All statistics accurate as of June 20, 2014. Football fans today are blessed to be enjoying an era filled with legendary players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré, Gareth Bale, Neymar, Andrea Pirlo, etc. However, two names always come up in football debates as the best two players in the world right now. Ronaldo and Messi occupy the footballing ionosphere, lying heads and shoulders above everyone else. Breaking each other's records comes as naturally to these two as pretending to not care about the rivalry between them. Both are the undoubted stars at their respective clubs, Messi at Barcelona and Ronaldo at Real Madrid. Between them, the two have won the last 6 Ballon d'Or / FIFA World Player of the Year / FIFA Ballon d'Or awards, underlining their supremacy over the rest of the footballing world. At least one of the two has also been part of the winning team in the UEFA Champions League for four of the last seven tournaments. Here's a look at their individual careers. Both these players are remarkably durable; Messi's fitness was boosted through meticulous planning and attention from Guardiola, while Ronaldo is rarely ever injured. This is crucial in today's hectic football calendar. Both are known for their finishing and dribbling abilities, as well as being dead ball experts. Ronaldo has adopted a 'knuckleball' technique on his freekicks, whereas Messi's freekicks are more regulation-action; both are equally prolific on free kicks. Both take their respective team's penalties, and both are the focus of the team's attacking play. The main hurdle left in the way of both players is a lack of major achievements on the international stage. Though Ronaldo has finished as a UEFA Euro runner-up and bronze medalist with Portugal and Messi has won the Olympic football tournament with Argentina, both players remain lacking in major, influential performances in the World Cup. It is a widely held theory that the two need to win or dominate a World Cup in the fashion of Maradona or Pele to be considered the best of all time. As mentioned before, either Messi or Ronaldo has won the prize awarded to the best player in the world for the last six years. Messi has won it four times. He also holds the record of scoring the most goals in a calendar year, breaking Gerd Müller's record of 85 by scoring a scarcely believable 91 goals in 2012. He also equaled Jose Altafini's record of scoring 14 goals in a single Champions League campaign in 2011-12. Where Ronaldo's greatness lies is having a comparable scoring ratio in spite of having played as a winger for the early part of his career, and not being the prime attacking outlet for his team for much of his career. Ronaldo really became the goalscoring machine he is now when Ferguson allowed him a free role in his United side around 2008. Since joining Madrid, Ronaldo has broken countless scoring records and has more than kept up with Messi. He also broke Messi and Altafini's 14-goal record in the Champions League in 2013-14, scoring 17. In the same Champions League campaign, he also became the first player to score a goal in the Champions League final for two winning teams, also having scored in United's 2008-09 win. As far as popularity is concerned, Ronaldo's frighteningly regular goalscoring exploits have made him one of the most popular sportspersons in the world, but Messi's humility and easy charm has made him more likable. While it's a bit unfair, given the high number of assists Ronaldo usually registers, it is Messi who is lauded as being a team player. As former Real manager Jose Mourinho once said, the two would undoubtedly have won ten Ballon d'Or awards each had they been born in separate eras. The two have different attributes, different roles, and different temperaments, which makes comparing them pointless. In this case, the numbers are so ridiculously close that in the end it comes down to personal choice, and this writer falls in the Ronaldo camp.