Cristiano Ronaldo Holds Record Lionel Messi Might Never Surpass

Lionel Messi might never tie or surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s international league feats.

The beauty of Messi vs. Ronaldo rivalry has been around for more than a decade now. And while Messi is evidently the king of club soccer, Ronaldo on the other hand owns the international stage, an milestone which his long-time nemesis might never surpass.

Diving into Ronaldo’s UEFA Champion’s Leauge accomplishments, “CR7” has already copped 2 international trophies in the last decade. The Portuguese star helped his side to win two titles respectively – the Euro 2016 and the 2019 UEFA Nations League.

Messi, on the other hand, has been largely frustrated playing for Argentina. In the past decade, the Argentine has never won a title for his country. Given Messi’s age, it is highly likely that Ronaldo will go down in history as the king of international soccer.

This doesn’t mean that Messi can’t compete with Ronaldo in the international stage. In fact, “Leo” had his chances but has lost three finals with his nation in the past decade - the 2014 World Cup, as well as losing the Copa America final in both 2015 and 2016, Give Me Sport reported.

Aside from earning titles, Ronaldo is also ahead of Messi in international goals. The Portuguese forward scored an incredible 77 times for his country this decade. This makes Ronaldo 20 goals on top of Messi’s tally of 57 for Argentina.

In terms of overall charisma, it appears that Ronaldo is also way ahead of Messi. With an army of almost 400 million followers across all platforms, Ronaldo is the most followed athlete on social media. While this category doesn’t show up in the stats, this unanimously puts Ronaldo on top of Messi and all his peers.

Unbelievably, a whopping 196 million people follow the Portuguese star via Instagram. What’s even more surprising is that the said figure happened to be the combined population of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Belgium or in simpler terms, 2.5% of planet Earth’s human race.

Last year alone, the Juventus forward boasts 6,403,853 hashtags by users on Instagram. Ronaldo’s totals clearly states that he has dominated Messi who stands second in the said category. Believe it or not, the Argentine is five million hashtags behind but still tallied an impressive 1,209,206.

Nevertheless, Ronaldo and Messi both changed the platform of soccer in the last 10 years. But the two all-time greats have no plans of stopping anytime soon as they are both bound to make history this year once again.