Radamel Falcao: Can He Score Many Goals Like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?

Radamel Falcao starts the La Liga BBVA season for Atletico Madrid by claiming (according to the La Liga BBVA website with a h/t to an article written by Stefan Coerts of Goal) that he can score plenty of goals in the same vein as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Falcao went further and declared that he is willing to challenge Messi and Ronaldo for the top goalscorer position in La Liga BBVA. He even said that he was used to the ways of La Liga compared with Messi and Ronaldo.

In response to the latest declarations of Falcao, a decision was made to compare the principal achievements of Messi, Ronaldo, and Falcao. The result is to arrive at a conclusion with regards to Falcao's declaration.

Lionel Messi

Messi is one of the greatest goalscorers in FC Barcelona and the world in present times. An example of Messi's accomplishments came in the UEFA Champions Leaguematch between FC Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen at Camp Nou on March 7, 2012.

The result of the match was a victory for FC Barcelona with seven points. The author of the five of the seven goals was Messi. Bayer Leverkusen managed to score one goal.

Messi also set a record during the 2011-2012 by accumulating a total of 68 goals in his career.

Lionel Messi
Rich Schultz/Getty Images

In the process (as reported byESPN), Messi broke the record of 67 goals set by Bayern Munich's Gerd Muller during the 1972-173 season. Messi did this during the FC Barcelona VS Malaga FC match in May 2012.

The result was another victory for Malaga FC. According to ESPN, Messi has 248 goals within 326 Barca matches under his belt.

Messi has been the recipient of the Ballon D'Or three times in a row for 2009, 2010, and 2011. Messi has also won ESPY Awards.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is also an accomplished goalscorer and football player in his own right for Real Madrid. I may not agree with the author, but an article published at ESPN Soccernet claims he is in the same league as Messi and David Beckham

According to ESPN Soccernet, Ronaldo managed to score 42 goals within the 2007-2008 season while at Manchester United. He was also the recipient of the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Ronaldo won the La Liga Pichichi award for the 2010-2011 Real Madrid season as the top scorer. He scored 46 goals for Real Madrid during the 2011-2012 season.

Cristiano Ronaldo
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

The Real Madrid CF website reveals that Ronaldo is the recipient of the Golden Boot, Ballon D'Or, FA Premier League Player of the Year, and FIFA World Player Awards. Ronaldo is also the recipient of the FIFPro World Player of the Year, UEFA Club Footballer of the Year and UEFA Club Forward of the Year Award.

Ronaldo received the praise of Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson in July 2009 for his style of play, according to ESPN Soccernet.

Radamel Falcao

According to the Atletico Madrid website, Falcao played 51 matches with the team. His total minutes of play with Atletico Madrid is 4,590 minutes.

He participated in UEFA Europa League, the Protuguese Supercopas, and Copa. Falcao has been rumored to be signing with a Premier League team. Messi has even praised Falcao in the past.

During the 2011-2012 season, Falcao scored 39 goals and started 52 matches, according to ESPN Soccernet.  He had 167 shots with 82 shots on goal.

Falcao has received a special award (according to Colombia Reports) for a season that broke records in the UEFA Europa League. He is the recipient of the Portuguese Golden Ball for his efforts with Porto.

Radamel Falcao
Clive Rose/Getty Images

The Results

Falcao could challenge Messi and Ronaldo for the most goals, but there is one problem: he cannot oevrtake players who have become legends among legends in football.

There can also be no comparison between the three since each player (Falcao, Messi, and Ronaldo) are different personalities. What Falcao could do is not think of challenging Messi and Ronaldo in order to concentrate on his own style.

Falcao would be best served to focus on his own game. When a person makes comparisons, they will find people better or lesser than themselves.