The rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi has made another development this weekend. Both players were tied for 495 big-league goals until Messi scored the 496th and surpassed Ronaldo’s record.
PSG and Strasbourg faced off where Paris St-Germain secured the 11th Ligue 1 title when the teams tied in the match-up 1 to 1. Thanks to PSG’s possession rate of 66% and Messi’s fine handling of the football as the team’s famous Forward, he was armed with the tools to break Ronaldo’s record.
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PSG Versus Strasbourg Stats
Strasbourg attempted 17 shots, with five of them being shots on target. PSG was more strategic in taking their seven shots, with two of them being shots on target.
Both teams had about the same number of fouls. Strasbourg experienced nine, while PSG had eight. The Strasbourg team had four corners as PSG got two when restarting gameplay.
In the first half of the game, neither team scored a point. About 12 minutes into the second half, Messi was the first to score the point 59 minutes into the match, a left-foot kick from the box’s center. Kylian Mbappé assisted with this goal.
About 20 minutes later, Kevin Gameiro made the first and only shot for Strasbourg with a left-foot kick as well. Gameiro did win a free kick eight minutes afterward, but it did not yield another point.
Messi’s Future With PSG
This was Messi’s 32nd goal since he signed with PSG, which is anticipated to possibly be his last for the league for the 2022/2023 season. He is expected to join a new football team when his contract with PSG expires on June 30th. This original contract would have gone on for a third year into the 2023-24 season. However, an unauthorized overseas trip prevented the contract from continuing.
Lionel Messi was originally suspended from PSG for two weeks recently because he did not seek authorization to take a trip to Saudi Arabia. Hence, he was not able to participate in team practice sessions or receive compensation during that suspension period.
As of now, Messi will be a free-agent football player after June 30th, when his contract expires with PSG. He has not made an official decision on which league he would like to play for next. Only time will tell where the football legend will lead his career next.
The Messi and Ronaldo Rivalry
While Messi and Ronaldo have been rivals since the early 2000s, they continue to be head to head, breaking one another’s records and making history in football. They are the only two football players to successfully secure 100 goals each for the UEFA Champions League.
Both players were pretty much fighting to see how many Ballon d’Or awards they could win over the years. Messi received the Ballon d’Or four years in a row between 2009 to 2012. Ronaldo won the award two years in a row from 2013 to 2014, Messi took the 2015 award, and Ronaldo took the 2016, 2017, and 2019 awards.
Messi was awarded the Ballon d’Or again in 2021, making it seven times that he has received this notable achievement. Ronaldo has received it five times.
Conclusion
The last game of the 2022-23 season for PSG is against Clermont Foot on June 3, 2023. Will Messi score a 33rd goal since he signed with PSG? Will this game end in a draw like the one against Strasbourg? Tune in to find out!