In recent years, by most objective measures, Messi appears to have surpassed Ronaldo as the greatest modern-day footballer.

Messi has a World Cup winner’s medal that Ronaldo has never won. Messi has eight Ballons d’Or to Ronaldo’s five. Messi has 12 of Europe’s top domestic titles (10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and two Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain). Ronaldo has seven, spanning spells in England with Manchester United, Spain with Real Madrid and Italy with Juventus. Each player has won their continent’s most prestigious international tournament once, with Ronaldo winning Euro 2016 with Portugal and Messi winning the 2021 Copa America with Argentina.

However, Messi doesn’t lead in every stat. Ronaldo has one more Champions League title than Messi (5 to 4). Ronaldo has more club goals (765) than Messi (729). However, Messi’s diehard fans will point out that the Argentine superstar has more club assists (354) than Ronaldo (238).

Regardless of who you favor, Messi and Ronaldo are the dominant duo in modern football. Ronaldo is synonymous with Real Madrid, Messi with Barcelona. Ronaldo represents Nike, Messi with Adidas. This became the subject of a book by two Wall Street Journal journalists titled Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game. The website MessivsRonaldo is where you can delve into their competitive records and find the stats that best fit your story.

But there is one man in between the two: Ali Daei, who scored 108 goals for Iran between 1993 and 2006. That put him joint second with Messi on the all-time list of men’s national team goalscorers. Ronaldo currently tops the list with 130. Daei’s club career was less impressive, scoring 134 goals in 13 years and barely making an impact at the highest level of European football.

After scoring Argentina’s second goal against Canada in a 2-0 Copa America semi-final win this morning (July 10), securing a place in the Copa America final for the second year in a row, Messi has 109 goals for the national team and moved up to second place in the all-time international scoring list behind Ronaldo.

Messi has scored 109 goals for the national team, 21 goals less than Ronaldo – Photo: Getty Images

For comparison, King of Football Pele scored 77 goals in 92 appearances for the Brazilian national team, Diego Maradona had 34 goals in 91 appearances for the Argentine national team.

Only six other players have surpassed 80 international goals, including Poland’s Robert Lewandowski (83), Hungary’s Ferenc Puskas (84), Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku (85), followed by UAE’s Ali Mabkhout (85), Malaysia’s Mokhtar Dahari (89) and India’s Sunil Chhetri (94). The last three have benefited from playing for their national teams in a region where football is far below the level of Europe and South America.

As Messi moves into second place behind Ronaldo, the question is whether the 37-year-old Argentine superstar can close the 21-goal gap to the 39-year-old Portuguese striker.

Ronaldo endured a miserable summer, starting all five of Portugal’s Euro 2024 matches and exiting the tournament after losing to France in the quarterfinals, but failing to score from 23 shots. That has sparked discussion about whether Ronaldo, who turns 40 in February 2025, could call time on his international career.

Coach Roberto Martinez said after Portugal’s elimination that it was “too early” to say whether Ronaldo had played his last game for his country. CR7 has previously said: “I don’t chase records. They chase me”, implying a humility that has not always been evident in his behaviour for Portugal or his clubs in recent years. Some of CR7’s records are extraordinary: Top scorer in men’s international football; first player to appear and score at five different European Championships; first to score at five different World Cups.

“What else is there to surpass? I don’t know. I know that there are records that I hold,” Ronaldo said in June 2023.

If Ronaldo continues to play until 2026 when the World Cup will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico, Messi will have a hard time catching him in terms of goals for the national team. The reason is that CR7 will probably play in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the UEFA Nations League and the 2026 World Cup finals as well as international friendlies. To catch up with Ronaldo’s goals, Messi will have to be able to score extraordinary goals in the next 2 years, provided that the Al Nassr striker continues to fail to score.

However, if Ronaldo decides to retire from the national team after Euro 2024, Messi may have ambitions to take one of his rival’s remaining records. Messi just turned 37, two years younger than Ronaldo. Messi has 109 goals in 186 appearances for Argentina (an average of 1 goal every 1.7 games), while Ronaldo has 130 goals in 212 appearances for Portugal (an average of 1 goal every 1.63 games).

Messi has the opportunity to score 21 more goals for the national team. The 2024 Copa America final is ahead (at 7:00 a.m. on July 15, Vietnam time), against Uruguay or Colombia. Meanwhile, Argentina has 12 more matches in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America.

There are also international friendlies to consider, as well as a potential Intercontinental Super Cup match between the Euro 2024 champions and the 2024 Copa America this summer, if CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) and UEFA (European Football Union) can find suitable dates within the competition system.

After that, if they reach the 2026 World Cup final, Argentina will have played 8 matches in the tournament. Therefore, the Inter Miami striker still has a chance to reach the 130-goal mark for Argentina, assuming that he continues to play until the 2026 World Cup, after achieving his biggest dream of lifting the 2022 World Cup trophy in Qatar.

What is more important to Messi now is trying to win a second consecutive Copa America with Argentina. But in his mind, Messi may be cherishing the prospect of catching Ronaldo’s international goalscoring record so that no one can say he is not worthy of being the greatest footballer of modern times, or even of all time.