Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi won almost everything. Between Ballons d'Or, club and national goal records, and a longevity that defies logic, the two legends have redefined the notion of individual performance. However, a record still eludes them. And it is of an almost unimaginable scale, a timeless feat that neither the modernity of football nor raw talent has been able to match.
A record from another century
On December 13, 1942, a certain Stefan Dembicki, Franco-Polish striker for Racing Club de Lens, scored 16 goals alone during a Coupe de France match against Auby-Asturias (32–0). A surreal figure, which still sits at the top of the annals of world football today. No player, not even Panagiotis Pontikos in 2007 (16 goals in Cypriot D3), has managed to surpass him. And even less the monsters of the 21st century that are Messi and Ronaldo, whose best evenings stop at five goals.
If Dembicki's record remains inaccessible, it is also because times have changed. Professional football is today much more balanced, the differences in level have been reduced, and squad rotations prevent playing 90 minutes against significantly inferior opponents. Ronaldo, for example, struck five times against Granada in 2015; Messi had done the same against Osasuna three years earlier. Exceptional performances, certainly, but light years from this 16 to zero.
16 goals in one match! The crazy feat that neither Messi nor Ronaldo have approached!
Even the gods have their limits
On the international scene, it is the Australian Archie Thompson who has the most impressive mark: 13 goals in a single match, against American Samoa (31–0) in 2001. And at the World Cup, it is Miroslav Klose who remains the king, with 16 goals scored over four editions. To each his own, but none of them approached the statistical frenzy of the Lensois striker in 1942.
Ronaldo and Messi have known it all: glory, titles, history. But some records, by their very nature, seem out of reach. Dembicki’s is one of them. This historical reminder, far from diminishing their exploits, underlines the extent to which these two legends evolve in another register: that of constancy, perfection and duration. And if CR7 and Messi needed one more reason to extend their careers, the quest for the impossible is surely one.
