Who Has Started off 2013 Better?

These are two footballing phenoms who show their abilities and skills on a weekly basis.

It is almost impossible to separate them—though captains, managers and football personalities did just that when they voted Messi as the world's best player for 2012.

They've both started off 2013 in sublime fashion, scoring almost the same number of goals in the same number of games and having a massive impact on their teams' fortunes.

Who has started off the year "better" is a little subjective. Ronaldo has scored a greater percentage of his team's goals (50 percent versus 36 percent), but have Real Madrid faced tougher opposition overall?

Playing Malaga three times in a month is no easy feat, but the only other top-half team that Barça faced was Real Sociedad (currently ninth).

Real played Valencia three times in a row, also played Sociedad and did not play a Segunda team, whereas Barcelona (without Messi) faced Cordoba.

Messi has continued largely along the same path of immense form that he has been in all season, so perhaps the recent improvements in Ronaldo's game give him the slightest edge going into El Clasico on Wednesday.