He's also scored several that he's aimed underneath the wall, playing his part in triggering the trend of teams opting to lay a player on the floor behind their wall.Ĭristiano Ronaldo on the other hand utilises the knuckleball technique, smashing the ball with his laces to avoid any spin, causing it to swerve and dip unpredictably towards the goal. When right on the edge of the area he tends to hit the ball with force, arrowing the ball into one of the top corners. Messi adopts a more traditional style, typically bending the ball into one of the corners from around 20-25 yards out, although he has scored a handful from 30+ yards.
#LIO MESSI FREE KICK FREE#
Messi and Ronaldo have scored a very similar number of free kick goals, but the way they've scored them has been very different.
Messi scores a free kick every 16.4 games, whereas Ronaldo scores a free kick every 19.6 games.Īfter surpassing Ronaldo's career total, the momentum is seemingly with Messi, and it seems increasingly likely that he will finish with the greater number of free kick goals and ultimately win the battle of the free kick specialists. If we look at how often Messi and Ronaldo score free kicks, it's Messi that has the edge here.
This reduction in free kick attempts can be attributed to Ronaldo having played with other free kick specialists in recent years such as Bale, Modric, Pjanic and Dybala - as well as Ronaldo often preferring to take up a position in the box where in previous years he might have gone for a direct attempt on goal. Similarly, Ronaldo's decline in free kick goals can be partly explained by the fact he takes considerably fewer free kicks now than he used to earlier in his career. There is some rationale behind Messi's relatively late transformation: he wasn't the undisputed free kick taker at Barcelona during his earlier years at the club, playing second-fiddle to Ronaldinho and Xavi until it became clear he was the greater threat. Similarly, from 2017-2019, Messi scored 23 free kick goals to Ronaldo's 5 however, from 2009-2011, Ronaldo scored 21 direct free kick goals to Messi's 3. To highlight how different their routes to these totals have been, at the end of 2013 Ronaldo was on 39 free kick goals, with Messi on just 14! In terms of the figures, these opposing journeys have merged almost in the same place, with Ronaldo currently on 56 career free kick goals and Messi now on 58 all time free kick goals. Messi’s transformation into the ultimate free kick specialist in the second half of his career has been quite staggering to witness, whereas Ronaldo’s increasing ineffectiveness compared to his early career form has been somewhat alarming. He even managed to score 10 free kicks in a single calendar year in 2018, and then followed it up with another 8 in 2019. Then, everything changed for Messi, as he went on to score 7 in 2012 alone, before averaging 6 free kick goals each year for the next 7 years. Messi became Barcelona’s all time leading goalscorer in March 2012, at which point he had scored just 5 free kick goals (with Ronaldo on 30). Messi’s journey as a free kick specialist has been almost the exact opposite to Ronaldo’s.
However, that’s when things began to turn, as he netted just 9 free kicks in his final 4 seasons at Madrid, and scored only free kick goal in 3 seasons at Juventus. He finished his Man Utd career with 5 free kick goals in each of his last 2 seasons, and then continued this dead ball form into his La Liga career, scoring 23 direct free kick goals in his first 5 seasons. Some years later he introduced the famous “knuckleball” technique with his iconic strike against Portsmouth, and scored from an impossible distance against Arsenal in the Champions League. Ronaldo quickly became known for scoring fairly outrageous free kick goals during his Manchester United career - in fact his first United goal was from a free kick. Ronaldo has also scored 2 goals from indirect free kicks inside the box (where the free kick was rolled to Ronaldo to score) - confusingly, Opta count 1 of these, meaning they put Ronaldo on 57 free kick goals.īoth Messi and Ronaldo have had somewhat curious journeys when it comes to their free kick records.
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