Lionel Messi is unlikely to ever catch Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time goalscoring charts, but his eternal rival had something of a head start – he’s over two years older – which begs the question of how the two compare at the same age?
As Messi celebrates his 39th birthday, we’ve decided to crunch the numbers and take a closer look at Messi’s overall career record compared to Ronaldo’s at the same age.
It turns out that Messi has notched more goals and considerably more assists, all the while scoring fewer penalties, than Ronaldo.
The World Cup winner has registered 43 more goals and 165 more assists than Ronaldo managed when he turned 39.
Here’s how Messi’s career record now stacks up against Ronaldo’s at the same age:
Lionel Messi at age 39
Games: 1,158
Minutes played: 95,195
Goals: 916⭐
Assists: 414⭐
Goal Contributions: 1330⭐
Penalties scored: 114
Hat-tricks: 61
Free-kicks scored: 71⭐
Minutes per goal: 103.9⭐
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 118.4⭐
Minutes per goal or assist: 71.5⭐
Cristiano Ronaldo at age 39
Games: 1204⭐
Minutes played: 98,020⭐
Goals: 873
Assists: 249
Goal Contributions: 1122
Penalties scored: 161⭐
Hat-tricks: 63⭐
Free-kicks scored: 61
Minutes per goal: 112.3
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 137.6
Minutes per goal or assist: 87.4
