Manchester City star Erling Haaland recently scored his first goal in the Champions League this season, maintaining an impressive record of 42 goals in 41 games. However, if you asked him, who is the GOAT of the tournament, that would be Cristiano Ronaldo.
UEFA asked the Norwegian and other stars, including his teammate Kevin De Bruyne and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, “First player that comes to mind when you think of the Champions League” and the answer was unanimous: Ronaldo.
Other stars that appeared in the video were Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, Liverpool’s Alisson Becker and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori, Man City’s Phil Foden, and Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens.
Ahead of the start of the 2024-25 Champions League, Ronaldo was honored as the competition’s all-time leading goalscorer with 140 goals in 186 appearances. “The records speak for themselves,” Ronaldo said during the UEFA gala.
“It’s a pleasure to be in the competition. It’s crazy. I won so many times, the goals…” he said. Ronaldo was also the first player to have won five Champions League titles, as he won one with Manchester United (2008) and four with Real Madrid (2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018).
Lionel Messi’s stats in the Champions League
While Ronaldo’s records in the top European competition is incredible, Lionel Messi isn’t so far behind. The Argentine is the second all-time goalscorer with 129 in 163 appearances, even having a better scoring ratio (0.79) than the Portuguese (0.77).
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Messi is also behind in titles, having won four Champions League titles with Barcelona. However, the Inter Miami star only had three final appearances, as he missed the 2006 final due to an injury.
