10 Football Superstars’ Favourite Opponents | All-time Ranking

Favourite opponents are what football teams dread most, because when their nemesis gets the slightest opportunity, even a perfect matchday is instantly plunged into devastating chaos

Throughout football history, the elite tier of goalscorers has rendered the most effective defensive units entirely useless on their way to achieving historic numbers that made their names iconic.

For these superstars, certain opposing crests didn’t just represent another matchday; they represented an inevitable, recurring clinic in clinical finishing, one that even the fans on the opposite end shiver at the expectation of a haunting 90-minute.

Every legendary marksman has that one specific adversary. It’s the fixture where everything just clicks, where the bounce of the ball always falls kindly, and where opposing defenders are gripped by a familiar sense of dread before the game even kicks off.

From Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to the stars of the 20th century, we rank football’s version of psychological ownership, the most devastating player-vs-club relationships the sport has ever witnessed.

10 Football Superstars’ Favourite Opponents

Before we head into the list of selected 10, we acknowledge the king ownership in football, Stefan Dembicki, who holds the all-time record for the most goals scored in a single match by netting 16 goals in RC Lens’s 32-0 win over Auby Asturies in December 1942.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Favourite Opponent: Sevilla

Stats: 27 goals in 18 appearances (Real Madrid)

Cristiano Ronaldo’s favourite opponent is Spanish club Sevilla, against whom he scored 27 goals in 18 games during his nine years with Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018.

The Portuguese legend scored 25 times in 15 La Liga games against Los Nervionenses, while he added two more in the 2014 UEFA Super Cup final to seal a 2-0 victory for Real Madrid. He featured two more times against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey but didn’t find the back of the net.

On the international stage with the Portuguese team, whose his emergence transformed into one of the best teams in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo’s favorite opponent is Luxembourg, against whom he has scored 11 goals.

2. Lionel Messi’s Favourite Opponent: Sevilla

Stats: 38 goals in 43 appearances (FC Barcelona)

Lionel Messi’s favorite opponent is Sevilla, unfortunately for the club, who had to endure facing the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner 43 times so far in his illustrious career, conceding 38 goals in those games.

Lionel Messi scored in all four competitions where he has faced Sevilla, La Liga, the Spanish and UEFA Super Cup, and the Copa del Rey. 30 of the goals came in 29 league games, four in the Spanish Super Cup, and two each in the other two competitions.

With Argentina on the international stage, Lionel Messi’s favorite opponent bag is Bolivia, against whom he has scored 11 goals in 12 games across qualifiers, friendlies, and the Copa America.

3. Pelé’s Favourite Opponent: Corinthians

Stats: 50 goals in 48 appearances (Santos FC)

During his history-making years in Brazil, Pelé’s favorite opponent was Corinthians, producing 50 goals in 48 Santos games across all competitions against their harsh rivals as he helped his team dominate domestically.

Pele famously went on an 11-year unbeaten streak against Corinthians from 1958 to 1968, a period where he was able to stack up some incredible numbers against Timão.

On the international stage, with Brazil, Pelé’s favorite opponent was Paraguay, against whom he scored 10 official goals. He also historically punished Argentina, netting eight goals against Brazil’s fiercest rivals.

4. Romario’s Favourite Opponents: Botafogo and Olaria

Stats: 34 goals each (Vasco da Gama, Flamengo, and Fluminense)

Throughout his career, Romario’s favorite opponents were Botafogo and Olaria, both of whom conceded 34 goals to the lethal striker during his almost 25-year career.

Interestingly, Botafogo is the only traditional Big Four club in Rio de Janeiro that he never played for, and they suffered heavily because of it. He scored 34 goals against them across his time with Vasco da Gama, Flamengo, and Fluminense.

Olaria holds a special place in its history because it was the club where Romário played as a youth, but as a professional, he showed them no mercy, scoring 34 goals in all of their reunions.

On the international stage with the Brazil national team, Romário’s favorite opponent was Venezuela, against whom he scored six goals in competitive matches.

5. Ferenc Puskas’s Favourite Opponent: Real Zaragoza

Stats: 29 goals in 18 appearances (Real Madrid)

While a complete match-by-match data set for his early days in the high-scoring Hungarian league is partially obscured by time, Ferenc Puskás’s favorite opponent in La Liga with Real Madrid was Real Zaragoza.

