The era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo officially came to a close this year. For the first time since 2003, neither player received a Ballon d’Or nomination, and as we know, the Ballon d’Or voting serves as the definitive record of soccer history.

Of course, it’s not without its faults—Dani Carvajal in fourth place? Really? Nevertheless, despite its imperfections, the award our only consistent historical record for the sport.

The era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo officially ended this year. For the first time since 2003, neither player was nominated for the Ballon d’Or

However, the Messi-Ronaldo era has been over for a while. Ronaldo last ranked in the top three for the Ballon d’Or in 2019, and although Messi won the award last year, he hasn’t made a significant impact at the highest level since December 2022, during the FIFA World Cup final in Qatar.

As we transition from comparing Messi and Ronaldo to each other over the past two decades, we can now evaluate others in relation to them. To facilitate this, we’ve established the “Messi-Ronaldo Line,” which tracks their combined non-penalty goals and assists rate at every age throughout their careers.

We will begin at age 17, when they both debuted professionally, and continue up to age 35, which marked Messi’s last season in Europe. We can revisit this at the end of the season, but for now, we will reflect on 2024 within Europe’s Big Five leagues up until Boxing Day.

The data for Messi and Ronaldo pertains to their domestic seasons, based on their age at the start of each campaign, while we will evaluate current players based on their present age and domestic performance throughout 2024. A minimum of 1,500 minutes of playtime is required for qualification.