Leo Messi leads the way as the player with most free-kick goals in Europe's top 5 leagues – but he's got the same number of such goals as Cristiano Ronaldo, 56.
What makes Messi's tally more special, though, is that he scores a free kick every 16.5 games, Ronaldo 19.1.
Interestingly, Miralem Pjanic is in the top 5 with 26 free-kick goals scored.
Top 5
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus, Portugal) - 56 goals
3. Hakan Calhanoglu (Milan, Turkey) - 27 goals
4. Miralem Pjanic (Barcelona, Bosnia & Herzegovina) - 26 goals
5. Aleksandar Kolarov (Inter Milan, Serbia) - 22 goals
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'Not sure that trying to shoot the ball to Argentina is the way to catch up with Messi': Fans mock Cristiano as his arguably worst ever free-kick goes viral
Portugal defeated Israel 4-0 on Wednesday in their final friendly encounter ahead of the forthcoming European Championship.
Even though Cristiano Ronaldo scored against the Israeli, he also produced his arguably worst ever free-kick on that evening in Lisbon.
No wonder, the 36-year-old's awful attempt that was blown well over the bar has gone viral on the web with many fans comparing him with Lionel Messi.
"I don’t understand how he got so bad at them, aren’t you supposed to get better at them with age?" Reddit user @Zeke1216 has written.
"Messi has perfected them when he wasn’t even as good as Ronaldo was at them in their early careers. I don’t know what happened."
As a reminder, Ronaldo has scored just one free-kick goal in club football since 2017. Messi, meanwhile, now has more free-kick strikes for Barcelona than Ronald in his entire career.
How Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski fared without penalties since 2010: statistical comparison
Cristiano Ronaldo has never been close to Lionel Messi in terms of goals plus assists per 90 minutes without penalties starting from the 2010/11 season, let alone Robert Lewandowski.
As per FBref.com's statistical comparison, the Barcelona icon had been registering 1.8 goals + assists per 90 minutes in the 2012/13 season - Leo's best-ever ratio.
Then-Real Madrid forward, meanwhile, had produced his maximum in the 2014/15 campaign - 1.57 goals + assists per 90 minutes.
The Bayern Munich striker, for his part, has just finished his best-ever season in the terms of goals + assists per 90 minutes - 1.46.
The infographic also shows the trio's respective lowest lows.
Messi has hit the rock bottom in the 2020/21 campaign - 1.07 - while Ronaldo had registered the lowest figures in the previous season with Juventus - 0.74. Lewandowski, meanwhile, had been producing just 0.51 goals + assists per 90 minutes while at Borussia Dortmund in the 2010/11 campaign.
