REAL MADRID
Comparing Messi and Ronaldo when they won the Ballon d'Or
The Portuguese has equalled Messi's record of five Ballon d'Ors and the graphic shows a decade of wins for both stars of the game.
Ronaldo won his fifth Ballon d'Or on Thursday night and with that drew level with Lionel Messi with the number of awards he has won during his career. By 2012, Messi had won four and seemed out of reach for the current generation. He won three in a row and four in total from 2009 until 2012 with Ronaldo breaking up the four in a row before Messi returned and won another in 2015. Five years since 2012 and Ronaldo is level.
Ronaldo has won 29 titles in total (17 as an individual and 12 with his teams) to Messi's 14 (nine with Argentina and Barcelona and five as an individual).
Messi has an advantage in total titles with 55 but Ronaldo can close that gap next week as Real Madrid fly out to the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi where he will be hoping for a team win and, perhaps, a Player of the Tournament award to boot.