Ronaldo vs Messi: This Graph Comparing Goals and Assists by Age Looks to End GOAT Debate

The Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi debate has divided football fans for more than a decade now, with the two giants dominating the current era like no one else before them. Every fan has a subjective preference and most have come to realise that there is no one right answer to who is better between the two giants.

But that has not stopped from attempts to look at statistics to define the better player as their illustrious careers slowly comes to an end over the next few years.

With five Ballon d'Ors each and a slew of incredible records shared between them, Ronaldo and Messi are, in some ways, unlucky to play at the same time as they can't get away from each other. But perhaps, playing in the same era has pushed both to be better, as Ronaldo had recently stated.

Now one Reddit user has compared each man's record of goals and assists by age, starting from when they were in their teenage, and the graph throws up some interesting numbers.

Redditor u/Bright-Blue decided to try finding out the answer to who is better by contrasting both Messi and Ronaldo's total goals and assists by age throughout their career.

Collecting data from Transfermarkt, he constructed a graph that shows Messi clearly dominated after he turned 21 as he took the lead with more goal contributions. And this was despite Ronaldo having two extra years of experience.

But the battle once again became closer once Ronaldo left Manchester United to join Real Madrid. Between the age of 25 and 32, Messi has 482 goals and assists and Ronaldo has 477, showing there is little to separate the two legends of the game.

The graph was made by Reddit user u/Bright-Blue using data from Transfermarkt.

Another stat that jumps out from the graph is that Messi became Barcelona's top scorer of all time before the age of 25.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, broke Real Madrid’s all-time goal record after being at the club for just six years as he scored 450 goals in just 438 games. In second place is Raul, who scored 323 goals in 741 games.

At the end of it all, however, Messi has around 50 more goals and assists, despite being two years younger to Ronaldo.

Nevertheless, there will be plenty of Ronaldo fans who would argue that these stats do now show Ronaldo has been a better big-game player, having won more Champions League titles, apart from international trophies like the European Championships and UEFA Nations League.

And so, we can keep going in circles, but the debate will continue.