Player Duels: Cristiano Ronaldo V Lionel Messi

Barney Corkhill's Player Duels is back for another edition! In this series I pit two players against each other, and ask the readers who was better! To vote, simply leave a comment!

Today's duel is between two players widely regarded as the two best in the world at the moment. They are expected to be the two front runners for the World Player of the Year title - Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Both are fantastic dribblers of the ball, and are still both very young. They have both been the main features of their respective teams for the past year.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Last season he was phenomenal, and he has recently come back from an injury and looked fairly dangerous against Villareal. His power, speed and heading ability made him almost impossible to handle, and helped him to a hat full of goals last season.

He is only 23 years old, but his stats are already impressive, with 97 goals in 269 games at club level. He has already represented Portugal 58 times, scoring 21 goals.

He has won PFA Players' Player of the Year for the past two seasons.

Lionel Messi

The boy-wonder, Lionel Messi has already been touted as the next Diego Maradona, and it's easy to see why. His ability to take the ball past defenders with ease and send them the wrong way has led to Maradona himself naming Messi as his "successor".

At 21, Messi is two years younger than Ronaldo, so his stats may not seem as impressive. He has scored 43 goals in 112 games, all of which coming for his only club, Barcelona. He has represented Argentina 30 times already, scoring nine goals.

He won the World Young Soccer Player of the Year award twice in a row, and helped Argentina to success in the recent Olympics.

So, ladies and gentlemen, who are you going to go for—Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi? Leave a comment to vote!

Click here to see more duels by this author.