Thanks to the goal he scored once morest Maccabi Haifa, Lionel Messi closed the distance with respect to Cristiano Ronaldo in the table of historical scorers of the UEFA Champions League. The Argentine genius was 14 goals away from the Funchal monster. A still distant figure, yes, but attainable for a player of the stature of the Argentine (and even more so if you consider that Cris is not playing in the current European Cup).
After the most consistent footballers of all time comes Robert Lewandowski, who, last week, broke parity with Karim Benzema. And the player who completes the TOP 5 is Don Raúl González, who led this classification for a long time (before CR7 and LM10 exploded in the goalscoring plane).
TOP HISTORIC SCORERS OF LA UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
- Cristiano Ronaldo: 140 goals in 183 games.
- Lionel Messi: 126 goals in 158 games.
- Robert Lewandowski: 89 goals in 108 games.
- Karim Benzema: 86 goals in 143 games.
- Raul Gonzalez: 71 goals in 142 games.
- Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56 goals in 73 games.
- Thomas Muller: 52 goals in 136 games.
- Thierry Henry: 50 goals in 112 games.
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 48 goals in 124 games.
- Andriy Shevchenko: 48 goals in 100 games.
The mission to tie or beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s record will not be easy. But, taking into account the absence of CR7 in the Champions League this year, and remembering that Lio is 2 years younger than Manchester United’s still 7, he should have his chance.
Let’s see if he gets it.
Be that as it may, no matter who ends up leading the ranking, no one will change. We are facing the two best footballers that have been seen since the magical UEFA Champions League was played.
Undefeated data. Robert Lewandowski already knows what it means to be a scoring champion in a UEFA Champions League edition. He got it in 2020, the year of the European Cup that he won.
Did you know…? Robert Lewandowski is the only footballer in the history of the game to have scored at least one hat-trick for 3 different clubs in the UEFA Champions League. Great player.
