Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo: it's football's inescapable debate.

A tweet about, say, Chelsea's transfer business could attract thousands of comments and you could still bet with absolute certainty that at least one of them, for no discernible reason, would randomly be discussing the GOAT debate.

In sporting terms, it's a conversation as hold as the hills with Ronaldo and Messi's dominance marking the first time that football has seen two icons of their quality sharing the same generation.

The Messi vs Ronaldo debate

While, yes, the back and forth can become tedious every now and again, there's always a level of fun that comes with discussing who's the better finisher, who's better in finals and who truly is the GOAT.

And that fun emanates from the fact that there is seldom, if ever, a clearcut answer such is the remarkable tit for tat carried about by each player's utter mastery of the beautiful game.

However, one area of the debate where things become a little clearer is the Champions League because even many ardent Messi fans would readily concede that they think Ronaldo has the upper hand.

We are, after all, talking about the competition's all-time top goalscorer and assist provider with five trophies spread across two clubs, so it's fair to say that the 'Mr. Champions League' moniker is more than justified.

Comparing their Champions League stats

But before we get ahead of ourselves too much as Europe's premier competition awaits its 2022/23 return, we've been sifting through some interesting statistics that shine a different light on things.

We're not here to dispute that Ronaldo is the Champions League GOAT, but we are here to show that Messi's European output shouldn't be so casually dismissed because of Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona's woes.

Enter WhoScored. One of football's premier stats providers tracks each and every Champions League player across a series of attacking, defending and passing metrics whenever they play in the competition.

This, in turn, gives each player a match rating out of 10 that can then be averaged out across each one of their performances to objectively measure how they've played throughout the season.

Soccer Football - Champions League - Group G - FC Barcelona v Juventus - Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain - December 8, 2020 FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi in action with Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo REUTERS/Albert Gea

Champions League seasons' top performer

So when you scale that up to compare the average match ratings of every player in the tournament, you can see exactly who the stats consider to have been the finest Champions League performer in each campaign.

See where we're going here? Well, be sure to keep the Messi vs Ronaldo debate in mind as we walk through every Champions League season's top performer since 2009/10 according to stats down below:

2009/10: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) - 8.47

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his second goal against Olympique Marseille during their Champions League soccer match at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, September 30, 2009. REUTERS/Paul Hanna (SPAIN SPORT SOCCER)

2010/11: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 8.87

2011/12: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 8.88

2012/13: Willian (Shakhtar Donetsk) - 8.17

Football - Chelsea v Shakhtar Donetsk - UEFA Champions League Group E - Stamford Bridge, London, England - 7/11/12

Shakhtar Donetsk's Willian

Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Jed Leicester

Livepic

2013/14: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) - 8.71

2014/15: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 8.90

2015/16: Hulk (Zenit St. Petersburg) - 8.32

Zenit St.Petersburg's Hulk warms up for their training session at Dragon stadium in Porto October 21, 2013. Zenit St. Petersburg will play against Porto in their Champions League Group G soccer match on Tuesday. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante (PORTUGAL - Tags: SPORT SOCCER)

2016/17: Neymar (Barcelona) - 8.24

2017/18: Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) - 9.11

2018/19: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 8.77

Soccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group B - Tottenham Hotspur v FC Barcelona - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain - October 3, 2018 Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates scoring their fourth goal REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

2019/20: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) - 9.03

2020/21: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 8.51

2021/22: Sébastien Haller (Ajax) - 8.03

Soccer Football - Champions League - Group C - Borussia Dortmund v Ajax Amsterdam - Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany - November 3, 2021 Ajax Amsterdam's Sebastien Haller celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Put some respect on Messi

Take a bow, Leo, take a bow.

So, all in all, Messi was named the best player in a Champions League season no less than five times in the past 13 years and the closest anyone came to beating him was Ronaldo and Neymar on two triumphs apiece.

And perhaps most remarkable of all is the fact that Messi even came out on top in seasons where Barcelona simply weren't at the races with 2018/19 witnessing the 4-0 Liverpool defeat and 2020/21 culminating in a round of 16 exit where PSG pumped them 5-2 on aggregate.

Yes, the likes of Lewandowski and Neymar come along to produce dizzier heights of ratings above 9/10, but just check out Messi dominating the field from the Pep Guardiola days all the way up to Ronald Koeman's tenure.

But even if you're still not convinced, do bear in mind that when we ran through these very stats purely just to compare Ronaldo and Messi that it was the latter who won all but four seasons between 2009 and 2021.

So, take from the data what you will and we're certainly not getting carried away with one method of analysis to the point where we're calling Messi the Champions League GOAT.

However, we are indeed using it to shine a light on the fact that the PSG star is a lot closer than people think, shining in Europe's finest men's competition even when his team can't get out of first gear.

UEFA Champions League LIVE DRAW 2022/23 (Football Terrace)