20 years and 11 days…an amazing coincidence that brings together Messi and Ronaldo in the World Cup | sports

Cristiano Ronaldo, the captain of the Portuguese national team, shares a distinguished scoring record with his traditional rival, Lionel Messi, the captain of Argentina, after the former scored two goals that contributed to his country’s victory on Tuesday with five clean goals against the Uzbek national team in the 2026 World Cup.

Ronaldo became the first player to score in 6 different editions of the World Cup, which made him unique in the historical record, but at the same time he shares another unique record with Messi.

According to the Opta statistical network on the X platform, the time difference between Ronaldo’s first World Cup goals ever and his most recent goals is 20 years and 11 days.

Ironically, the time difference between Messi’s first goals in the World Cup and the events of his goals is also the same, 20 years and 11 days.

Ronaldo scored his first goal on June 16 against the Iranian national team in the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, where Portugal won 2-0 at that time.

As for Messi, he scored his first World Cup goal on June 16, 2006 against Serbia and Montenegro in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, during the match that ended in a 6-0 victory for Argentina.

Portugal is close to qualifying for the round of 32 in the 2026 World Cup, after Ronaldo led them to a landslide victory over Uzbekistan.

Ronaldo opened the scoring (6) and became the second oldest player to score a goal in the finals (41 years and 138 days) after Cameroonian Roger Milla (42 years and 39 days), before Nuno Mendes added the second from a direct free kick (17).

Ronaldo scored third for his country (39), surpassing Eusebio, who has the highest number of goals scored for Portugal in the World Cup (9), before goalkeeper Abdul-Wahid Nematov added fourth by mistake in his own net (60) and substitute Rafael Leao fifth (87).