Messi vs Ronaldo: Hat-trick stats compared

Agosto 30, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Lionel Messi‘s has scored yet another hat-trick for Inter Miami – but how does he compare to his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to bagging three goals in a game?

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner netted four in Miami’s 7-1 win over Montreal, showing that age is no barrier to his class.

Messi scored his first World Cup hat-trick with all three goals in Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Algeria. The first was a long-range stunner, while the third wasn’t bad either. He’s the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick, breaking Ronaldo’s record from 2018.

He’s scored three hat-tricks for Inter Miami and a further three hat-tricks for Argentina since completing football at the 2022 World Cup, while his old foe Ronaldo has filled his boots out in the Saudi Pro League with six for Al-Nassr.

But what about their prime years and their era-defining rivalry? We’ve delved into the numbers.

While Ronaldo filled his boots in his first couple of seasons out in the Middle East, it’s been over two years since his last hat-trick for club or country. Messi has scored five hat-tricks since Ronaldo last did.

Messi has scored 62 career hat-tricks in total, and as many on the international stage as Ronaldo. He’s now four hat-tricks behind the 41-year-old Al-Nassr striker, and it’s not inconceivable that he surpasses him on that front when they finally hang up their boots – something that grows ever closer for the two veterans.

While Ronaldo bests Messi on most fronts overall, he does have something of a head start – over two years older, with almost 200 more career appearances under his belt. If you look at their hat-trick numbers on a per-game basis, Messi actually has the edge.

Here’s the full breakdown of their hat-trick stats: