They are competing to be the world’s all-time leading goalscorer. Cristiano Ronaldo has 900 goals, while Messi, who is younger, currently has 838. However, in terms of goals per game, the Argentine from Rosario has the edge with 0.78, while the Portuguese from Madeira has 0.73. No-one currently playing has any chance of beating them, as Lewandowski is more than two hundred goals behind Cristiano, and that’s including the goals he scored in the non-professional Polish leagues, while Harry Kane has a deficit of more than four hundred. Not bad. 

Cristiano continues to add to his tally and shows no signs of stopping. There are those who do not rate Saudi football, but that is an injustice to his goals and physical fitness, in a league awash with other, younger talent who do not even come close to matching the veteran Ronaldo’s performance on the pitch. He is still going. Nobody can stop him, meaning that the gap between himself and Messi, far from decreasing as you might think given the age difference, is actually getting bigger. 

Goalscorer and winner. Four Champions Leagues with Real Madrid and one with United. Another final lost with the Red Devils and a leadership style whereby he has successfully guided many a teammate. Difficult to endure because he demands so much, yet easy to envy because he is a juggernaut with an unwavering ambition to be immortal. He still needs one hundred goals to make a thousand. Impossible? For everyone else, for sure, but maybe not for the unstoppable Cristiano Ronaldo.