Comparing Lionel Messi’s first 50 games at Inter Miami with Cristiano Ronaldo’s at Al-Nassr
Lionel Messi has now made 50 appearances for Inter Miami and we’ve compared his stats with Cristiano Ronaldo’s at Al-Nassr after the same number of matches.
Since leaving Europe in 2023, Messi has continued to produce the goods in the United States and regularly delivers moments of magic.
Unfortunately, a series of injuries have hampered his game time in recent years, meaning that he’s only made 50 appearances at club level over the last two years.
Regardless of his fairly limited game time, Messi is still absolutely box office whenever he steps onto the pitch.
He instantly made an impact at Inter Miami by carrying them to the Leagues Cup trophy just a few weeks after he arrived at the club.
The Argentine forward has also been instrumental in their MLS success and played a key role in them winning the Supporters’ Shield last season.
Let’s not forget that upon Messi’s arrival in 2023, Miami were rooted to the bottom of MLS and were comfortably one of the worst sides in the league.
Messi, along with some of his former Barcelona teammates, instantly raised the level and carried them to a successful campaign in 2024.
Since the start of the new season, the 37-year-old has looked sharp with eight goals and two assists in his first 11 appearances across all competitions.
In total, Messi has scored 42 goals since joining Inter Miami and he’s produced 20 assists. Given that he’s only played 50 matches, that’s an average of 1.24 goal contributions per game.
“In the summer, Messi will have been here for two years, and I think he’s changing how the world sees MLS in one way or another,” Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano recently told reporters.
“There’s no doubt about that. In the end, we’re talking about a player who’s capable of achieving all of that, of giving maximum visibility to a league like this.”
While Messi has been thriving in MLS, Ronaldo has been scoring goals for fun out in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr.
The Portuguese superstar has already racked up over 100 appearances since joining Al-Nassr and he’s just four goals shy of scoring 100 goals.
For the purposes of this article, we’ve taken a closer look at his record in Saudi Arabia after his first 50 matches.
Unsurprisingly, his numbers are staggeringly good. In his first 50 games, Ronaldo scored 44 goals and provided 13 assists for his teammates.
He’s still waiting to win his first major trophy since moving to Saudi Arabia, but that’s certainly not because Ronaldo has not scored enough goals.
Here’s the full breakdown of how Messi’s record at Inter Miami compares to Ronaldo’s at Al-Nassr after 50 matches.
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami record after 50 games
Games: 50
Goals: 42
Assists: 20 ⭐
Goal contributions: 62 ⭐
Penalties: 2
Free-kicks: 3 ⭐
Minutes per goal: 92.9 ⭐
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 97.7 ⭐
Minutes per goal or assist: 62.9 ⭐
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr record after 50 games
Games: 50
Goals: 44 ⭐
Assists: 13
Goal contributions: 57
Penalties: 12 ⭐
Free-kicks: 2
Minutes per goal: 101.4
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 139.4
Minutes per goal or assist: 78.3
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