It is an age-old debate that has generated plenty of opinion over the years and led to the exasperated question: "Why can't we just enjoy both of them?"
Yet for many football fans, their preference for Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi has identified their own fandom, how they view and enjoy the game. Gary Lineker is among those who have insisted that there is no comparison to be had between the two.
Ronaldo and Messi have shared a remarkable sporting rivalry for more than a decade. They won 12 of 13 successive Ballon d’Or titles between them, with Messi edging out Ronaldo with seven individual honours compared to the Portuguese superstar’s five gongs (Luka Modric, in 2018, was the only player to break the sequence).
