Gap Reaches 46 Goals / Messi Refuses to Back Down: Dangerous Chase of Ronaldo
Just four days after his emotional farewell to Argentina's national team, Lionel Messi once again caused a stir with Inter Miami.
According to "Verzeh Se", Messi played a prominent role in his team's 4-0 victory over DC United at the New York Stadium by scoring two goals, just like Luis Suarez.
Messi brought his number of goals to 23 in the current MLS season and is known more than ever as the league's top scorer. Suarez was also the star of the field by scoring two goals in the first half that evened out the flow of the game.
Since the magnificent farewell ceremony with the Argentina national team on October 6 in Buenos Aires in the friendly match against Benin, Messi was able to attend all Intermiami matches and only traveled to Argentina for the historic match last Tuesday, in which he also scored one goal and provided two assists.
If we include the national games, Messi has scored in five consecutive games. He scored his first goal at the beginning of the second half using Suarez's pass inside the penalty area. An hour after the start of the game, Messi completed his brilliant night with a spectacular move. He made a spectacular start to weave his way through three defenders, into the penalty area and beat the goalkeeper with a chipped shot to bring joy to the fans at the NU Stadium.
What is the status of the competition to reach a thousand goals between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?
Cristiano Ronaldo still leads the race, although Lionel Messi is moving at a decent pace. The Portuguese star has reached 980 goals after scoring for Nasr against Al-Duriya on Friday and is just 20 goals away from reaching this historic number in professional football.
39-year-old Messi also reduced his distance with two goals scored against DC United on October 10. These two goals brought the number of goals of this Argentinian player to 934, which includes 672 goals for Barcelona, 32 goals for PSG, 104 goals for Intermiami and 126 goals for Argentina. In this way, he still needs 66 goals to reach 1000.
The difference between these two legends is now 46 goals; The distance that makes Cristiano the main chance to reach the record of a thousand goals.
However, Messi continues to chase and his performance during 2026 has been remarkable: he has scored 38 goals in 41 matches so far. In the end, this particular battle is currently 980-934 in favor of Cristiano, and both continue to improve records that previously seemed unattainable for any footballer.