Neither can go on forever, with former Premier League goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer - who faced CR7 during his first spell at Manchester United - giving his take on where two all-time greats stand and who is ready to follow in their record-shattering footsteps.
Schwarzer told Joe Fortune: “Sometimes you look at it and go, is Cristiano Ronaldo a guaranteed starter for Portugal every time? At the moment, it seems like he is, but I don't know whether he still should be.
“Look, his records are phenomenal. His transition from a wide player to a striker, his goalscoring record is just insane, as is Lionel Messi's. Messi's continuous dominance in that number 10 role created midfield play. Goals he scored, probably fewer goals these days, but still involvements, match involvements, key moments in games still right up there. I think they are two phenomenal players and will go down as two of the greats to have ever played a game of football. So we're talking about two phenomenal players.
“When I played against Cristiano Ronaldo, he was at the sort of beginning of his career at Manchester United. And people talk about him as being this world-class player that played in the Premier League. I disagree. I think he was a top-class player and he was growing. He was growing into the player he became when he went to Madrid, because he wasn't the same player. When he went to Madrid, that's when he grew into that superstar for me, personally.
“I thought he was a top-class player at Man United for the last 6 months to 12 months. But before that, I thought he was just a huge talent, and a brilliant player, but not the superstar that we knew or saw how they go on to be.
“They're two very different players and two players that have changed games themselves, single-handedly, time and time again. The records that they've achieved probably, I can't say never be broken, but I mean, they can look at players like Erling Haaland, what he's doing, but it's going to take some doing to break them.”
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