The three players since 2000 who have a superior goals + assists ratio than Cristiano Ronaldo
Since the year 2000, only three players from across world football have boasted a superior goals and assists ratio than Cristiano Ronaldo.
During his illustrious career so far, Ronaldo has scored 910 goals and produced 256 assists in 1251 appearances for club and country. That means that CR7 has averaged a whopping 0.93 goal contributions per game up until this point.
Since the year 2000, here are the three players who boast a superior goal contribution per game ratio to Ronaldo.
Erling Haaland
Matching Ronaldo’s obscenely good scoring record looks like an almost impossible task for most footballers, but if Haaland continues scoring at his current rate, he could give CR7 a run for his money.
Throughout his career so far, Haaland has scored 278 goals and has 53 assists in just 335 appearances for club and country.
That means he averages 0.99 goal contributions per game which is a slightly better record than Ronaldo has managed throughout his career.
Of course, Haaland’s numbers have been taken from a much smaller sample size and unlike Ronaldo, the Norwegian robot has been an out-and-out striker for his entire career.
If he manages to maintain his current rate of scoring and assisting, Haaland is projected to end his career with over 1200 goal contributions if he manages to play as many games as Ronaldo.
However, while Haaland does boast a better goal contribution per game ratio than Ronaldo, he’s yet to reach the same levels that Ronaldo did during his peak.
As of writing, Haaland’s best goalscoring season came in 2022–23 when he scored 52 goals across all competitions. For context, Ronaldo has scored more than 52 goals in four separate seasons.
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Kylian Mbappe
Mbappe has made it no secret that he idolises Ronaldo and if he continues at his current rate, the Frenchman could eclipse CR7 for goals and assists.
Up until this point, Mbappe has scored 339 goals and produced 139 assists in 470 appearances. That means he’s currently averaging 1.02 goal contributions per game for club and country.
While playing for PSG, the Frenchman won six consecutive Golden Boot awards, having scored 175 goals in 205 league appearances for the French giants.
Along with being an elite goalscorer, Mbappe is also a decent playmaker. Up until this point of his career, the 25-year-old has averaged 0.3 assists per game.
Since making the blockbuster switch to Real Madrid, Mbappe has yet to find his best form, although he’s still produced 10 goal contributions in 16 matches. That’s an average of 0.63 goal contributions per game in a Real Madrid shirt.
For context, Ronaldo averaged 1.3 goal contributions per game during his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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Lionel Messi
Since the year 2000, no player has a better goal contribution per game ratio than Messi.
Across his career so far, the 37-year-old has produced 1229 goal contributions in just 1083 appearances. That gives him a goal contribution per game ratio of 1.13 which is far superior to CR7’s record.
As of writing, Messi has scored 850 goals and has produced 379 assists, with the bulk of his goal contributions being for Argentina and Barcelona.
The Messi v Ronaldo debate is still being argued today amongst their fans, but when it comes to goal contributions, the Inter Miami star has the edge over his Al-Nassr nemesis.
To put into context just how prolific Messi is, if he played the same number of games as Ronaldo, he’d have 162 more goal contributions than CR7, based on his current goal contribution per game ratio.