{"id":13533,"date":"2025-11-11T20:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/cristiano-ronaldo-admits-the-2026-world-cup-will-be-his-last-how-many-goals-difference-is-he-with-lionel-messi\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T20:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:54:26","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-admits-the-2026-world-cup-will-be-his-last-how-many-goals-difference-is-he-with-lionel-messi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/cristiano-ronaldo-admits-the-2026-world-cup-will-be-his-last-how-many-goals-difference-is-he-with-lionel-messi\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo admits the 2026 World Cup will be his last: how many goals difference is he with Lionel Messi?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Cristiano Ronaldo has officially confirmed that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the last of his professional career. <\/p>\n<p>The news, which many fans had hoped would remain just a rumor, was confirmed by the captain of the Portuguese national team himself, but it reopens the debate in his historic rivalry with Lionel Messi that goes beyond the World Cup. I mean, who has scored more goals for the national team?<\/p>\n<div class=\"ue-c-article__summary\">\n<figure class=\"ue-c-article__media ue-c-article__media--video  video-dailymotion\"><figcaption class=\"ue-c-article__media-caption\" itemprop=\"description\">\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__media-description\">Cristiano Ronaldo shows his superman vision with a great pass to Vicinha<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Cristiano vs Lionel: Which team scored more goals?<\/h2>\n<p>CR7 broke the hearts of some fans by confirming to CNN that this will be their last dance at the contest, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Absolutely, yes. I&#8217;m already 41 years old and I think (this) will be my moment in a big tournament,&#8221; Ronaldo said. <\/p>\n<p>The truth is that Cristiano scored 143 goals in the 225 games he played for Portugal. He became the all-time top scorer, ahead of Pedro Miguel Carreiro Rezendes, nicknamed &#8220;Pauleta&#8221; (47 points) and Eusbio da Silva Ferreira (41 points). <\/p>\n<p>He scored most of his goals in Euro Cup qualifiers (41) and World Cup qualifiers (41). He also scored 14 goals in the Eurocup.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Lionel Messi has scored a total of 114 goals in 195 games for the Argentina national team, making him the all-time leading scorer ahead of Gabriel Batistuta (54 goals) and Sergio &#8220;Kun&#8221; Ajello (42 goals).<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the balance is tipped in favor of the 38-year-old Argentina captain in the World Cup. Messi is his country&#8217;s top scorer in the competition with 13 goals, while Cristiano, with eight goals in total, is the only player to have scored in five different World Cups.<\/p>\n<p>Cristiano and Lionel, aged 40 and 38, are preparing for a new championship, but it could be the last not only for the Portuguese but also for the Argentine and current world champion. The next World Cup will therefore be more than just a tournament, it will be the beginning of the end of an era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/fifa-club-world-cup\/2025\/11\/11\/69139cbde2704e03658b45fc.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cristiano Ronaldo has officially confirmed that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the last of his professional career. The news, which many fans had hoped would remain just a rumor, was confirmed by the captain of the Portuguese national team himself, but it reopens the debate in his historic rivalry with Lionel Messi that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cristiano Ronaldo admits the 2026 World Cup will be his last: how many goals difference is he with Lionel Messi? - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/cristiano-ronaldo-admits-the-2026-world-cup-will-be-his-last-how-many-goals-difference-is-he-with-lionel-messi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cristiano Ronaldo admits the 2026 World Cup will be his last: how many goals difference is he with Lionel Messi? - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cristiano Ronaldo has officially confirmed that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the last of his professional career. 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