Two all-time greats featured on either side of Spanish football’s biggest divide between 2009 and 2018. The Messi vs Ronaldo El Clasico head to head record offers some clues as to which player had the better of that rivalry, although it’s a debate that is sure to rage on long after both men have retired.
Neither Leo Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo still play their club football in Spain, and while El Clasico has felt like a slightly lesser event in recent years, things are heating up again thanks to Barca’s resurgence in the 2024/25 season under Hansi Flick.
Barcelona are the clear favourites to win LaLiga according to the online betting app 1xBet, but potentially the biggest Clasico since Messi’s 2021 departure from Spain takes place in May. That could go a long way to deciding who wins this season’s title, as the likes of Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe steer this iconic fixture into a new era.
Messi vs Ronaldo El Clasico wins
For many football fans, the Messi-Ronaldo years represent the golden era of El Clasico. It was a period when Barcelona tended to get the better of their rivals in LaLiga, with Cristiano Ronaldo only on the winning side against Messi in four league Clasicos in nine seasons, losing 10.
Messi also has the better overall record in El Clasico, with more than twice as many victories as his counterpart, although he did feature in 15 more matches. The Argentine’s Clasico win ratio stands at a healthy 42%, compared to Ronaldo’s 27%.
In the 30 Clasico matches where both players featured (either as a starter or used off the bench), Messi won 14 to Ronaldo’s eight, while there were eight draws.
That covers the 18 meetings in LaLiga during the Portuguese legend’s time in Spain, as well as five Supercopa matches, five Copa del Rey matches, and the Champions League semi-final between the sides which Barca won 3-1 on aggregate in 2011.
Messi vs Ronaldo stats in El Clasico
With 26 goals in El Clasico, Messi is the highest scoring player in the long history of the fixture. Ronaldo’s return of 18 is the joint-second highest, along with fellow Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano.
Ronaldo’s average of 0.6 goals per game in Clasico matches, is actually slightly better than Messi’s 0.58, although the Barca legend is way out ahead with 14 assists in the fixture, compared to his rival’s three.
Messi also netted two hat-tricks in El Clasico, the first when he was still a teenager in a 3-3 draw in the 2006/07 season of LaLiga, while he repeated the feat in a 4-3 win at the Bernabeu in March 2014.
Messi vs Ronaldo head to head games – Five iconic meetings
2010/11 Champions League – Real Madrid 0-2 Barcelona
The biggest stage that the two players ever met on was surely the Champions League semi-final clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2011. It was peak Pep-era Barca up against Los Blancos in their first season under Jose Mourinho, the man who had masterminded Inter’s European triumph over the Catalans in the previous campaign.
In a predictably feisty first leg at the Bernabeu, Pepe saw red for Madrid, before Messi fired in two late goals to silence the home faithful and leave Barca on course for a 3-1 aggregate win, and ultimately their fourth Champions League title.
2011/12 LaLiga – Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid
Barcelona were clearly the superior team when Ronaldo moved to Madrid in 2009, but that gap had narrowed by the time of the 2011/12 season when Barca were bidding for a fourth Spanish title in four years under Guardiola.
Los Blancos were already in pole position in LaLiga heading into El Clasico on matchday 35, and they effectively clinched the title with a 2-1 win at Camp Nou, with Mesut Ozil setting up Ronaldo to score a 73rd minute winner.
2012/13 LaLiga – Barcelona 2-2 Real Madrid
If a fixture summed up the impact these two extraordinary players had on Spanish football in the 2010s, it was probably this one.
With both men at the peak of their powers, both scored twice in a 2-2 draw in the biggest club game in world football in October 2012 at Camp Nou.
Barca went on to regain the title that season, with Messi and Ronaldo scoring a stunning combined total of 80 goals in LaLiga.
2013/14 LaLiga – Real Madrid 3-4 Barcelona
There were three more Messi El Clasico goals in the following season’s league meeting at the Bernabeu. The Barca number 10 was at his dazzling best that day, also setting up Andres Iniesta for the game’s opener in a match that swung one way and then the other.
Ronaldo put Los Blancos 3-2 up heading into the final half hour, but a red card for Sergio Ramos in the 63rd minute helped to turn the tide back in the visiting team’s favour.
2017/18 Supercopa – Barcelona 1-3 Real Madrid
The Messi vs Ronaldo all time stats, in El Clasico matches at least, headed into their final chapter at the start of the 2017/18 campaign, Ronaldo’s final season in Spain.
The clubs met in the Spanish Supercopa, which at the time was still a two-legged, pre-season affair. Having won back-to-back Champions League titles, it felt as though the tide was turning in Madrid’s favour by this point, and they hammered home that apparent superiority with a commanding 3-1 victory at Camp Nou in the first leg.
Ronaldo scored a screamer to put Los Blancos in front in a tie they’d go on to win 5-1, although a second yellow card for what the referee adjudged as a dive, meant he missed the second leg.
