International championships or not, Lionel Messi is the greatest player to ever live. There is no one better. While some will argue Cristiano Ronaldo, or argue Diego Maradona is better. They are sadly mistaken. With Messi’s hat trick today, he has 48 career hat tricks and eight total in the Champions League, which gives him one more than Ronaldo’s seven. There is only one Messi and the world may never get someone quite like him ever again.
Messi’s Accolades
Let’s start with his club awards. Since 2004, Lionel Messi has brought nine La Liga championships in 14 years. That’s a 64% winning rate for him. In the five years, he didn’t win the league, Messi and Barcelona were the runner-ups four times. In Messi’s 14-year career with Barcelona, he has come in first or second place 13 out of 14 years. Messi has also helped bring Barcelona six Copa del Rey championships, two runner-ups, seven Spanish Super Cups, four UEFA Champions Leagues, UEFA Super Cups and three FIFA Club World Cups. That is a total of 32 championships for club. In comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo only has 25 total championships, and he has played for four different teams over his 16-year career. All of that only makes up Messi’s club championships. For is individual honors he’s won five Ballon d’Or, been the runner-up five times and came in third once. He’s won FIFA World Player of the Year once came in second twice, Won the World Cup golden ball and the FIFA Club World Cup golden ball twice. In terms of championships, no one even comes close to what Messi has accomplished over his 14 years career.
Stats
Lionel Messi also has the stats to back up his accolades. Just for Barcelona, he has made 643 appearances scored 558 goals and registered 215 assists. That is only 17 goals less than Christiano Ronaldo, who has two years in hand on Messi. If you think Messi won’t score 17 goals in two years, you have never watched Lionel Messi play. Messi also has a higher goal per game average than Ronaldo with an outstanding 0.87 goals per game compared to Ronaldo’s 0.75 goals per game ratio. Now for internatonal play. Yes, Lionel Messi has never won any International competitions, but that doesn’t take away from his stats on the national team. In 128 caps he has scored 65 goals and tallied up 40 assists. Ronaldo might have better stats than Messi in some departments, but there is no doubt that Messi will eventually catch up to the majority of what Ronaldo has done. No matter where Messi plays, he dominates the field like no other athlete ever has. And that is why messi is the greatest footballer of all time
