When Cristiano left Spain for Italy, many thought the rivalry between the two best footballers of their generation will end but that is not the case. The connection they share is quantum and spiritual that it prevents them from truly getting rid of each other.
They have been surpassing each other since they can remember. They tend to share numbers on a regular basis and keep us guessing. We have no idea who will finish on top when they both retire, but we can already tell that the end is near. The long distance between them has not separated them and yesterday was no different from all those other times in Spanish football. Messi and Ronaldo didn’t disappoint this time, they made history together and in their own way.
Cristiano Ronaldo reached the number 1,000 in the game against SPAL at Stadio Paolo Mazza. Getting Gabriel Batistuta’s 11 straight matches scoring record wasn’t enough for him. We all know that Ronaldo loves it when he can break a new milestone, and this is a big one. He opened the scoring at SPAL after getting on the end of Juan Cuadrado’s cross. The Portuguese striker started at Sporting CP with his initial 33 matches. At Manchester United, he got 292 matches and played for Real Madrid 438 times. He has 164 international caps for Portugal and last but certainly not least, Ronaldo played his 73rd match for Juventus yesterday. In total, Cristiano has scored 725 goals with 220 assists provided. That is a grand total of 945 goals in which Cristiano Ronaldo has been directly involved during these 1,000 matches. Those numbers are difficult to fathom.
On the same day, Lionel Messi hit yet another landmark on Saturday when he became the first player to hit 1,000 goal contributions after netting four times against Eibar. The Barcelona captain now has 696 goals and 306 assists for club and country in his glittering career. Messi went into Saturday’s match without a goal in his last four games but had three by the 40-minute mark as he completed his 54th career hat-trick and his fourth first-half hat-trick. When you break it down, Barcelona’s number 10 has registered 696 goals and assisted 306 times for the Catalan giants and his national side Argentina across his 16-year career.The frightening thing for the other legendary figures of the game is that the diminutive genius still has at least three or four years before he hangs up his boots and it’s likely to be even longer than that. Messi has won the Ballon d’Or a record six times, with the latest being in 2019 and has guided Barcelona to the top of La Liga.
Those numbers are quite impressive, they are players that we might never get to experience in our lifetimes again. With the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland springing up, we aren’t certain they will reach these incredible numbers. This is how once again, Messi and Ronaldo’s fate becomes entangled one more time.
What do you think about Ronaldo and Messi reaching that magic number 1,000? Please share your opinion in the comment section down below.