Messi vs Ronaldo stats: goals, assists and trophies compared

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 979 career goals to Lionel Messi’s 932, and Messi has 426 assists to Ronaldo’s 261. Both still play club football, Messi’s Argentina career ended on 6 October, and after more than twenty years most of the comparison is now settled.

Every figure in the tables below is current to 8 October 2026, before Al Nassr’s league game against Diriyah on 9 October and Inter Miami’s against D.C. United on 10 October. The club and international tables add up to the career totals, column by column.

What changed in September and October

Messi has played his last game for Argentina. He announced his international retirement on 31 August, and the farewell came against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires on 6 October. Argentina won 3-0. He set up the first two goals and scored the third from the penalty spot, which closed his Argentina record at 126 goals in 208 matches, both national records. We wrote up the night and the career behind it, and all 126 of his Argentina goals are listed here.

Ronaldo’s Portugal future is unsettled. He started the Nations League opener against Wales on 24 September, his 234th cap, then sat on the bench for all of the 2-1 win in Oslo three days later. On 30 September he left the squad’s training camp in Copenhagen. In a statement on 6 October he apologised, asked the Portuguese Football Federation to punish him, and said he would be available again once any suspension had been served. The length of any ban had not been set when we updated this page, and his international numbers stand at 146 goals in 234 caps.

Both kept scoring for their clubs. Ronaldo’s three for Al Nassr since early August, against Al Riyadh, Al Taawoun and Abha, took him to 979, and every one of those goals is broken down by club and country here. Messi added ten for Inter Miami over the same stretch, the latest a free kick against Columbus on 27 September. Ronaldo’s lead on goals is 47.

Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi: the career numbers

All competitions	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Appearances	1,178	1,338
Goals	932	979
Assists	426	261
Goals per game	0.79	0.73

Read those four rows together and the shape of the argument appears. Ronaldo is 47 goals ahead, and he has played 160 more matches to get there. On goals per game Messi leads, 0.79 to 0.73.

The bigger gap is the one nobody quotes. Messi has 165 more assists, a wider margin than the goals difference and pointing the other way. Add goals and assists together and Messi has had a direct hand in 1,358 goals to Ronaldo’s 1,240. Ronaldo has scored more; Messi has been involved in more.

Club and international, split out

The career totals are the sum of these two tables. Messi’s international column is now final, and for the moment Ronaldo’s is frozen too.

Club football	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Appearances	970	1,104
Goals	806	833
Assists	359	224

International football	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Appearances	208	234
Goals	126	146
Assists	67	37

Ronaldo’s 146 international goals and 234 caps are both all-time records in men’s football. Messi’s 126 goals and 208 caps are Argentina’s records. Note where Ronaldo’s overall lead actually comes from: he is 27 goals clear at club level and 20 clear internationally, so 20 of his 47-goal advantage was built in a Portugal shirt.

Ballon d’Or and the individual awards

The rivalry has a start date. Both were nominated for the 2007 Ballon d’Or, and neither won it. Kaka did, with Ronaldo second and Messi third. They then won the next ten between them.

Award	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Ballon d’Or	8	5
European Golden Shoe	6	4
The Best FIFA Men’s Player	3	2

Messi’s are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023; Ronaldo’s are 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. The eighth, in October 2023, came on the back of the World Cup, and nobody else in the award’s history has more than five.

Goals by competition

Two of these three are now closed books. Neither has played in the Champions League since 2023, and neither has played in La Liga since 2021.

Competition	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
La Liga	474 goals in 520 games	311 goals in 292 games
Champions League	129 goals	140 goals
World Cup	21 goals in 34 games	11 goals in 27 games

Messi’s 474 is the La Liga record, and his 672 in all competitions for Barcelona are the most any player has scored for one club. Ronaldo’s 311 in 292 for Real Madrid is the better rate, and his 140 is the Champions League record. Messi is second on that list with 129.

The World Cup row is the one that moved most recently, and it moved a long way.

What the 2026 World Cup changed

Both played a sixth World Cup in North America. Neither got the ending he wanted, but the numbers moved sharply.

Messi finished on 21 World Cup goals in 34 matches, eight of them in 2026, the year he turned 39. He passed Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 during the group stage and held it for less than a month: Kylian Mbappé finished the same tournament on 22. Argentina reached the final as holders and lost 1-0 to Spain after extra time.

Ronaldo became the first player to score at six different World Cups with two against Uzbekistan in Houston, then added a penalty against Croatia in the round of 32 to finish on 11. Portugal went out in the last 16 to Spain, the eventual champions, beaten by a stoppage-time Mikel Merino goal. He had said before kick-off that it would be his last World Cup, so there was no ambiguity about it: six tournaments, no final, and his deepest run remains the semi-final he reached as a 21-year-old in 2006.

Trophies

This is the half of the comparison that has never been close.

Honour	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo
Total career trophies	47	33-37
World Cup	1 (2022)	0
Champions League	4	5
League titles	13	8

Ronaldo’s trophy total is published anywhere between 33 and 37 depending on which competitions a compilation counts. The full explanation, and Messi’s 47 broken down trophy by trophy, is on our most trophies won by a player page.

The Champions League row is the one that goes Ronaldo’s way, 5-4, and his eight league titles span four countries on two continents after Al Nassr won the 2025-26 Saudi Pro League. For the argument itself rather than the numbers, see who is the GOAT of football.

Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi stats: quick answers

Who has scored more goals, Messi or Ronaldo?
Ronaldo, with 979 to Messi’s 932. He has played 160 more matches, which is why Messi leads on goals per game.

Who has more assists?
Messi, 426 to 261. It is the widest gap between them on any headline statistic.

Who has more Ballon d’Or awards?
Messi, with eight to Ronaldo’s five.

Who has scored more international goals?
Ronaldo, with 146 in 234 caps, both all-time records in the men’s game. Messi finished on 126 in 208 when he retired from international football.

Has Ronaldo retired from Portugal?
No. He left the squad’s training camp on 30 September 2026, and on 6 October he said he would be available again once any suspension had been served.

Who has more World Cup goals?
Messi, with 21 in 34 matches to Ronaldo’s 11 in 27. Only Kylian Mbappé, on 22, has scored more at the tournament.

Who has won more trophies?
Messi, with 47 against a published range of 33 to 37 for Ronaldo.

For how the main football betting sites compare, see our football betting sites guide.

Featured photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP