Playmaking is number one.
Lionel Messi attended Barcelona's renowned 'La Masia' academy. Catalan footballers are known for producing some of the best players of the contemporary age.
Messi is a more well-rounded footballer than Ronaldo, as his playmaking abilities are nearly equal to his goalscoring abilities.
Messi has 315 assists in 805 appearances across all competitions in his club career. In 929 appearances across all competitions, Ronaldo has provided 231 assists. Ronaldo has always been a goal scorer, whereas Messi has excelled in both areas.
The same may be seen in their statistics from this season. This season, he has made 28 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain in all competitions.
Free kicks are number two.
This is an intriguing issue because Cristiano Ronaldo had developed into one of the top free-kick takers in the world during his first spell at Manchester United. Even during his early days at Real Madrid, he pioneered the 'knuckleball' method and was a decent free-kick scorer.
Ronaldo's free-kick abilities, though, have deteriorated since then. Lionel Messi, on the other hand, added free kicks to his repertoire much later in his career. Since then, he has established himself as one of the top free-kick takers in the world. He has amazing technique and is really dependable.
Ronaldo scored 21 direct free kicks between 2009 and 2011, whereas Messi only had three. Messi, on the other hand, scored 23 direct free-kicks between 2017 and 2019.