Who has more goals Messi or Ronaldo? Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the best footballers of all time, arguably the very best of them all. And remarkably, their careers have largely coincided, with both players dominating the game for well over a decade now. But who is the best? We compare them both in a number of different categories and let you decide the overall winner. Who scores more goals What really made this rivalry catch fire was their incredible, unprecedented goalscoring rates, with both Messi and Ronaldo averaging more than one goal every game at their peaks. During the 9 years Ronaldo spent at Real Madrid, Messi and Ronaldo both scored a goal every 85 minutes in all competitions. The adjacency of their goalscoring – matching each other blow for blow – has been astounding over the years. Over their entire careers, it’s Messi who edges the ratio, with 0.79 goals per game, whereas Ronaldo has scored 0.72 goals per game. If we drill down into goals per minutes, Messi scores a goal every 104 minutes, and Ronaldo scores a goal every 113 minutes. Ronaldo still has more all time career goals than Messi though (Ronaldo has 850 career goals and Messi has 818 career goals), but Ronaldo has played 140 more games over his career than Messi has. Although Messi shades the overall ratio, Ronaldo spent more of his formative years as a more traditional right winger, only really starting to focus on goalscoring as his primary function in 2006, 3-4 years into his career. For Messi, it was 2-3 years until he completed the transformation from a nippy winger into a player hungry for goals above everything else. If we take these differing beginnings into account, the ratios would be even closer. Of all the categories, goalscoring is the hardest to separate them on. Who provides more assists When it comes to assists, there’s only one winner. Lionel Messi’s playmaking abilities are right up there with the very best, and he has the numbers to prove it. Messi has racked up an impressive 361 assists in 1039 career appearances, compared to Ronaldo’s 241 assists in 1179 games. However, because Messi has a clear ascendancy when it comes to assists, this often leads people to fall into the trap of underestimating Ronaldo’s proficiency in this area. Ronaldo’s assist numbers are still extremely impressive compared to the other mere mortals that play the beautiful game. In fact, Ronaldo has more in the Champions League, with 41 assists to Messi’s 40 assists – granted Ronaldo has played 20 more matches than Messi, but this is still an impressive tally. With that said, you can’t ignore Messi’s overall assist stats Who’s the best at passing The passing stats point to a clear winner in this category; Lionel Messi. But again, Ronaldo’s passing abilities are often underestimated. In the league and Champions League since 2009/10, Messi has made 1392 key passes in 599 appearances, whilst Ronaldo has made 924 key passes in 561 appearances. Messi also dominates the throughball statistics, making 450 successful throughballs in that same time period, compared to Ronaldo’s 81 successful throughballs. Although Messi’s passing numbers are clearly superior, Ronaldo’s are still impressive. It’s also likely that his passing stats would have been significantly higher before 2009 when he was more involved in the creative build-up play. Who’s the best at dribbling Ronaldo started his career as a tricky winger, when his game was all about running at and beating defenders with his pace and skill. As he has transitioned to an inside-forward / striker role over the years, dribbling has naturally become significantly less of a factor in Ronaldo’s performances. Messi also started his footballing career stuck to the by-line, eventually moving to a more central role as his primary position for most of his career. However, Messi plays a very different game to a traditional centre-forward, with his natural Number 10 abilities making him the perfect False 9. As a result Messi comes much deeper, towards the play, rather than making runs and playing off the shoulder of the defenders. Because he often comes deep to receive the ball, dribbling is still a major part of Messi’s game, completing an incredible 3194 dribbles in the league and Champions League, compared to Ronaldo’s 1680 successful dribbles (since 2003/04). There is therefore little doubt that Lionel Messi is the best when it comes to dribbling.