Booming at Inter Miami, Messi is speeding up to usurp Ronaldo
Lionel Messi arrived in the US in search of a change for himself and his family, but that did not stop him from wanting to play. After only 3 appearances, La Pulga scored 5 goals in the Inter Miami shirt, thereby raising the dream of winning the first title in North America.
As Messi's stats increased, people started talking about the great battle for one of the most precious records: Top scorer in football history.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the current owner of a throne that has always been controversial due to the many statistics that exist in organizations related to this topic. The Portuguese forward, who plays in Saudi Arabia, has scored 840 goals in 1171 official matches to become the top scorer in history at the age of 38, ahead of Josef Bican and in the face of constant siege by Messi.
Although the issue of the number of goals is a popular debate throughout history, Messi's official statistics page confirms 812 goals in the Argentine's career are divided between Barcelona (672), PSG (32), Inter Miami (5) and Argentina (103), made in 1031 games. That means he is 28 goals behind the Portuguese opponent.
CR7 distributes his goals between Real Madrid (450), Man Utd (145), Juventus (101), Al Nassr (16) and Sporting Lisbon (5) and Portugal (123).
It should be noted that both FIFA and UEFA have confirmed Bican's 805 goals during his career, although the Czech Football Federation claims the striker has scored 821 goals in official matches between 1931 and 1955. Even with this number from the Czech side, Messi will soon pass with 10 more goals.
The number "1000 goals" that some believe Pele scored is also always discussed. In a note on Bican, it was FIFA who resolved this debate: “Pepi (Bican) is credited with 805 goals in 530 career games; ie an average of 1.52 goals per game! That's better than Romario, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Even Pele, who claims to have scored 1,283 goals, did not do better. The Brazilian legend includes the total number of goals scored in unofficial matches and if we do the same with Bican his harvest is estimated at 1,468 goals, although these numbers are difficult. verified by his age”.
There are differences in the data and criteria for calculation. For example, Santos claims that Pele has scored a total of 1,091 goals for that club, including 643 in official matches and 448 in friendlies.
However, although Bican is recognized as the top scorer in history with 805 goals, today has been surpassed by both Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. In this way, the two ended part of the age-old debate about numbers and are still running to the finish line. Ronaldo has 840, Messi 812, Bican 805, Pele 757 and Romario 745 to complete the Top 5.
