There’s been a lot of talk about Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe recently, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are far from done yet.
Haaland and Mbappe stole the headlines last week for their five-star showings in the Champions League for Borussia Dortmund and PSG respectively.
Haaland scored a brilliant brace in a 3-2 victory over Sevilla, while Mbappe stunned Messi and co by hitting a hat-trick against Barcelona.
The electric displays from the two youngsters led to pundits questioning whether Ronaldo and Messi’s incredible dominance had been relegated to the sidelines for a new rivalry set to dominate the beautiful game in the decades to come.
However, by looking at the top scorers in each league, it’s safe to say Messi and Ronaldo are far from done yet.
With a combined age of 69, the two superstars remarkably are the top scorers of their respective leagues.
On Monday, Ronaldo hit a double against Crotone to overtake Romelu Lukaku at the top of the Serie A standings (18).
Messi achieved the same feat in the 3-0 victory over Elche, overtaking his former teammate and close pal Luis Suarez to go top of the LaLiga charts with 18 goals.
So let’s park the notion that we are witnessing the passing of the torch and appreciate the two footballing phenomenons while we still have them…
Since the start of last season, Ronaldo and Messi still boast simply astonishing stats and only Haaland has more goals than them out of the four.
Stats since start of 19/20 season
Cristiano Ronaldo
Games – 66
Goals – 57
Champions League goals – 8
Assists – 9
Lionel Messi
Games – 68
Goals – 50
CL goals – 7
Assists – 29
Erling Haaland
Games – 59
Goals – 64
CL goals – 18
Assists – 7
Kylian Mbappe
Games – 58
Goals – 44
CL goals – 10
Assists – 19
Haaland spoke about how Mbappe’s goals against Barcelona spurred him to blitz Sevilla the following day.
“When I saw Mbappe scored a hat-trick, I got free motivation so thanks to him,” he said after his double in Spain.
But it is perhaps unfair to put such a big label on two players so young and compare them to two of the greatest players in the game.
Ronaldo and Messi have won 11 of the last 12 Ballons d’Or and have broken dozens of records along the way.
The Portugal superstar is the top goalscorer in history with 763 to his name, although this is disputed. He is also Real Madrid’s record scorer and has won an incredible five Champions League trophies.
Messi is not too far behind on 654 goals and is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer as well as breaking numerous LaLiga records.
Haaland and Mbappe are at the start of their careers but the future looks in safe hands once Messi and Ronaldo retire.