Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero has insisted Lionel Messi is a better goalscorer than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi recently broke Ronaldo's record for the most goals in European football after scoring his 702nd in Paris Saint-Germain's 2-0 win over Nice in Ligue 1 on Saturday. As a result, the age-old debate over which player is better was relaunched and Aguero waded in during a Twitch stream.
While watching a compilation of Ronaldo and Messi's best goals, Aguero backed his Argentine compatriot, describing Ronaldo's as "all free-kick goals and pure luck". "Look where he scores the goal from," Aguero said via Medio Tiempo.
"Come on. All free-kick goals and pure luck. Messi's are all at the angle, stupid. But what does [Ronaldo] do? Goalkeeper's fault. I think Raul has better goals, [Karim] Benzema I think he has better ones."
Aguero also stated Ronaldo "cannot match Messi" and claimed his 40-yard strike against Porto in 2009, which won the FIFA Puskas Award that year, was down to "a mistake by the goalkeeper". He added: "How many free-kick goals were shown? Out of the top 20, Ronaldo's 15 were free-kicks. In Messi's top 20 goals, in 15 of them he dribbled past five players."
The forward is, of course, close friends with Messi stemming from their days as teammates in Argentina's youth setup, with Messi also the godfather of Aguero's son Benjamin. Aguero was unfortunately forced to retire in 2021 due to a heart problem, while Messi has been linked with a return to Barcelona this summer with his PSG contract due to expire at the end of the season.
Discussions over a new deal with the French giants have been put on hold and Barcelona recently confirmed they had made contact with Messi to discuss a potential return to the Camp Nou, with Barcelona's vice-president Rafa Yuste proclaiming that he is confident "fate will make it possible" for the club to re-sign the 35-year-old. "Leo and his family know the affection we have for them," he stated last month.
"I participated in the [contract] negotiations that in the end did not come to fruition unfortunately and I still have that thorn in my side. Of course I would love to see him return and I am sure that many fans share my feeling. I believe beautiful stories in life have to have happy endings and that's why we are in contact with Messi, of course.
"When you're in love with a person, you lose contact but you want to continue being in love and I think Leo is also in love with Barca and the city of Barcelona. I think fate will make it possible. Let's see if we can have Leo back in Barcelona."
