Looking at the latest Lionel Messi - Cristiano Ronaldo stats is probably one of the best way to tell who is the better among the two.
For almost a decade now, fans have been quarreling who between these two players from La Liga is better. Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid share seven Ballon d'Or trophies, all of them they received in the last seven years.
Argentinian Messi received four straight after Ronaldo got his first. After that, the Portuguese won the last two, making his fans and critics think he is currently the world No. 1, until 2015 happened.
According to a study performed by the CIES Football Observatory, Lionel Messi is currently the no. 1 player in Europe with 100 percent rating. He is followed by Arjen Robben of Bayern Munchen and Bas Dost of VfL Wolfsburg.
Cristiano Ronaldo? He is at 29th. So if fans will continue to point to the Lionel Messi - Cristiano Ronaldo stats, Ronaldo's fans will only get disappointed.
Check the CIE stats here.
Lionel Messi is Europe's elite leagues’ top performer in 2015 - CIES study. @Cristiano? 29th. https://t.co/AzOoY8fwMJ pic.twitter.com/ZkY2hdDLNa
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 30, 2015
CIES didn't just look on the Lionel Messi - Cristiano Ronaldo stats. They assessed each and every player from the top five leagues in the world namely (in any order) La Liga of Spain, Premier League of England, Bundesliga of Germany, Series A of Italy, and Ligue 1 of France.
The group used six Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) -- shooting, chance creation, take-ons, distribution, recovery and rigour.
Since the start of the year, Lionel Messi has been on a roll. He scored more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo, steering his club into the top of the standings after being held into second place by Real Madrid for most of the first half of the 2014-15 season. Messi didn't do it alone though as he has Luis Suarez and Neymar to back him up. These two are ranked by CIES at fourth and 12th place, respectively.
