Comparing Lionel Messi’s free-kick stats with Cristiano Ronaldo’s record

Planet Football • 20 Jun 2025

Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have had somewhat curious journeys when it comes to their free-kick records – but who has the superior one?

Ronaldo quickly became known for scoring fairly outrageous free-kick goals during his Manchester United career, popularising the famous “knuckleball” technique with some incredible strikes.

He finished his United career with five free-kick goals in each of his last two seasons, and then continued this dead-ball prowess at Real Madrid by scoring 23 direct free-kick goals in his first five seasons.

But he netted just nine free kicks in his final four seasons at Madrid, and scored only one free kick goal in three seasons at Juventus.

Messi’s journey as a free-kick specialist has been almost the exact opposite of Ronaldo’s.

The Argentina international became Barcelona’s all-time leading goalscorer in March 2012, at which point he had scored just five free-kick goals (with Ronaldo on 30).

Everything changed soon afterwards, as he went on to score seven in 2012 alone, before averaging six free-kick strikes each year for the next seven years.

He even managed to score 10 free kicks in a single calendar year in 2018, and then followed it up with another eight in 2019.

Messi’s transformation into the ultimate free-kick specialist in the second half of his career has been quite staggering to witness, whereas Ronaldo’s increasing ineffectiveness compared to his early career form is notable.

We’ve crunched the numbers to define which of these generational stars has the better free-kick record.