Opinion: Lional Messi is better than Christiano Ronaldo

Messi vs Ronaldo is one of the biggest rivalries in soccer history, encouraged by social media and soccer fans. Lional Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the most talented soccer players ever in history. Lional Messi plays for Argentina's national football team and Christiano Ronaldo plays for Portugal. Both players have record breaking stats, scoring more than 700 goals in their careers. I personally think Lional Messi is the better of the two. 

Messi is much better than Ronaldo at dribbling. He has had 2,973 successful dribbling strides down the field since 2003/2004 in the normal league and champions league, while Ronaldo only had 1,652. Messi is also a much better passer than Renaldo, making him less selfish. He had made 1,280 key passes in 562 appearances since 2009/10. Ronaldo has only made 888 key passes. 

Alternatively, Ronaldo has more all time career goals with 815, and Messi only currently has 772. Messi has a better shooting accuracy though, making a goal approximately every 5.19 shots and Ronaldo approximately every 6.41 shots. Messi also scores more frequently, scoring every 104th minute, while Ronaldo scores every 112th minute. Messi’s shots are on target more often as well with 47.59% of his shots being on point versus Ronaldo’s 41.24%. 

Now, let's get to rewards. Messi has won seven Ballon d’Or awards and Ronaldo has won five. Five is still an incredible number but it is less than what Messi has won. Messi has also won forty-one trophies in his all time career,  compared to Ronaldo’s thirty-seven  trophies. To add onto that, Messi has won eleven league titles and Ronaldo has only won seven. 

Messi is much better disciplined than Ronaldo with his game play. Ronaldo has an extremely bad temper. He passes Messi completely by getting more yellow and red cards in his career. Messi has received three red cards in his entire soccer career while Ronaldo has received eleven red cards. Ronaldo has also gotten many more yellow cards,receiving 131 of them in his whole career. Messi has received sixty-eight. Messi is known as a much more selfless person than Ronaldo, and he knows when to stop arguing. All Ronaldo seems to care about is making sure the referee knows exactly how angry he is. Ronaldo ends up getting thrown out, which affects the entire team. 

Messi and Ronaldo are definitely the best players in the world, both breaking records, making millions of dollars, and playing on top ranked teams, but Messi still has the lead. He is also a couple years younger than Ronaldo making him eligible to play for longer than Ronaldo. These are all the reasons why Messi is better than Ronaldo.

By Sarah Solomon