On Saturday, more oil was poured onto the fire of the never-ending Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo debate when the Real Madrid forward scored a hat-trick on Saturday in the 3-0 win over Celta Vigo.
This saw the 29-year-old set a new record for the most number of hat-tricks by a single player in La Liga, surpassing the late Alfredo Di Stefano and Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra's tally of 22.
The former Manchester United ace also scored his 200th Spanish Primera Division goal, taking him only 178 games to do so, becoming the quickest player in Liga BBVA history to reach this mark, a record previously held by Tarra Zelmo.
The latter record, however, raised a response from many Barcelona fans. La Pulga, who set a new record of his own the following day with a hat-trick against Espanyol, managed that same feat but in 235 matches. What the Blaugrana faithful were keen to stress is that while Ronaldo started life in Spain's top-flight at the age of 24, Messi started his at 17.
Would a look at the two attackers' goalscoring form since Cristiano's arrival at Santiago Bernabeu be a more fair comparison? The guys at Voetbal International gave this a go, and while Ronaldo has been unstoppable in front of goal ever since dawning Les Merengues jersey, his Barcelona counterpart has been the more prolific of the two since August 2009.
Messi vs CR7's goalscoring form since the Portuguese ace's Real Madrid arrival in 2009
Messi en Cristiano Ronaldo in La Liga sinds 2009/10: samen goed voor 402 goals in 5,5 seizoen pic.twitter.com/61Ap2DbDZ3
— VI (@VI_nl) December 8, 2014
One thing that should be taken into consideration is that while the 27-year-old Argentine has managed 202 goals in Spain over the last six seasons, compared to the Portuguese star's tally of 200, Messi has racked up four more appearances than the Real Madrid ace during this time.
Another very interesting stat brought to our attention is that although Ronaldo has the record for most Liga BBVA hat-tricks with 23, two more than Messi's tally of 21, if you subtract penalties from the equation, Cristiano's number drops to almost half of Messi's, at 9 and 17, respectively.
If penalties were excluded, CR7's number of hat-tricks in La Liga would plummet from 23 to 9, with Messi's dropping to only 17
