The Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate is done and dusted for another season. While the two Ballon d’Or-winning juggernauts have found themselves taking something of a back seat in the 2021/22 campaign, it’s still done little to stop supporters discussing which player is better.
Ronaldo vs Messi debate
Besides, the 2021/22 season marked arguably one of the most fascinating comparisons between the two seeing as they both moved clubs simultaneously for the first time in their careers.
What do the stats say?
To do that, we’re turning to one of the most comprehensive statistics measures out there: the player rating system over at Who Scored. As one of football’s leading stats websites, Who Scored awards each player in the biggest leagues a rating out of 10 based on every game that they feature in, which is informed by a whole range of data sets.
Comparing Messi and Ronaldo’s stats each season
How does that apply to Ronaldo vs Messi? Well, we’ve seen who had the superior average player rating in league football across every season dating back to 2009/10 to tackle that exact debate.
2009/10
Lionel Messi – 8.67
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.54
2010/11
Lionel Messi – 8.76
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.35
2011/12
Lionel Messi – 8.88
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.28
2012/13
Lionel Messi – 8.83
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.15
2013/14
Lionel Messi – 8.34
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.27
2014/15
Lionel Messi – 8.84
Cristiano Ronaldo – 8.48
2015/16
Lionel Messi – 8.46
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.99
2016/17
Lionel Messi – 8.47
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.61
2017/18
Lionel Messi – 8.68
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.94
2018/19
Lionel Messi – 8.48
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.68
2019/20
Lionel Messi – 8.71
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.82
2020/21
Lionel Messi – 8.52
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.61
2021/22
Lionel Messi – 7.77
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7.11
Final score: Lionel Messi 13-0 Cristiano Ronaldo
Messi scores for PSG.
A stunning victory for Messi