{"id":572768,"date":"2025-11-15T21:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/572768\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T21:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:08:14","slug":"spain-star-fabian-ruiz-surpasses-zidane-with-international-record-not-even-messi-or-cristiano-ronaldo-reached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/572768\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain star Fabian Ruiz surpasses Zidane with international record not even Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo reached"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Saturday, Spain <\/strong>defeated Georgia <\/strong>4\u20130 on Matchday 5 of Group E in the European qualifiers and moved within one step of securing their place in the FIFA World Cup 2026.<\/strong> There, Fabian Ruiz<\/strong> surpassed Zinedine Zidane<\/a><\/strong> and reached an impressive milestone that not even Lionel Messi<\/strong> and Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong> managed to achieve.<\/p>\n

With the win over Georgia, Ruiz<\/a><\/strong> reached 40 consecutive matches with the Spain national team without suffering a defeat<\/strong>. That streak began with his international debut in 2019 and has continued to this day. The Paris Saint-Germain<\/strong> midfielder moved past Zidane, who with France went 39 matches without losing between 1997 and 2001.<\/p>\n

Fabian Ruiz now sits in third place in the all-time ranking<\/strong>. Above him are only two retired players: Spain\u2019s Carlos Marchena<\/strong> (57 matches from 2003 to 2010) and Brazil\u2019s Mane Garrincha<\/strong> (49 matches from 1955 to 1966).<\/p>\n

The Spanish player\u2019s impressive numbers speak to his massive impact on the team, serving as a key piece for head coach Luis De la Fuente<\/strong>. But they also show a significant element of luck. Between 2019 and the present, Spain<\/a><\/strong> have lost more than one match, but he was not on the field for any of them.<\/p>\n

\"\" Zinedine Zidane went 39 matches without a loss with France. <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s most recent loss came in a friendly against Colombia <\/strong>in 2024, and that day Ruiz was a substitute and did not come on. The same thing happened in 2023, in a Euro <\/strong>qualifier against Scotland<\/strong>. Going further back is the FIFA World Cup 2022<\/strong>, in which Spain lost a match against Japan<\/strong>. However, Ruiz was not called up for that tournament. Situations like these go back several years and help explain Fabian\u2019s remarkable streak.<\/p>\n

How does Cristiano Ronaldo compare to Ruiz? <\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a><\/strong> is the all-time leading scorer in international soccer, with 143 goals in 226 matches for Portugal <\/strong>since his debut in 2003. However, he has never come close to a streak like the one Fabian Ruiz is posting with Spain.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s longest unbeaten run with Portugal came between March 2005 and July 2006<\/strong>. During that stretch, the forward went 17 consecutive matches without defeat <\/strong>at the international level, including friendlies, European qualifiers, and four matches at the FIFA World Cup 2006. However, that streak ended with a 1\u20130 loss to France <\/strong>in the semifinals of that tournament.<\/p>\n

How many matches did Messi go unbeaten with Argentina? <\/p>\n

Lionel Messi<\/a><\/strong>, unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, shows stronger numbers with Argentina<\/strong>. Since his debut in 2005, the forward has put together multiple significant unbeaten streaks with his national team. Two of them stand out in particular.<\/p>\n

The first stretched to 27 matches<\/strong>, from November 2011 to July 2014. This included friendlies, South American qualifiers, and nearly the entire World Cup 2014<\/strong>. The streak broke at the worst possible moment, with the 1\u20130 loss to Germany <\/strong>in the final in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Years later, however, Messi reached<\/strong> 30 consecutive matches without defeat with Argentina<\/strong>. That streak began in July 2019, after losing the Copa America<\/strong> semifinals against Brazil. For more than three years, Lionel Scaloni<\/strong>\u2019s team played friendlies, qualifiers, Copa America 2021<\/strong>, and the Finalissima 2022 <\/strong>without losing a single match.<\/p>\n

The loss came, just like the previous time, at the World Cup. It happened in the memorable opener at Qatar 2022,<\/strong> when Argentina unexpectedly fell 2\u20131 to Arabia Saudita<\/strong>. Fortunately for Messi, they recovered afterward and went on a triumphant run all the way to the unforgettable final win against France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Saturday, Spain defeated Georgia 4\u20130 on Matchday 5 of Group E in the European qualifiers and moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[4116,2000,299,68957,2746,104,19220],"class_list":{"0":"post-572768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-cristiano-ronaldo","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-fabian-ruiz","12":"tag-lionel-messi","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-zinedine-zidane"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115555762366941455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}