Lionel Messi has won a record 8 Ballon d'Or awards (considered the most prestigious individual award for the world's best player) and 3 The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, holding the most for any player in both categories, cementing his status as one of football's greatest.
Messi currently holds the record for most Ballon d'Ors with eight (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023), while five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo has the most nominations with 18. The Ballon d'Or has been awarded every year since 1956, while the Ballon d'Or Féminin was awarded for the first time in 2018.
The "GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time) in football is a subjective debate, but Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are overwhelmingly considered the top contenders, with Messi often edging out due with recent major wins like the 2022 World Cup, though Ronaldo's longevity and dominance in multiple leagues also make a strong case, with many legends and publications naming Messi as #1. Other historical greats like Pelé and Maradona are also part of the conversation.
Lionel Messi also has 45 Guinness World Records titles. The most in the history.
Yes, 99-rated players exist in FIFA (now EA Sports FC) but are very rare, typically appearing as special promotional cards (like Team of the Year or Futties) in Ultimate Team (UT) towards the end of the game cycle, with some fans even getting full squads of them through grinding. While base cards rarely reach this, special versions of players like Mbappe, Pele, and even defenders like Virgil van Dijk have achieved 99 overall ratings in past editions.
Cristiano Ronaldo ranks fourth, following Maradona and Pele.
🐐 — 91 goals: Leo Messi alone in 2012 ✅ — 92 goals: Mbappe + Haaland in 2025 Despite their incredible form, Erling Haaland & Kylian Mbappé have combined for only one more goal in 2025 than Lionel Messi scored alone in 2012! 🥶 A reminder of how historic Messi's record breaking year truly was!
🗣️ "In fact, we contacted Messi at the end of his contract in Paris." "We presented him with an offer of 💲1.5 million euros, but the player rejected it because his family wanted to live in Miami." 🗣️ "It's surprising that a player could decline an offer for the sake of his family." He managed to convince his family, ...
In April 2009 Furman became the first person to hold 100 Guinness world records at once.
Messi will score 900th goal in 2026. Can he reach 1,000? Can he pass Ronaldo? Lionel Messi is never far from breaking his next record or hitting his next landmark, and he enters 2026 on the verge of yet another massive milestone in his incredible career: his 900th goal.
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Ronaldo has won five Champions League titles as compared to Messi's four. However, his five Ballon d'Or wins pale in comparison to Messi's eight. Beyond their club laurels, both have also led their countries to glory on the world stage.
As long as he stays healthy and the team does well, he can get there. So let's say he reaches 900 goals by the end of this year. If the sources are true, Messi can play for another 3 more years. For him to reach 1,000 career goals, he'll have to average 33.3333 goals per year to reach that milestone.
In football (soccer), the 🐐 emoji stands for the "Greatest Of All Time," a term used to praise legendary players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, among others, for their unparalleled skill and impact on the sport, sparking ongoing debates about who truly deserves the title.
They say Messi is better than Ronaldo because he has more Ballon D'OR but they will say Iniesta is better than Modric who has Ballon DOR. 4 They say Messi has more individual awards than Ronaldo because they don't have idea about football.
No, Barcelona has officially settled its deferred salary debt to Lionel Messi and other 2020 squad members as of June 2025, making the final €16 million payment and closing out the original €121.7 million owed from pandemic-era salary cuts, though he'd been receiving payments for years prior. Messi received the largest share of the deferred wages, with his final installment around €5.96 million, marking the end of a long financial obligation that began with his contract restructuring.
Lionel Messi becomes the player with the most goals in football history without penalty kicks. 🐐 Goals from open play without penalties: 1- Lionel Messi: 764 2- Cristiano Ronaldo: 763.
“It was a crazy day, there were bids going out for Lionel Messi and all sorts! We finally managed to get Robinho over the line which was a hell of a statement, and the rest is history.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his 800th club career goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo is chasing what no soccer player -- despite Pelé and Romário claiming otherwise when adding in friendly matches -- has ever officially achieved in competitive games: The ultimate milestone of 1,000 career goals.
127127. Pele extraordinarily scored 127 goals for Santos in one calendar year: 1959.
Ronaldo needs 47 to reach 1,000 career goals. With a recent average of around 45 goals a year and a role built for finishing, he is statistically well-placed to cross the mark if he stays on the pitch until 2027.
A rumor suggested that Ronaldo performed 3,000 sit-ups daily to maintain his abs, but he dismissed this as exaggerated. As he prepared for CR7 Crunch Fitness, he clarified that he does sit-ups 4-5 times a week, with a minimum of 200-300 each session.
Yes, Nike signed Cristiano Ronaldo to a lifetime contract reportedly worth over $1 billion, making him one of only a few athletes (like LeBron James and Michael Jordan) with such a deal, which began around 2016 and pays him tens of millions annually for his ongoing endorsements and massive social media presence.