It has been a dismal start to 2026 for Cristiano Ronaldo. The Al Nassr captain has yet to secure a victory in the new calendar year, recording three consecutive defeats after a 3-1 loss to rivals Al-Hilal in the Capital Derby. As the Portuguese superstar hits this rare low point, fans have been quick to ask: what is the longest losing streak in Lionel Messi’s storied career?
Despite finishing 2025 at the top of the Saudi Pro League, Al-Nassr’s momentum has evaporated. Ronaldo’s squad has dropped three straight matches—falling to Al Ahli, Al Qadisiyah, and Al Hilal—a skid that has seen them surrender their first-place standing to Al-Hilal, who now sit seven points clear at the summit.
The slump is particularly heavy for Ronaldo personally. For only the second time in his professional life, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has suffered three consecutive losses, leaving him just one game away from a new career-low mark of four straight defeats.
Ronaldo’s only other three-game skid occurred during his second stint with Manchester United. Amid a chaotic 2022 season under Ralf Rangnick, losses to Brighton, Brentford, and Liverpool marked the first “hat-trick” of defeats in his career.
Cristiano Ronaldo during United loss against Brighton in 2022. (Getty Images)
However, this current stretch marks the first time he has ever opened a calendar year with three straight losses, a historical footnote the game’s all-time leading scorer surely wishes to forget.
What about Messi?
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The careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have famously mirrored one another for two decades, and their negative records are no exception. Much like his rival, the Argentine’s longest career losing streak also stands at exactly three games.
Unlike Ronaldo, however, Messi has hit this unwanted landmark three separate times. The first occurred in 2014 at Barcelona under Gerardo “Tata” Martino, where a Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid was followed by a league loss to Granada and a Copa del Rey final defeat to Real Madrid.
The second instance came in 2016 under Luis Enrique, with consecutive stumbles against Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid (again in the UCL), and Valencia. Most recently, Messi suffered a cross-competition “triple” in November 2024. While captaining Inter Miami, he suffered back-to-back playoff losses to Atlanta United before falling to Paraguay in a CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier with the Argentine national team.
