Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi's EA Sports FC 24 in-game stats compared | OneFootball

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The immortal Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate will forever live on, despite them leaving Europe and joining Inter Miami and Al-Nassr, respectively. For years on FIFA (now called EA Sports FC), the decorated duo would embark in a two-horse race to see who would come out with the higher overall rating and in this year’s instalment, the pint-sized Argentina wins by a landslide.

But what about their in-game statistics? Messi is still managing to strut his stuff in the United States, while Ronaldo almost goes under the radar in the Middle East. The latter, however, has set his league alight this campaign by registering 10 goal involvements in four games. Beat that, Lionel!

Here at GIVEMESPORT, we have broken down the finer details of their attributes and compared the two to see which card will be more usable when the game is released at the back end of September. All the data used has been plucked from the EAFC24 Ultimate Team website. Without further ado, let’s get stuck in.

Pace - Lionel Messi (80) > Cristiano Ronaldo (77)

Acceleration – Lionel Messi (87) > Cristiano Ronaldo (73)

Sprint Speed – Cristiano Ronaldo (80) > Lionel Messi (74)

In the early stages, the Portugal international was known as a speed demon as he would terrorise full backs as they were going out of fashion. He has since moved into the centre-forward role and so his acceleration has seen a huge regression. His sprint speed still trumps that of Messi’s by six, however, though it is Messi who takes the crown for the overall pace ratings.

Shooting - Cristiano Ronaldo (88) > Lionel Messi (87)

Attacking position - Lionel Messi (91) > Cristiano Ronaldo (90)

Finishing – Lionel Messi (89) > Cristiano Ronaldo (87)

Shot power – Cristiano Ronaldo (92) > Lionel Messi (83)

Long shot – Lionel Messi (90) > Cristiano Ronaldo (85)

Volleys – Lionel Messi (86) > Cristiano Ronaldo (83)

Penalties – Cristiano Ronaldo (90) > Lionel Messi (75)

Both superstars are renowned finishers. Messi is typically smarter in front of goal while Ronaldo’s devastating nature from distance - thanks to his abnormal shot power - is synonymous in the football echo chamber. Albeit by a small margin, Messi is superior in ratings for: attacking position, finishing, long shots and volleys. This category is the tightest one of all and despite Messi winning four of the six subcategories, Ronaldo comes out on top on the overall shooting ratings by just 1. Strange.

Passing - Lionel Messi (90) > Cristiano Ronaldo (75)

Vision – Lionel Messi (92) > Cristiano Ronaldo (76)

Crossing – Lionel Messi (83) > Cristiano Ronaldo (76)

Free kick accuracy – Lionel Messi (93) > Cristiano Ronaldo (75)

Short pass – Lionel Messi (91) > Cristiano Ronaldo (76)

Long pass – Lionel Messi (90) > Cristiano Ronaldo (70)

Curve – Lionel Messi (93) > Cristiano Ronaldo (79)

Messi stumps his Portuguese counterpart on every single passing metric and with flying colours, too. His inherent ability to carve a pass out of thin air has been a critical part of the South American’s style of play since he replaced Deco back in 2004. Ronaldo’s passing has never been a strong point of his and the statistics show. All of his ratings are in the 70s, whereas all bar one of Messi’s passing statistics are comfortably in the 90s bracket.

Dribbling - Lionel Messi (94) > Cristiano Ronaldo (79)

Agility - Lionel Messi (91) > Cristiano Ronaldo (76)

Balance – Lionel Messi (95) > Cristiano Ronaldo (61)

Reactions – Lionel Messi (88) > Cristiano Ronaldo (87)

Ball control – Lionel Messi (93) > Cristiano Ronaldo (86)

Dribbling – Lionel Messi (96) > Cristiano Ronaldo (77)

Composure – Lionel Messi (96) > Cristiano Ronaldo (92)

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Another landslide for Messi but that was expected, right? Weaving in and out of players has become second nature to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, and it’s safe to say he has the ability to lift bums off seats with that exact part of his game. The most notable chasm is between their respective balance scores as Messi ranks highly with 95 while Ronaldo’s score of 61 is one to put away in the filing cabinet to never look at again.

Although dribbling was always going to swing in Messi’s favour, it highlights that Ronaldo’s age has taken a toll on his dribbling stats considering he was bamboozling defenders back in the day with his unreadable bag of tricks.

Defending - Cristiano Ronaldo (34) > Lionel Messi (33)

Interceptions – Lionel Messi (40) > Cristiano Ronaldo (29)

Heading accuracy – Cristiano Ronaldo (87) > Lionel Messi (60)

Defensive awareness – Cristiano Ronaldo (24) > Lionel Messi (20)

Stand tackle – Lionel Messi (35) > Cristiano Ronaldo (32)

Slide tackle – Lionel Messi (24) = Cristiano Ronaldo (24)

Players of their ilk have no reason to defend, so it’s little surprise to see their respective ratings just scrape above 30. The enigmatic Ronaldo’s second win of the day does come in the defending department, however, despite it not holding much weight in the old-age debate of ‘Who’s better?’. They both share a 24 rating on their slide tackles, but that is the only statistic out of them all that they share an equal ground on throughout.

Physicality - Cristiano Ronaldo (74) > Lionel Messi (64)

Jumping – Cristiano Ronaldo (93) > Lionel Messi (71)

Stamina – Cristiano Ronaldo (77) > Lionel Messi (70)

Strength – Cristiano Ronaldo (76) > Lionel Messi (68)

Aggression - Cristiano Ronaldo (62) > Lionel Messi (44)

Ronaldo has been known as an athletic anomaly since the formative stages of his career, while Messi’s diminutive size, albeit not detrimental, has never been a strong aspect of his game. Ronaldo runs out the victor in all four subcategories though his jumping win is the only convincing one out of the four.

The Saudi Pro League ace boasts an impressive 93 rating for his jumping and that’s no surprise given we have seen ample times when he has risen like a salmon to tower over his defender in order to get to the ball first. But the strength ratings certainly have legs to be a topic of discussion, considering Ronaldo only trumps Messi by eight.