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Graph suggests Lionel Messi is miles better than Cristiano Ronaldo

Sudarshan Venkatesan
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A graph suggests Lionel Messi is a miles away from other players in the world, even Cristiano Ronaldo does not come close. 

Lionel Messi is perhaps the best player to have ever played the game, but the stat suggests that he is ridiculously good than any other player in the world right now. His rival Cristiano Ronaldo does not come closer to him which proves that the Argentine is totally out of this world.

A graph was doing rounds in the social media and it showcases the best goalscorers and attackers over the last five seasons. Lionel Messi when are brought into the picture, Luis Suarez second and Cristiano Ronaldo next in the line.

He heads the list in non-penalty goals and expected assists over the last five years by a huge margin.

The above graph from understat.com suggests how good Messi is decisive with his creativity and goalscoring.

Fans were unhappy when Lionel Messi was announced as the fifth best player in the world after leading the goalscoring chart in the La Liga and Europe’s top five leagues. It is no doubt that Argentina’s world cup campaign was a failure, but the forward helped his side to enter the knockouts when they were on the verge of elimination in the group stages.

Luka Modric was crowned with the Ballon d’Or, but it is farcical to not see Lionel Messi in the top three despite winning the European golden shoe by outscoring Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah last campaign.

He turned 31 last June, but he gets better as a wine. The Argentine International has scored 33 goals in all competitions so far and is leading the way for European golden boot by a huge margin. Kylian Mbappe is second in the list with 24 goals in the French top division followed by Cristiano Ronaldo with 19 goals in the Serie A.

Barcelona’s number 10 featured against Real Madrid twice last week. Even though he failed to contribute towards the final third of the game, his defense-splitting runs to help out the full backs and forwards played a major role in the Blaugrana’s goals.

His rival Cristiano Ronaldo has done enormously well to equalize Lionel Messi in Ballon d’Or by winning it three times in last four years. Besides, he was able to lift the Champions League thrice in the last three years which made him a favourite.

But, Lionel Messi is a superior individual with proven consistency over the last five years according to that statistic.

Even though Pele might have doubted the abilities of Messi by taking an aimless dig, Cristiano Ronaldo’s teammate Wayne Rooney feels that Lionel Messi is the best player between these two.

“In both games [finals], if we had been against any other team but Barcelona you would have fancied us to win.

“In my eyes they are the best team ever and Messi is the best player ever. What he gets to do is incredible. Messi has just got a bit of everything.”

“Ronaldo has gone from a winger to a striker and a goalscorer. Rather than taking players on all the time, he has gone more one or two touch, getting in the box and scoring goals.

“Messi a bit of everything – you see him scoring goals from playing probably a deep midfield role at times, and where I’m probably still walking on the pitch he’s scoring. So he is probably the best.” said Rooney.


He has earned several acclaims from various pundits, players, and coaches for his remarkable career with his club and country. If he continues to pile up his numbers in the same for the remainder of the season, there is no doubt that Messi would beat Cristiano Ronaldo to lift the Ballon d’Or.

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