SOCCER
How Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo compare in 2023/24 season so far
Since leaving European football in different directions for potentially their final challenge in the game, these debated GOATs continue to shine.
They say, incorrectly, that elephants go to a specific location to spend their final days, before their eventful lives of power and grandeur come to an end. Well, despite it being a disproved belief, it feels rather appropriate when considering the recent decisions of two dominant forces of The Beautiful Game over the last decade and more, namely Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Cristiano and Messi phenomenon
Over the years, the global audience bore witness to the intense sporting rivalry personified by these two, most notably in LaLiga for Real Madrid and Barcelona. They achieved every conceivable aspiration at club level, propelling their respective teams to triumph, and notably steering their national squads towards significant crowns.
Moreover, their combined collection of individual accolades stands as a testament to their unparalleled dominance in the world’s most renowned sport over an extensive period. One illustration of this phenomenon is evidenced by the Ballon d’Or awards, of which Messi has secured a record seven, with Cristiano boasting five.
Ronaldo to SPL, Messi to MLS
It was the Portuguese star who we will look back on as getting the ‘movement’ going. His choice to leave Manchester United (the Premier League club hardly fighting to keep him, to be honest) and join Saudi outfit Al-Nassr in January was the first coup for the ambitious new entity in the global game. This summer saw a flurry of eye-watering deals being made to attract more household names to the Arab nation.
One of the few players who can match the stardom of Cristiano is Argentina’s number 10, and he too was rumoured to have an opportunity to reignite the intense rivalry the two had in Spain in an even hotter climate. Instead, though, Messi chose to cross the Atlantic, swapping Paris for Miami, but with no less a lucrative package on the table.
How Ronaldo and Messi have performed in 2023 season?
Despite there being clear interest in comparing these two legends in their twilight adventure, obvious caveats are required at this early stage. Firstly, the two leagues are not the same with various measurement tools unable to give a satisfactory rating of the Saudi Pro League and Major League Soccer, at least not for the moment. Then there is the fact that Messi has only featured in two MLS games at the time of writing, his remaining fixtures coming in two cup competitions.
But let’s still proceed with our comparison objective despite it being close to pointless.
Since leaving the game in the Old Continent, the iconic ‘10′ and ‘7′ continue to amaze their local fans and those from much further afield. In their new teams at the start of the 2023-24 season, they are already proving to be the definitive leaders of each project in Saudi Arabia and the United States, although reinforcements have followed them both.
Ronaldo and Messi on a par
As it stands at the beginning of the current campaign both have played 10 games in all the competitions in which their teams have participated, and they have both, incredibly, scored the same number of goals (11) and provided the same number of assists (3). These 14 contributions each have helped their respective teams to a title too; The Herons winning the Leagues Cup and the team from Riyadh lifting the Arab Club Championship.
Without a doubt, the hunger to achieve great goals is still alive for the two legends, with the Argentine’s mission to get the Miami franchise into the 2023 MLS Playoffs (what a feat that would be given the basement position they occupied when he arrived) and win the US Open Cup (they’re in the final). The Portuguese’s goal has to be to obtain everything that Al-Nassr aspires to, including the Saudi Pro League, AFC Champions League and the King’s Cup of Champions.
It’s maybe unfair to consider the MLS and Saudi Pro League as elephants’ graveyards... BUT given the heights that were reached by Messi and Ronaldo in Europe, and the financial rewards offered for their signatures, they may be the perfect resting places for GOATs.