Although it has been years since they played for FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, two of the best players to ever play the beautiful game of football, are still captivating the fans. Reminiscing about their legendary rivalry in La Liga will always be some of the best football and sports competitions ever. Looking back, it still seems unreal that the two forwards managed to do what they did and every once in a while, for the fans of sports, football, and betting, it makes sense to look back and remind ourselves what we had the pleasure of watching every week.
In this article, we do exactly that, all in an effort to help us with our current La Liga betting because if there is one certainty, it is that Barca and Real will always be the biggest rivalry in the game and the league title will always revolve around the El Clasico. The biggest stars want to play in Spain and what better teams to follow than the two most dominant ones in recent memory? At the moment, they are battling for the 2024/25 title and despite a strong start for the Catalans, the Madridistas are currently in front with a lot more football to be played.
Rivalry Stats in La Liga
Messi did play longer in Spain, with several seasons both before Ronaldo’s arrival and after his departure. Therefore, only the years between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons are counted towards their Spanish Primera rivalry. In those years, the Argentine played 309 games (26,028 minutes) while the Portuguese played 292 games (25,103 minutes). Messi scored more goals, 329, than Ronaldo’s 311, but it was Cristiano with a slight goal-per-game advantage of 1.07 over 1.06. Messi, on the other hand, leads in minutes per goal with 79.1 over 80.7. The similarity between these stats is staggering, to say the least. What is not so close is the assists tally since Messi assisted his teammates 122 times while Ronaldo only did it 87 times.
When it comes to the manner of scoring, the notion that Ronaldo loves the penalties more and that Messi misses more of them is not. Cristiano shot 72 penalties and scored 61, while Leo shot from the spot 51 times and found the net 41 times. Messi though scored more free kicks with 24, as opposed to his greatest rival’s 20. It makes sense that the Argentine star scored more with his left, 267 to 54 and that the Portuguese scored more with his right, 204 to 49. It also makes sense that Ronaldo has more headers with 52 over the much shorter and less bouncier Messi with 13. Ronaldo had 35 hat tricks in this span while Messi had 29.
The period of this rivalry had a very interesting result in terms of La Liga titles considering how many more Barcelona won with Messi leading them over those Ronaldo won with Real. Ronaldo only won 2 La Liga titles, with a big break between them with the first in 2011/12 and the second in 2016/17. Messi won six straight from 2008/09 to 2015/16, and then the seventh in their final year together in the league, 2017/18. On the individual end, Ronaldo won fewer Ballon d’Ors with 4 to Messi’s 5, and fewer European Golden Shoes with 4 to Messi’s 5. The Pichichi trophy, i.e. the La Liga Top Scorer honors, went to Ronaldo 3 times in that span and to Messi 5 times.
Conclusion: Who Was Better?
If we only single out their La Liga rivalry, it is a microcosm of their rivalry overall really as Messi still comes out on top in team and individual awards, while Ronaldo takes the honors that deal with goals and scoring efficiency. That has been the story of their careers really since the Argentine won more but Ronaldo scored more. Elsewhere and with their careers in total, this is a running theme. But for the years in the same national league, Messi takes the win simply because of more titles and more individual honors while winning.
The La Liga Since
Since their departure, the Spanish Primera has not been the same but it is still a prime spot for the fans of sports betting on platforms like Sportsbet. New names run the league for their teams with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Lamine Yamal leading the way for Barca and Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, and Viniscius Jr. for Madrid. The two offensive trios are reminiscent of the MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) and BBC (Benzema, Bale, Ronaldo) days, but they have to work a lot more to make us truly appreciate them in the same light. Real is in front right now, leading the league with 49 points while Barca is third with 42. The top three scorers are Lewandowski (17), Mbappe (15), and Raphinha (12). Since both left, Real has won the league title three times (2019/20, 2021/22, 2023/24) while Barca twice (2018/2019, 2022/23).