Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been the bane of Pele's life in recent weeks.

All three players are rightfully revered amongst football's greatest ever players, but in a world of constant comparison across social media, it's understandable that the debate never ends there.

And the flames of debate have only been stoked by recent achievements from Messi and Ronaldo that have made the slightest of dents in Pele's incredible legacy.

Pele records surpassed

We say that because Ronaldo is now viewed by many, give or take the Czech Football Federation, as the greatest goalscorer of all time after surpassing the tallies of Pele and Josef Bican.

Meanwhile, Pele is no longer the world-record holder of the most goals scored at a single club with his long-standing tally at Santos now eclipsed by Messi's Barcelona record.

Now, at the end of the day, which player you prefer out of the three will always be a case of personal preference and it's impossible to try to compare athletes spanning multiple eras.

Pele vs Ronaldo vs Messi

However, we couldn't resist involving Pele in the sort of shenanigans that the Messi vs Ronaldo debate often gets tied up in by comparing the players in weird and wonderful ways.

In this instance, we've sought to compare their statistics on FIFA 21, calling upon Ronaldo and Messi's base cards and to make things fair, using Pele's second-highest rated ICON card of 95.

But we're not just looking at their top-line statistics. Rather, we're calling upon the data on Futhead to see who the winner is for each of the 29 in-game statistics - check out the results down below:

In Game: Physical

Acceleration: Pele (95)

Agility: Pele (96)

Balance: Lionel Messi and Pele (95)

Jumping: Cristiano Ronaldo (95)

Reactions: Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele (95)

Sprint speed: Pele (96)

Stamina: Pele (87)

Strength: Cristiano Ronaldo (78)

In Game: Skill

Ball control: Lionel Messi (96)

Crossing: Pele (88)

Curve: Lionel Messi (93)

Dribbling: Lionel Messi (96)

Finishing: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele (95)

Free kick: Lionel Messi (94)

Heading: Cristiano Ronaldo (90)

Long passing: Lionel Messi (91)

Long shots: Lionel Messi (94)

Defensive awareness: Pele (51)

Penalties: Pele (91)

Short passing: Lionel Messi and Pele (91)

Shot power: Cristiano Ronaldo (94)

Sliding tackle: Pele (45)

Standing tackle: Pele (49)

Volleys: Pele (93)

In Game: Mental

Aggression: Cristiano Ronaldo (63)

Interceptions: Pele (64)

Positioning: Cristiano Ronaldo (95)

Vision: Lionel Messi (95)

Composure: Lionel Messi (96)

Final scores

1. Pele - 13

2. Lionel Messi - 9.5

3. Cristiano Ronaldo - 7

Pele takes the victory

Well, there you have it, if the greatest goalscorer of all time was settled by in-game attributes on FIFA 21, then Ronaldo would be forced to settle for a bronze medal.

Obviously, it's only a bit of fun and holds no genuine constituency over the GOAT debate, but that doesn't make it any less interesting to see how EA Sports thing the three legends shape up.

And besides, Pele has some bizarrely lofty defensive stats to thank for gaining the edge on Messi and Ronaldo who, as far as FIFA are concerned, need to work on their tackling and stamina.

All that being said, we couldn't help enjoying the poeticism in Messi, Ronaldo and Pele all being given the exact same rating for finishing. For our money, it's the perfect way to put things.