How do their World Cup legacies compare?

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi lead the way for Champions League goals, with Robert Lewandowski now clear in third having brought up his own century while Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah are the latest players to reach 50.

Cristiano Ronaldo is now 41 and Lionel Messi isn’t far off 40, but they are still scoring goals for fun as the GOAT debate rumbles on… Messi is a World Cup winner after leading

Lionel Messi scored again and added another chapter to his endless legend. The captain of the Argentine national team found the net in Inter Miami’s 2-1 victory over DC United, reaching 899 goals in his professional career and moving just one away from the historic 900 mark.

As part of our buildup to the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, we are publishing excerpted chapters from The Soccer 100, The Athletic’s definitive book on the 100 greatest players of all time, courtesy of HarperCollins ...

Messi looks well placed to take the record in his final tournament, although Ronaldo still has work to do.