Messi v Ronaldo: Comparing their penalty statistics since leaving Europe in 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two of the most prolific penalty takers of all time, but since leaving Europe, their records are drastically different.
Not including penalty shootouts, Ronaldo has scored a whopping 175 penalties throughout his career, having taken 208 in total.
Since leaving Europe, the 40-year-old has continued to take and score penalties at a frequent rate. Since joining Al-Hilal, he’s taken 27 penalties and has scored 25 of them. He’s also scored four penalties for Portugal during that time too.
Of the goals that Ronaldo has scored in Saudi Arabia, 25.3% of them have come from the penalty spot.
That number is especially high when you consider that Messi has only taken two penalties for Inter Miami since joining them in 2023.
In total, the Argentine forward has scored 52 goals for Inter Miami, meaning that only 3.8% of his goals in the United States have come from the penalty spot.
Since joining Inter Miami, Messi hasn’t taken a single penalty for Argentina in regular time, although he did take and miss one against Ecuador in a Copa America penalty shootout last year.
So, what’s the reason that Ronaldo has taken considerably more penalties than Messi in recent seasons?
The main and most obvious factor is that Al-Nassr have been awarded significantly more penalties in recent seasons, compared to Inter Miami.
During the 2024-25 Saudi Pro League season, Al-Nassr were awarded 13 penalties and Ronaldo took nine of those.
In contrast, Inter Miami were only awarded one penalty throughout the entire 2024 MLS campaign, which Messi scored against Nashville.
Another contributing factor is that Messi has been happy to hand off penalty responsibilities to other players in the team since joining Miami.
The likes of Luis Suarez, Leonardo Campana and Josef Martinez have all taken penalties since Messi arrived at the club.
In fact, since he joined Inter Miami during the summer of 2023, the MLS side have only been awarded eight penalties across all competitions and Messi himself has only taken two of them.
That means that the Argentine forward has only taken 25% of the penalties that Inter Miami have been awarded since he joined the club.
In contrast, Al-Nassr have been awarded 37 penalties since Ronaldo joined and CR7 himself has taken 27 of those penalties. That means that Ronaldo has taken 72.9% of all penalties that Al-Nassr have been given since he arrived at the club.
Here’s the full breakdown of how Messi and Ronaldo’s penalty records compare since they each left Europe.
Note: penalties taken in penalty shootouts haven’t been included.
Messi penalty record since leaving Europe
Inter Miami
Penalties taken: 2
Penalties scored: 2
Conversion rate: 100%
Argentina
Penalties taken: 0
Penalties scored: 0
Conversion rate: N/A
Overall
Penalties taken: 2
Penalties scored: 2
Conversion rate: 100%
Ronaldo’s penalty record since leaving Europe
Al-Nassr
Penalties taken: 27
Penalties scored: 25
Conversion rate: 92.6%
Portugal
Penalties taken: 6
Penalties scored: 4
Conversion rate: 66.7%
Overall
Penalties taken: 33
Penalties scored: 29
Conversion rate: 87.9%
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