Who is The GOAT, The Ambidextrous Ronaldo or The Brilliant Messi?

By Carlos Onyango

Let’s leave alone the social media debates and all sorts of views about Ronaldo and Messi. Maybe we should just talk numbers and arrive at the final conclusion of who the ‘GOAT’ is in the international scene.

Though this might sound like a tired refrain, as long as the two are still in the limelight, something is always bound to spark the debate about who is better of the two.

Saying that these two legends have dominated the football world is nothing short of an understatement.

The two have achieved a lot in their careers and still don’t seem to be halting anytime soon. But let us compare statistics at the international level.

Cristiano Ronaldo

The star has broken records all through and his international achievements do not come as a surprise. Being the captain of Portugal national team, he has been able to bag in more trophies than his close Argentinian competitor.

Well, here Ronaldo has numbers!

There is no denying that the Portuguese superstar has got an upper hand in this. He won the Euro 2016 before claiming the UEFA Nations Cup triumph against the Netherlands. And that was not ages ago, but just less than two weeks ago.

Lionel Messi

No one can doubt the star’s super talent and skills. But when it comes to international scenes, the ‘GOAT’ as his followers would call him, has nothing to brag about.

Year after year, he gets disappointed when he plays for his national team, losing most games and getting out of these competitions with absolutely nothing to show for it. His most recent humiliation being a loss to Colombia.

This year, or rather this month, however, he has the chance to prove his critics wrong and at least walk out of Copa America with the cup. Despite the loss to Colombia in their first match, Messi’s team cannot be exempted as being one of the favorites to lift the trophy. But will they live up to the task ahead of them?

I don’t think anyone would want to see Messi retire with the spell of international trophies unsorted. His fans won’t allow that.

Going head to head on the number of goals scored on the international level, including friendlies, Messi has found the net 67 times while Cristiano is still a notch higher with 88 goals.

So, from the statistics above, you don’t have to be told who the GOAT is when it comes to football at the international level. You won’t snap twice!

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