Comparing Lionel Messi’s career record to Cristiano Ronaldo at the age of 38

Nestor Watach • 24 Jun 2025

Lionel Messi is unlikely to ever catch Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time goalscoring charts, but his eternal rival had something of a head start – he’s over two years older – which begs the question of how the two compare at the same age?

As Messi celebrates his 38th birthday, we’ve decided to crunch the numbers and take a closer look at Messi’s overall career record compared to Ronaldo’s at the same age.

It turns out that Messi has notched more goals and considerably more assists, all the while scoring fewer penalties, than Ronaldo.

The World Cup winner has registered 46 more goals and 150 more assists than Ronaldo managed when he turned 38.

However, it is worth remembering that Ronaldo continued to play at the top level in Europe almost up until his 38th birthday.

The Portugal international was in his second stint at Manchester United at the age of 37 and only left the European game to sign for Saudi Pro League outfit Al Nassr a few weeks before.

Ronaldo made just three appearances, scoring one goal, for Al Nassr by that point.

By contrast, Messi has spent the last two years out in the United States with Inter Miami.

Still, even if you take away all of Messi’s goal contributions for the MLS outfit – 50 goals, 24 assists – he’d still compare pretty favourably at this age, only three goals behind Ronaldo if we’re discounting goals scored outside of Europe and well over a hundred assists ahead.

Here’s how their numbers stack up against one another at the age of 38.