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Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo have been at the center of modern football's most debated conversation: Who is the greatest of all time?
The arguments have been made by fans, pundits and football players alike and is yet to see a conclusion as the two aces continue their exploits in football.
In the course of their careers, Messi has remained at Barcelona while Ronaldo moved on initially from Manchester United and then from La Liga giants Real Madrid to join Italian club Juventus this summer.
When the question of who was better was asked to Ronaldo during his stint at Real Madrid, the Portuguese replied, "You cannot compare a Ferrari with a Porsche because it's a different engine. You cannot compare them. He does the best things for Barcelona, I do the best things for Madrid."
Here, we take a look at how the strikers compare in Ballon d’Or awards, goals, penalties, hat-tricks, honors.
#1 Ballon d'Or history
The duo shares the record for the most Ballon d'Or wins in the history of football, with five awards each. Europe's highest and oldest honor has been presented by France Football every year since 1956.
The winner of the award is determined by 173 journalists around the world, who vote for the most deserving player. The list of nominees, however, is compiled by the editorial staff of the French publication.
However, when France Football announced their thirty-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or on Monday, Cristiano Ronaldo became the only player to have been nominated for the award a record fifteen times (between 2004 to 2018).
Argentina and Barcelona ace Lionel Messi follows in second place as he was nominated for the thirteenth time (between 2006 and 2018).
The thirty-man nominee list includes - Sergio Aguero, Alisson Becker, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Edinson Cavani, Thibaut Courtois, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne, Roberto Firmino, Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Isco, Harry Kane, N’Golo Kante, Hugo Lloris, Mario Mandzukic, Sadio Mane, Marcelo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Neymar, Jan Oblak, Paul Pogba, Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah, Luis Suarez, and Raphael Varane.
Whether one of the two aces will break the record for the most Ballon d'Or awards with a sixth win remains to be seen, as this year's edition has witnessed an array of new favorites.
The winner of the award will be announced on December 3 in the French capital.
#2 Club goals, assists, hattricks and honors
In the course of his club career, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 577 goals in 770 appearances for Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese also has bagged 184 assists throughout his club stint.
Lionel Messi, on the other hand, has scored 563 goals in 648 appearances for Barcelona, with 217 club assists to his name. While Messi boasts of a club goal ratio of 0.87, Ronaldo is close behind with 0.75.
The former Real Madrid man has scored an incredible forty-five hattricks during the course of his club career. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi has scored 42 hattricks during his club career so far.
The Argentine ace recently notched his eighth UEFA Champions League hat-trick, thereby breaking the record for the most hattricks in the competition. Messi is closely followed by Ronaldo who has scored seven Champions League hat-tricks so far.
Cristiano Ronaldo's top club honors include:
Premier League titles: 3
Uefa Champions League: 5
La Liga titles: 2
FA Cup: 1
English Football League Cup: 2
Copa del Rey: 2
Spanish Supercup: 2
Uefa Super Cup: 2
Fifa Club World Cup: 4
Messi's top club honors include:
La Liga titles: 8
Uefa Champions League: 4
Copa del Rey: 6
Spanish Supercup: 6
Uefa Super Cup: 3
Fifa Club World Cup: 3
#3 International goals, assists, hattricks and honors
Ronaldo arguably has the upper hand in this category, having led Portugal to their first European Championship title in 2016.
His longstanding rival Messi, on the other hand, has never won a single trophy in an Argentine shirt. The Portuguese ace also took his national team to a third-place finish in the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2017.
The closest that Messi has gotten to a successful campaign with his national team was in 2014 when he led Argentina to the finals of FIFA World Cup in Brazil where they lost to Germany in the finals.
In terms of goals, Ronaldo has scored 85 goals in 154 appearances for Portugal while Messi has hit the net 65 times in 128 appearances for his national team. Ronaldo has an international goal ratio of 0.55 and Messi stands at 0.51.
While Messi boasts a total of 40 international assists, Ronaldo only bagged 28 in his international career so far. The duo has scored the same amount of hattricks internationally (6).
