Lionel Messi surpasses Ronaldo as Europe's highest-ever scorer

420 is the magic number for Lionel Messi this past weekend as his 420th career goal in LaLiga sees the Argentine wizard overtake Cristiano Ronaldo as the highest scorer in Europe’s top five leagues, LaLiga, Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Serie A. Messi’s stunning freekick against Sevilla on Sunday means that Messi is one goal ahead of his free-scoring compatriot Ronaldo. What’s even more striking is that Messi has reached his tally of 420 in just 455 games for Barcelona. Ronaldo’s tally of 419, on the other hand, has spanned across 525 games during his spells with Manchester United, Real Madrid and most recently in Juventus. Juventus forked out a reported €100 million on Ronaldo’s signature in the summer of 2018, with the Portuguese instantly justifying the price tag during the Old Lady’s Champions League encounters against Atletico Madrid and Ajax in 2018-19. Interestingly, Ronaldo also became the first player in history to win 100 Champions League matches in his debut season in Turin during Juventus’ win over Valencia. A victory that secured Juventus’ passage to the knock-out stages that season.

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While Messi may be leading the goalscoring charts at the moment, that does not mean that Ronaldo is unlikely to surpass the Barcelona mainstay. Ronaldo’s recent numbers, however, tell the opposite. Ronaldo’s returns of an average of 25 goals during his earlier seasons indicate that the Portugal captain seems to have slowed down in recent years. Ronaldo enjoyed his most prolific years during his time with Real Madrid, banging in 311 goals in 292 appearances for Los Blancos. At Juventus, however, Ronaldo has netted 24 goals in 37 appearances so far.

Too early?

It may be too early in the season to decide who ends up on top of the goalscoring charts this season. Ronaldo earlier admitted to having a healthy respect for Messi in an interview prior to the announcement of UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, in which he stated that he and Messi have a good relationship. Football is definitely in for another exciting goalscoring season with Messi’s return to fitness, as evidenced by his freekick against Sevilla. Ronaldo, meanwhile, had a goal chalked off for offside during Juventus’ win over Inter Milan on Monday. The win means that Juventus sit one point clear of rivals Inter Milan in Serie A. Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Sevilla, meanwhile, means that Barcelona are now 2nd in the LaLiga, trailing rivals Real Madrid by a margin of two points.

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