Who is better - Messi or Ronaldo?

Football is a team sport, but it is the individual players who make it what it is. Without doubt, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest the game has ever seen - but the question has always remained: Who is better, Messi or Ronaldo? Well, using Football Manager Mobile 2017, I'll try to prove the answer once and for all.

A couple of things before I start:

Honours

FMM doesn't record major honours or from before the game starts, so I'm getting this information from Soccerway:

Messi - 30 Major Honours - 8x La Liga, 4x Copa del Rey, 7x Spanish Super Cup, 1x Copa Catalunya, 4x Champions League, 3x UEFA Super Cup, 3x Club World Cup

Ronaldo - 22 Major Honours - 1x La Liga, 3x Premier League, 1x FA Cup, 2x Copa del Rey, 2x English League Cup, 1x Portuguese Super Cup, 1x Spanish Super Cup, 3x English Community Shield, 3x Champions League, 2x UEFA Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup,

So as you can see, the little Argentine leads the way with trophies, but that isn't everything.

Assists

Unlike goals, assists from before the game also aren't included. However, I can't find a reliable or consistent source for assists (or at least one which tallies up with the number of goals and games that FMM shows them playing), so I will leave pre-save assists out of my final analysis.

So what are we waiting for? Let's go!

First Day:

 

So Messi leads the way in the honours list, and his goals to game ratio stands at 0.85 to Ronaldo's 0.76, so in my mind that puts the little Argentine in the lead - but will he stay there? Find out later today how they got on after the 2016/2017 season.

[Dec]

Looking forward to this. It reminds me of an idea I did with the Editor a while back and possibly my favourite ever piece of content I've produced on the site.

 

 

[veerus]

This game is ball-of-stats vs ball-of-stats on a mechanical level. Messi has much better...balls , so it shouldn't be much of a challenge. 

Dec, that looks like a fun experiment a couple years ago and Messi still won despite some generous interpretations toward CR7's results. 

[Mollers01]

Apologies for the delay!

End of 2016/2017 season:

 

So as you can see, Messi picks up three major trophies at the end of the first season, taking his total to 33. In terms of on-field contributions, the little Argentine continues his impressive form, scoring 36 and assisting 13 in 44 games, leaving him with a goal to game ratio 0.85.

 

On the other hand....

 

While Ronaldo does pick up two trophies with Madrid, they finish outside the top four, which leads to the sacking of Zinedine Zidane. The Portuguese superstar also scores fewer goals in fewer games - dropping his goals per game average by 0.01 to 0.75.

Messi still looks to be going strong - but is this the end for Ronaldo? Stay tuned to find out.

[Mollers01]

End of 2017/2018 season:

 So, at the end of the second in-game season, Barcelona win their second league title, with Real jumping back up to third.

In addition to his league winner's medal, Messi picks up the Super Cup, giving him two major trophies for the season, compared to Ronaldo's victories in the Spanish Cup and the European Super Cup.

 

So, goals. Another strong season for the little Argentine with 17 goals and 12 assists in 29:

After last season, it very much seemed that Ronaldo was on the downward spiral. Not so much this time - 21 goals and four assists in 29 of his own:

 

Internationally, neither player had any success at the World Cup, with Messi's Argentina failing to make it out of the group and Ronaldo's European Champions getting knocked out in the second round.

 

So, Ronaldo shades it this season, with more goals than Messi in the same amount of games (albeit with fewer assists), with each man picking up two major honours. But is it too late for the former Manchester United man to overtake his great rival?

 

 

[billy2shots]

Ronaldo shades it? For goals maybe but Messi smashed him all round as he does in real life. CR7 is half the player of the little Argentine. 

[Mollers01]

2018/2019 season:

So once again, Barcelona pick up the La Liga title, making it three in three since the start of the game. Real once again finish third, some nineteen points off the top:

Little Leo, in addition to the league title, picks up the Super Cup and the Spanish Cup, leaving CR7 with nothing.

In terms of individual contribution, it looks like Ronaldo's time at the top may finally be over, with a return of just six goals and three assists in 23 games. At age 34, and not much more than a benchwarmer at Madrid, is he considering calling it quits?

Messi, on the other hand, continues to perform. 23 goals and 20 assists in 35 games shows that he's on the top of his game, and he's still rated as one of Barcelona's key men.

[Mollers01]

2019/2020 season:

 

Another season, another Barcelona title win, giving Messi another one in the 'Major honours' column. However, that doesn't matter so much for CR7, as at the beginning of the season...

That's right - the Portuguese superstar is allowed to leave Madrid for free to head to the heights of Serie B. Unfortunately the database I selected doesn't show whether Modena won the title (although I'm not sure it would count as a major honour even if they did), but still, you'd expect Ronaldo, even at 35, to blow the league away, right?

Just one goal in six games, and no more awards. I think we are seeing Ronaldo ride off into the sunset.

Messi, on the other hand...

12 goals and seven assists in 27 games, as well as a Super Cup win to go with La Liga. Bizarrely, he's also named Player of the Year, but I won't be counting that. 

On to the next season!

[Mollers01]

End of Game:

As I was midway through simulating the 2020/2021 season, I thought I'd see how both players were doing, only to find out that Cristiano had called it quits. Not getting games for a Italian second division side must have damaged his ego! With that in mind, I've ended the simulation, and present the final stats to you:

Lionel Messi:

• 40 Major Honours (10 in game)
• 411 goals (88 in game)
• 52 assists (52 in game)
• 506 games (126 in game)
• 0.81 goal per game ratio (0.70 in game)
• 0.41 assist per game ratio (0.41 in game)

Cristiano Ronaldo:

• 27 Major Honours (5 in game)
• 394 goals (47 in game)
• 9 assists (9 in game)
• 543 games (84 in game)
• 0.76 goal per game ratio (0.56 in game)
• 0.11 assist per game ratio (0.11 in game)

So as you can see, the results are fairly conclusive - Messi has more goals and more assists in fewer games, as well as a third more major honours than his great rival, as well as the potential to get more due to his young age.

It is therefore the opinion of this fair poster that Lionel Messi is in fact better than Cristiano Ronaldo.