Messi Breaks Ronaldo’s Record in Inter Miami’s 5-1 Win

July 21, 2025 - After scoring a brace in five matches in a row in Major League Soccer (MLS), Lionel Messi did not score in his sixth game. Inter Miami lost that match to Cincinnati, where the Argentine star could not find the net.

But on Sunday July 20, Messi came back strong and scored a brace again after just one match without a goal. With his brilliant performance, Inter Miami returned to winning ways. Inter Miami beat the New York Red Bulls 5-1 in the MLS match. Along with scoring two goals, Messi also gave an assist to a teammate. In this match, Messi also broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for the most goals scored without penalties.

Inter Miami had a slow start at Red Bull Arena, as they fell behind in the 14th minute when Alexander Heck scored for the Red Bulls. But the lead didn’t last long. Around 10 minutes later, Jordi Alba scored the equaliser after a brilliant assist from Messi, who made the pass despite being surrounded by three Red Bulls players.

With that assist, Messi reached a special milestone — he has now directly contributed to 30 or more goals in 19 consecutive calendar years, starting in 2007. He began this streak at Barcelona, continued it at PSG, and now at Inter Miami.

After Messi’s assist, Telasco Segovia added two more goals for Miami in the first half — one in the 27th minute and another in stoppage time (45+3’), giving the team a strong 3-1 lead at halftime.

After the break, it was Messi’s show. In the 60th minute, he scored a brilliant goal from a pass by Sergio Busquets, dribbling past the goalkeeper. In the 75th minute, he scored again with a smart finish to make it 5-1 for Miami.

With these two goals, Messi broke Ronaldo’s record for most goals scored without penalties. Out of Ronaldo’s 938 career goals, 763 were non-penalty goals. Messi now has 764 non-penalty goals, beating that number. His total career goals stand at 874, and he has achieved this in 167 fewer matches than Ronaldo.

With this big win, Inter Miami moved to 5th place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings. They now have 41 points from 21 matches, with 12 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses.

The top four teams have played three more games than Miami. Nashville is currently at the top with 47 points from 24 matches.