Messi vs Ronaldo All Time International Stats

Messi and Ronaldo International Stats

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have both had impressive international careers for Argentina and Portugal respectively.

Messi is Argentina's all time top goalscorer with 112 goals in 191 caps, scoring 0.59 goals per game. He's also Argentina's all time top provider with 58 assists.

Likewise, Ronaldo is Portugal's all time leading goalscorer with an incredible 135 goals in 217 caps, scoring an average of 0.62 goals per game.

If we look at minutes played, Messi scores a goal every 141.4 minutes, whilst Ronaldo scores a goal every 127.9 minutes.

Factoring in assists, Messi directly contributes to a goal every 93.2 minutes for Argentina, with Ronaldo scoring or assisting every 100.4 minutes for Portugal.

Clearly, both players have contributed to their national teams significantly and prolifically, and have done so for over 15 years.

International Trophies

Cristiano Ronaldo has reached two major international finals with Portugal, both at the European Championships. His first, way back in 2004, saw his Portugal side stunned on home soil against pre-tournament outsiders Greece, who ran out 1-0 winners.

His second major final took place in Paris 12 years later, where this time the favoured team on home soil was the opposition: France. Unfortunately for Ronaldo, he suffered an injury after just eight minutes and eventually had to be substituted in the 25th minute. More fortunately though, after a tense goalless ninety minutes, Portugal's Eder struck the winning goal in extra-time from 25 yards. Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo were European champions for the first time.

In 2019, Portugal also won the very first edition of the UEFA Nations League, a brand new competition brought in to replace stale international friendlies. Ronaldo played no part in the four group stage matches, but when Portugal qualified for the semi-final stage, he came back with a bang, scoring a hat-trick to beat Switzerland 3-1 and put Portugal in the final. There they faced the Netherlands, with Gonçalo Guedes scoring the game's only goal.

Not a Euros or a World Cup, but a 2nd international trophy for Ronaldo in 4 years nonetheless.

Ronaldo's International Finals

• ❌ Euro 2004 - 0-1 vs Greece
• 🏆 Euro 2016 - 1-0 (AET) vs France
• 🏆 UEFA Nations League 2019 - 1-0 vs Netherlands

Messi's International Finals

• 🏆 U20 World Cup - 2-1 vs Nigeria
• ❌ Copa America 2007 - 0-3 vs Brazil
• 🏆 Beijing Olympics 2008 (U23) - 1-0 vs Nigeria
• ❌ World Cup 2014 - 0-1 (AET) vs Germany
• ❌ Copa America 2015 - 0-0 vs Chile (1-4 pens)
• ❌ Copa America 2016 - 0-0 vs Chile (2-4 pens)
• 🏆 Copa America 2021 - 1-0 vs Brazil
• 🏆 Finalissima 2022 - 3-0 vs Italy
• 🏆 World Cup 2022 - 3-3 vs France (4-2 pens)
• 🏆 Copa America 2024 - 1-0 vs Colombia (AET)

Messi's long awaited international triumph with the full senior Argentina team came at the 2021 Copa America, where his Argentina side beat favourites Brazil in the final at the Maracana. This ended Brazil's 46 year long ubeaten run in Copa America matches on home soil, and ended Argentina's 28 year major trophy drought! Messi also picked up the tournament's awards for Best Player and the Golden Boot.

In 2022, he then won the Finalissima aginst European champions Italy before finally getting his hands on the big one later that year! Messi scored 2 goals in the final as his Argentina side beat France on penalties after a 3-3 draw to lift the World Cup! Messi also picked up the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player, as well as the Silver Boot for finishing as the 2nd top scorer.

In 2024, Messi's Argentina became just the second team in men's international football history to win 3 consecutive major tournaments (with a World Cup included - after Spain in 2008, 2010, 2012) when his side defeated Colombia after extra-time to win another Copa America trophy!

Looking beyond Leo Messi's seven major finals, he also competed in the 2008 Olympics, where an U23 Argentina side (plus three over age players) won every game en route to the Gold Medal.

In addition to this, Messi also won the FIFA U20 World Cup in 2005, scoring a Golden Boot winning 6 goals (including 2 in the final) along the way.

International Tournament Goals & Assists

Ronaldo made his major tournament debut on home soil at Euro 2004, in which he scored 2 goals and made it all the way to the final before a shock defeat to Greece. Messi debuted at the 2006 World Cup, where he scored 13 minutes into his first appearance; further goals scored at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups granted Messi the unique record of being the only player to score at a World Cup in his teens, twenties and thirties.

Messi Major International Tournament Goals & Assists

Interestingly, Messi has scored the majority of his goals in the group stages at international tournaments, but has made considerably more assists in the knockout rounds, with 18 of his 26 assists being provided in the knockout stages.

Having played in 12 major international tournaments, Messi actually has the record for the most goals contributions in major tournament history, both overall and in the knockout rounds specifically.

He also has the record for most goal contributions in the history of the World Cup, with his 13 goals and 8 assists surpassing Pele's 12 goals and 8 assists.

Ronaldo Major International Tournament Goals & Assists

Having played in six European Championships and reaching at least the semi-finals in 3 of them, Ronaldo has played the most games of all time in the tournament, with 30 appearances. He's also the only player to score at five different Euros, and is the all time leading scorer in the competition as well with 14 goals.

In addition to the finals tournament, Ronaldo also leads the way in qualifying too, having scored a record 41 goals in European Championship qualifiers, as well as a record 36 goals in European World Cup qualifying matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo has also now scored the most goals in the history of the international football, with a staggering 135 goals!

Messi & Ronaldo International Tournament Awards and Achievements

Check out more of Messi and Ronaldo's international records over on the Records page.

Competitive vs Friendly International Goals

Ronaldo has scored a much greater proportion of his international goals in competitive games than Messi has, scoring 113 out of his total 135 goals in competitive internationals (83.70%). Messi has scored 61 goals out of 112 in competitive internationals (54.46%).

Messi International Goals & Assists

• Competitive games: 61 goals, 41 assists, 135 caps
• Friendly games: 51 goals, 17 assists, 56 caps

Ronaldo International Goals & Assists

• Competitive games: 113 goals, 28 assists, 163 caps
• Friendly games: 22 goals, 9 assists, 54 caps

Cristiano Ronaldo clearly has the superior goalscoring stats in competitive internationals, but we must consider the level of opposition.

Level of Competitive Opposition

One reason for the contrast in friendly/competitive goals between the two is the type of opponents they typically face. In Europe, the qualification stage for the World Cup and European Championship is split into several groups, with each group featuring a couple of extremely lowly ranked teams, such as San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, etc.

In South America on the other hand, they don't have a qualification stage for the Copa America, and World Cup qualification features a single group in which you must play all of the continent's heavyweights. There are also no real easy contests in this group (in comparison to some of the European micro-nations), with even the lowest ranked side Bolivia being an infamously tough team to play away due to the unusually high altitude level.

As a result of these contrasting situations, Ronaldo has played many more competitive fixtures against lower ranked sides than Messi has. Cristiano has scored 28 of his competitve goals against sides ranked 100 or lower, whereas Messi has 0 goals against 100+ ranked sides having played just 2 competitive games against this level of opponent.

This accounts for the huge disparity in competitive goals between the two to some degree, but even if Messi did get the opportunity to play minnows in competitive games with the same regularity as European teams do, the numbers suggest Ronaldo would still have a fairly comfortable lead in terms of competitive goals.

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