Miralem Pjanic chooses best freekick taker between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Bosnian midfielder, Miralem Pjanic, who also played with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo previously was once asked to choose the best free-kick taker in the world among both star players. He played with Ronaldo for two seasons at Juventus before moving to Barcelona in 2020. He was then sold to Sharjah FC in the year 2022

The 32-year-old didn’t come up with any diplomatic answer and chose Messi as the best free-kick taker in his opinion. He said that the Argentina star may be practicing free kick once or twice a year, while he does it twice a week for 20-30 minutes.

“Messi. I’ve practised free-kicks twice a week for 20-30 minutes a day, for my entire life. Maybe he practices one or twice a year, and that’s how he takes them,” Pjanic told Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport in March last year.

Pjanic was the designated free-kick taker for Juventus until Ronaldo arrived from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018. The Bosnian used to score directly from a free kick He has scored 21 goals from free kicks in his club career playing for FC Metz, Olympique Lyonnais, AS Roma, Juve, and Besiktas before moving to the UAE.

Messi – Ronaldo in a race for most goals scored from direct free-kicks

Messi scored the 62nd free-kick goal of his career during Argentina’s friendly match with Panama on Friday, where Argentina won by 2-0. On the other hand, Ronaldo scored from a set-piece outside the box when Portugal defeated Liechtenstein by 4-0 on Friday. With that strike, the Portugues took his tally to 60.

Messi is currently leading the chart with 62 free-kick goals, which is the most by any footballer in the world. Meanwhile, Ronaldo is not much far behind the Argentina star as he has now registered 60 goals with a free kick.

Also, Messi registered the 800th goal of his football career, while Ronaldo is the first one to achieve this milestone with 830 goals in his career. He also set another record by making his 197th international appearance in Men’s football.