For years, soccer fans from all over the world have had the same discussion over and over again: who is better, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? We’re not going to choose one over the other, but this time, we will talk about some of the Barcelona superstar’s records that CR7 will probably never break.
Over 60 goals in two seasons in a row
Messi is the only player in history to have netted more than 60 goals in two consecutive seasons. He scored 73 times in the 2012/2013 season and 61 in the next one. Ronaldo also managed to score more than 60 goals in two seasons, but not in a row. He recorded 60 in the 2011/2012 and 61 in the 2014/2015. There’s no doubt that both of them are two of the best players in soccer history.
Number of goals scored in a single year
In 2012, Messi had probably the best year of his professional career. The Argentine forward managed to score 91 goals in 69 games between January and December. Some fans consider it as his greatest achievement. He even surpassed Gerd Müller’s 85 goals in 1972. Ronaldo, known as a goal-scoring machine, had his best calendar year performance in 2013, when he netted 69 goals in 59 games.
50 goals in a single La Liga season
During his outstanding 2011/2012 season, Messi set a new record by scoring 50 goals in 37 games in the Spanish First Division. By the time, the previous record belonged to Ronaldo, who had netted 40 times. The Portuguese superstar almost matched Messi’s numbers in the 2014/2015 season, when he managed to score 48 goals in 35 games. Although he fell short, his goal average was better than the Argentine’s, three seasons earlier.
Winning four Ballon d’Or in a row
This is the last and probably most impressive achievement in the list. Messi and Ronaldo broke all the records through these years, becoming the players with more Ballon d’Or award in the history of the sport. The Argentine has six, while CR7 owns five. But Messi achieved something that not even Ronaldo could: win four Golden Balls in a row, between 2009 and 2012. Unbelievable!
