There have been more than a handful of great players to play football throughout the years, but only a select few go on to carve their name into the game’s history to be remembered for decades to come.

Pele, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyffand Alfredo Di Stefano are names who everyone with a passing interest in football knows, but until recently it’s been hard to imagine two all-time greats coexisting in the same era.

But that’s exactly what’s happened with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. They’ve gone head to head and been breaking records for over a decade now.

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Messi, to top it off, has won six Ballon d’Or awards, which sends him clear of the Portuguese’s five.

Club goals

Cristiano has more club goals than Messi. Both are already well above 600, but Ronaldo’s 664 is four better than the Barcelona forward’s 656.

Doubles, hat-tricks, pokers and five-goal games

Scoring is one thing, but scoring more than once in the same match is quite another. Messi, though, has more braces and hat-tricks than Cristiano in the club game, though the Portuguese has scored four goals or more, more times than the Argentinian.

International goals

Cristiano clearly beats Messi here. He’s bagged a whopping 102 for Portugal and closing in on Ali Daei’s all-time international record of 109. Messi is behind on 71.