Puskás routinely decimated Los Blanquillos, scoring 29 goals against them in domestic competitions, including a legendary 6-goal performance in a single Copa del Generalísimo (now Copa del Rey) match in June 1961, which Real Madrid won 7-1.

With Hungary’s iconic Mighty Magyars, Ferenc Puskás’s favorite opponent was Austria, who succumbed to him 14 times, including on his international debut in August 1945, as well as two distinct international hat-tricks.

6. Robert Lewandowski’s Favourite Opponent: Borussia Dortmund

Stats: 29 goals in 29 appearances (Bayern Munich & Barcelona)

Despite scoring over 100 goals for the Black and Yellow Walls, Robert Lewandowski’s favourite opponent is still Borussia Dortmund, whom he represented between 2010 and 2014. He scored 29 goals in 29 games against them.

After joining Bayern as a free agent in 2014, the Polish striker showed no mercy in games against BVB, scoring an astonishing 23 goals in 15 Bundesliga games adding four more in other competitions to take it to 27. He then scored twice in two Barcelona games against them.

On the international stage with the Polish national team, Lewandowski has spread his goals wide, but his most punished opponents are San Marino and Gibraltar, netting six goals against each country.

7. Gerd Müller’s Favourite Opponent: Hamburger SV

Stats: 31 goals in 32 appearances (Bayern Munich)

The legendary Der Bomber, as he was famously known, Gerd Müller’s favourite opponent during his career was Hamburger SV, with 31 goals, 26 of which came in the Bundesliga, which has survived the years as the most by a single player against the same team.

Although Muller faced them in other competitions and his goal tally could rise to well over 31, the discrepancy often comes down to tracking friendlies versus official competitions because goals from friendly games didn’t count officially at the time.

On the international stage with West Germany, Müller scored 68 goals in just 62 games, but his favorite opponents were Albania and Cyprus, scoring six goals against each opponent in just a handful of appearances.

8. Luis Suarez’s Favourite Opponent: Valencia

Stats: 14 goals in 17 appearances (Barcelona & Atlético Madrid)

Luis Suarez’s favourite opponent is Valencia. With 14 goals in 17 games against them while playing for Barcelona and Atlético Madrid across all domestic competitions in Spain, against no other team has he scored more.

Only two of those goals came in an Atleti shirt, with his most devastating form coming in his Barcelona prime, which included a four-goal haul during a 7-0 Copa del Rey semi-final first leg victory in Camp Nou back in February 2016.

For the Uruguay national team, El Pistolero also had a preferred target. He has eight international goals against Chile, more than against any other nation, regularly acting as their primary obstacle in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers and Copa América tournaments.

9. Zlatan Ibrahimović’s Favourite Opponent: AS Saint-Etienne

Stats: 17 goals in 15 appearances (Paris Saint-Germain)

Statistically, Zlatan Ibrahimović’s favorite opponent throughout his club career was French side AS Saint-Étienne. During his time with Paris Saint-Germain and a brief spell with Manchester United, the Swedish striker absolutely terrorized the Ligue 1 outfit.

He scored 17 goals against them across all competitions, 14 for PSG and a hat-trick for Manchester United during an Europa League round of 32 clash at Old Trafford in 2017.

On the international stage with Sweden, Ibrahimović found the most joy against Malta, netting six goals against them over his career. He also famously loved playing against England, while he only scored five goals against them in total, four came in a single iconic 2012 friendly, capped off by his legendary 30-yard overhead bicycle kick.

10. Karim Benzema’s Favourite Opponent: Athletic Club

Stats: 20 goals in 29 appearances (Real Madrid)

During his time in La Liga, Karim Benzema developed a reputation for tormenting specific defenses, especially in the latter days, and Athletic Club just about stands out as his favourite opponent.

Benzema consistently punished the Basque side, scoring 20 goals against them across all competitions, including a memorable hat-trick in a 3-0 Real Madrid win at the Bernabéu in 2019.

Over his 97 international caps, in which he scored 37 goals, he never scored more than 3 goals against any single country, and he remarkably never scored an international hat-trick. The Faroe Islands and Austria were his favourites.