Lionel Messi in the context of 2008–09 FC Barcelona season

In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports. In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾiʃˈtjɐnu ʁɔˈnaldu duʃ ˈsɐ̃tuʃ aˈvej.ɾu] ; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for, and captains, both Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr and the Portugal national team. Nicknamed CR7, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, and has won numerous individual accolades throughout his career, including five Ballon d'Ors, a record three UEFA Men's Player of the Year Awards, four European Golden Shoes, and was named five times the world's best player by FIFA. He has won 34 trophies in his career, including five UEFA Champions Leagues and the UEFA European Championship. He holds the records for most goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals (14) and assists (8) in the European Championship, and most international appearances (226) and international goals (143). He is the only player to have scored 100 goals with four different clubs. He has made over 1,300 professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored over 950 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer of all time.

Born in Funchal, Madeira, Ronaldo began his career with Sporting CP before signing with Manchester United in 2003. He became a star player at United, where he won three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League, and the FIFA Club World Cup. His 2007–08 season earned him his first Ballon d'Or at age 23. In 2009, Ronaldo became the subject of the then-most expensive transfer in history when he joined Real Madrid in a deal worth €94 million (£80 million). At Madrid, he was at the forefront of the club's resurgence as a dominant European force, helping them win four Champions Leagues between 2014 and 2018, including the long-awaited La Décima. He also won two La Liga titles, including the record-breaking 2011–12 season in which Madrid reached 100 points, and became the club's all-time top goalscorer. He won Ballon d'Ors in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, and was runner-up three times to Lionel Messi, his perceived career rival. Following issues with the club hierarchy, Ronaldo signed for Juventus in 2018 in a transfer worth an initial €100 million, where he was pivotal in winning two Serie A titles. In 2021, he returned to United before joining Al-Nassr in 2023.

The Argentina national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol de Argentina), nicknamed la Albiceleste (lit. 'the White and Sky Blue'), represents Argentina in men's international football and is administered by the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (lit. 'Argentine Football Association'), the governing body of football in Argentina. It has been a member of FIFA since 1912 and a founding member of CONMEBOL since 1916. It was also a member of PFC, the unified confederation of the Americas from 1946 to 1961.

They are the reigning world champions, having won the most recent FIFA World Cup in 2022, earning their third star shown by the team's crest. Overall, Argentina has appeared in a FIFA World Cup final six times, a record equaled by Italy and surpassed only by Brazil and Germany. Argentina played in the inaugural World Cup final in 1930, which they lost 4–2 to Uruguay. The following final appearance came 48 years later, in 1978, when the team captained by Daniel Passarella defeated the Netherlands 3–1 in extra time, becoming world champions for the first time. Captained by Diego Maradona, Argentina won their second World Cup eight years later, in 1986, with a 3–2 final victory over West Germany. They reached the final once more under the guidance of Maradona, in 1990, but were ultimately beaten 1–0 by West Germany. A few decades later, Argentina, captained by Lionel Messi made their fifth final appearance in 2014, losing to Germany 1–0 after extra time. In 2022, again captained by Messi, they were crowned world champions for the third time, the fourth-most of any country, beating France 4–2 on penalties, following a 3–3 draw after extra time. The team's World Cup–winning managers are César Luis Menotti in 1978, Carlos Bilardo in 1986 and Lionel Scaloni in 2022. In addition, Argentina has also been very successful in the Copa América, with a record 16 titles, most recently winning the 2024 edition. They are also the only nation to have won the Copa América three consecutive times: they did it in 1945, 1946 and 1947. Furthermore, Argentina won the inaugural FIFA Confederations Cup in 1992 and is the most successful team in the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, having won it twice, in 1993 and 2022. The national team also won the Panamerican Championship in 1960. In total, with 23 official titles won as of 2025, Argentina holds the record in senior official titles won.

Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation. MLS is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984. MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The inaugural season took place in 1996 with ten teams. MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years, losing millions of dollars and folding two teams in 2002. Since then, developments such as the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums around the league, the implementation of the Designated Player Rule allowing teams to sign star players such as David Beckham and Lionel Messi, and national TV contracts have made MLS profitable.

The European Golden Shoe, also known as the European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the player with the most points in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture of a football boot. The award, originally called Soulier d'Or, French for Golden Shoe, was launched in the 1967–68 season, and was given to the top goalscorer in all European leagues during a season. Since 1997, it has been calculated using a weighting in favour of the highest ranked leagues. Originally presented by L'Équipe newspaper, it has been awarded by the European Sports Media since the 1996–97 season. Lionel Messi has won the award a record six times, more than any other player in history.

The UEFA Champions League, known until 1992 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or colloquially as the European Cup, is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955. Originally a straight knockout competition open only to champion clubs, the tournament was expanded during the 1990s to incorporate a round-robin group phase and more teams. The expansion resulted in more games being played, increasing players' goalscoring chances; thus the rankings are weighted in favour of modern players: only six out of the 59 players on the list never competed in the reformed Champions League.

With 140 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the all-time top scorer in the Champions League, with Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski being the only other players to have reached triple figures. Ronaldo has also finished as the top scorer for the most individual seasons in the competition's history, doing so seven times.

In top-level association football competitions, 26 players have scored 500 or more goals in both club and international football, according to research by the IFFHS, first published in 2007. Taking into account competitions of all levels, 82 players have reached the milestone, according to the RSSSF. FIFA, the international governing body of football, has never released a list detailing the highest goalscorers and does not keep official records. It is challenging for statisticians and media to agree on which goals should be counted, with debate over whether to include those scored in friendlies, regional competitions, and even matches taking place during wartime. Hungarian Imre Schlosser is generally recognised as the first to reach the 500-goal mark, doing so in 1927 shortly before his retirement. Nine players have accomplished the feat at a single club: Josef Bican (Slavia Prague), Jimmy Jones (Glenavon), Jimmy McGrory (Celtic), Joe Bambrick (Linfield), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich), Pelé (Santos), Fernando Peyroteo (Sporting CP), and Uwe Seeler (Hamburg). Of these nine, Messi scored the most, with 672 goals between his debut in 2004 and his departure in 2021.

In 2020, FIFA recognised Josef Bican, an Austrian-Czech dual international who played between the 1930s and the 1950s, as the record scorer with an estimated 805 goals, although CNN, the BBC, France 24, and O Jogo all acknowledge that Bican's tally includes goals scored for reserve teams and in unofficial international matches. UEFA, the governing body for European football, ranks him as the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues with 518 goals, narrowly ahead of Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. RSSSF credits Bican with 948 goals, a tally which includes goals scored in winter tournaments, as well as when selected to represent regional and city teams, and the Football Association of the Czech Republic claims a total of 821. Spanish newspapers Marca and Sport state that both Bican and Pelé scored 762 goals. Bican once walked out of a gala held in his honour by the IFFHS after the organisation had excluded war-time goals from his tally, although it later recognised the 229 goals he had scored during the period.

The 2008 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists, was awarded on 2 December 2008. Cristiano Ronaldo won the award, being his first of five. His win also began a 10-year dominance of the award between him and Lionel Messi — which eventually led to an intense rivalry between the two. Both players had won five Ballon d'Or awards before the dominance was ended in 2018 by Luka Modrić.

The 2011–12 La Liga season (known as the Liga BBVA for sponsorship reasons) was the 81st season of the top level Spanish association football competition. The campaign began on 27 August 2011, and concluded on 13 May 2012. Real Madrid won a record 32nd title following victory over Athletic Bilbao on 2 May 2012.

Real Madrid broke a number of league records, including most points in a single season (100), most goals scored (121), best goal difference (+89), most away wins (16), and most overall wins (32). This season also saw Lionel Messi score a record 50 league goals in 37 games. Behind Messi was Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 46 goals; the pair's combined tally of 96 goals was the most ever by two players playing in the same major European league in the same season.