years.

While the Portugal international has now developed into a penalty-box poacher, Messi still drops deep to showcase his impressing passive range and has a much better assists record.