Is the penalty kick counted as a goal? After leaving Europe, Messi and Ronaldo compare the penalty kick! Ronaldo crushes Messi

Ronaldo and Messi are the two most prolific penalty shooters of all time, but their records have been very different since leaving Europe.

Excluding the penalty shootout, Ronaldo scored a total of 208 penalty kicks and scored 175, with an amazing efficiency.

Since leaving Europe, the 40-year-old Ronaldo's main offensive weapon has become a penalty kick. 25.3% of his winning goals in Riyadh came from penalty kicks.

Since joining Riyadh for victory, he has scored 27 penalties, including 25 goals. During this period, he also scored 4 penalty goals for the Portuguese national team.

On the other hand, Messi has only had two penalty kicks since joining Miami International in 2023. In general, Messi scored 52 goals for Miami International, with only 3.8% coming from penalties.

For the national team, since joining Miami International, Messi has not paid a penalty for Argentina in regular time, but he paid a penalty against Ecuador in the Copa America penalty last year.

So, what is the reason why Ronaldo has scored more penalty kicks than Messi in recent seasons? The main and obvious factor is that Riyadh victory has received much more penalty kicks in recent seasons compared to Miami International.

In the 2024-25 Saudi Professional League, Riyadh won 13 penalty kicks, and Ronaldo scored 9 of them.

By comparison, Miami only received one penalty throughout the 2024 Major League Soccer game, with Messi scoring the penalty against Nashville.

Another contributor is that since joining Miami, Messi has been happy to hand over the penalty responsibility to other players on the team.

Suarez, Leonardo Campana and Joseph Martinez have all received penalty kicks since Messi joined the club.

In fact, since he joined Miami International in the summer of 2023, he has only won eight penalties in all games, and Messi himself has only two of them. In contrast, since Ronaldo joined, Riyadh has won 37 penalties, and Ronaldo has made 27 of them himself. This means that Ronaldo is already the team's well-deserved penalty kicker.

The following is a complete comparison of the penalty records of Messi and Ronaldo after they each left Europe.

Messi's penalty record after leaving Europe

Miami International

Please points: 2

Please: 2

Conversion rate: 100%

Argentina

Please points: 0

Please: 0

Conversion rate: None

Overall

Please points: 2

Please: 2

Conversion rate: 100%

Ronaldo's penalty record after leaving Europe

Riyadh Victory

Finished points: 27

Finished: 25

Conversion rate: 92.6%

Portugal

Pulls: 6

Finished: 4

Conversion rate: 66.7%

Overall

Punished: 33

Finished: 29

Conversion rate: 87.9%