It is football's never-ending debate.
Who is the better player: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?

And while everyone has their favourite, when it comes to scoring goals in the Spanish league the two just cannot be separated.

A glance at their respective scoring records in just La Liga matches since the start of the 2009-10 season - when Ronaldo arrived at Real Madrid from Manchester United - shows that both have scored 270 goals.

Ronaldo has scored his 270 league goals in 247 matches, while Messi has needed 252, but there is really very little to split them.

The Portuguese has played a total of 21,206 minutes in La Liga, while Barcelona and Argentina star Messi has completed 21,218, so their identical scoring tallies have come from almost identical time on the field.

And while the stats show that Ronaldo averages a goal in league competition every 78.54 minutes, Messi isn't too far behind on 78.59 minutes.

But where Ronaldo trails behind Messi is on chance conversion - the Real Madrid man wastes many more shots than Messi does, with a shot conversion rate of 20.03 per cent compared to the Argentine's 28.33 per cent.

Messi celebrates with Luis Suarez (left) and Sergio Busquets (right) after scoring a goal