When it comes to international goals, Cristiano Ronaldo is virtually above every other player that has played the game. His two goals against Bosnia and Herzegovina took his tally to a record number of 127 goals in over 203 appearances. Ronaldo’s rival, Lionel Messi, got his 106th goal when he scored a brace against Peru in the early hours of today…CONTINUE READING>>>...CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
In line with the above numbers, one may be tempted to conclude that Ronaldo is the best when it comes to international games.
However, in this article, we would split their goals based on the FIFA rankings of the countries they each played. For the purpose of this article, we will make use of the latest September FIFA Ranking.
Picture Of FIFA’s Latest Ranking
First and foremost, you would agree with me that it is quite difficult to score against teams like Brazil and Spain than it is to score against teams like San Marino and Bolivia. As such, let’s see which of the two players scored more goals against highly ranked national teams.
All data used is based on information from Wikipedia.
Ronaldo Goals Against Top 20 Ranked National Teams.
Messi Goals Against Top 20 Ranked National Teams.
From the above stats, it is clear that Lionel scored more goals against tougher countries compared to Ronaldo. Out of the top 20 ranked national teams, Messi played against 12 teams, while Ronaldo played against 10.
Lionel Messi also scored more games against European opponents than Ronaldo scored against South American opponents…CONTINUE READING>>>