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LONDON. — Football’s age-old debate over who is the real GOAT has finally been answered, with Lionel Messi easily beating his long-term rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

Incredible statistics appear to suggest the Barcelona superstar has dominated his Portuguese rival over the last decade.

Football fans have argued endlessly over which player deserves to be crowned the best on the planet.

The pair have collected 11 Ballon d’Or trophies between them, but this is a debate that will long outlive their careers.

Messi, 33, has spent his entire career with Barcelona where has won the LaLiga title 10 times and four Champions League titles.

Juventus star Ronaldo, 35, has won league titles in Spain, England and Italy as well the Champions League five times.

However, WhoScored have used over 20 sets of data to rate the pair’s performances over the last decade.

And there’s one clear winner.

Messi has dominated Spain’s top-flight with an average match rating of 8.6/10 over the last ten years.

Ronaldo has managed an average rating of 8.3/10 during his time with Real Madrid and now Juventus.

The statistics claim there has only been one season in the last decade that Ronaldo has matched Messi on the pitch.

Both of the stars were given a ranking of 8.3/10 for their efforts during the 2013-14 campaign.

And Messi was way ahead of his Ballon d’Or rival in the most-recent season, despite scoring fewer goals.

In all competitions, the Barcelona star has laid on 24 assists and scored 34 goals in 46 appearances.

Ronaldo racked five assists – miles adrift of Messi — and scored 35 goals — just one more than the Barca star — in 46 matches for Maurizio Sarri’s Juventus side.

Twelve players, including Deco and Gonzalo Higuain, have had their say on who is the better player of the two.

The Ballon d’Or will not be awarded this season, and Ronaldo has just breathed a huge sigh of relief because this means Messi cannot win his seventh Golden Ball and stretch his personal lead, over the Juventus star, to two.

Yes, Robert Lewandowski was the favourite to land the award, but who knows what magic Messi could conjured up in the rest of 2020?

For the first time since 1956, organisers France Football revealed they will not be dishing out the accolade due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There will be no edition in 2020, because it turns out, after thoughtful consideration, that all the conditions are not met,” editor Pascal Ferre said.

“We believe that such a singular year cannot — and should not — be treated as an ordinary one.”

But how would the Ballon d’Or rankings be looking right now if it were to take place?

Thanks to WhoScored.com, talkSPORT have been able to identify the top 20 players in Europe’s top five leagues over the course of the 2019/20 season.

The list, somehow, does not include any of the stars who helped World, European and England champions, Liverpool, end 30 years of waiting to be crowned champions of their domestic league.

Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, who was in 18th place according to the statistics, is even considered to have had a better season than Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah or Jordan Henderson.

There has always been an argument that the international awards have always carried a bias against players who play in the English Premiership.

Here were the leading candidates, for the Ballon d’Or, according to WhoScored.com, at the end of last month.

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) — 8.71 out of 10

The little magician again averaged the best score throughout the 2019/20 campaign.

Messi is LaLiga’s top goalscorer, has the most assists the league has ever seen in a single season AND has more goal contributions than any other player in 2020.

His Ballon d’Or hopes would have surely rested on Barcelona’s run in Europe.

2. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain) — 8.14

Surely a future winner of the award? The Frenchman has again dazzled this term after 12 goals and eight assists in PSG’s Ligue 1 triumph.

The France forward will surely want to add the top personal prize to his collection too.

3. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) — 8.13

The Pole was the deserved front-runner for the 2020 Ballon d’Or after another phenomenal goal-scoring campaign.

He had netted 21 goals since the turn of the year as Bayern won the domestic double.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) — 7.91

Despite his 20 goals in 2020, not many expected the Portugal superstar to be in contention for the Ballon d’Or.

He’s playing a key role in Juve’s attempts to win Serie A again, but the club’s aspirations in Europe were hanging by a thread with a defeat to Lyon in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

5. Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) — 7.88

Arguably the Premier League’s best player this season, De Bruyne would have fancied his chances of a podium finish for this year’s Ballon d’Or.

He is on course to set a new assists record in the English top-flight after another sublime season.

6. Angel Di Maria (PSG) — 7.75

Perhaps because he is now 32, the performances of the Argentine playmaker have gone under the radar.

His eight goals and 14 assists this season have backed up the fact that he is still one of the very best players in Europe.

7. Dimitri Payet (Marseille) — 7.73

The former West Ham man has been Marseille’s star performer again this season.

He has hit nine goals and added four assists this term, and at 32, his form shows no signs of slowing.

8. Josep Ilicic (Atalanta) — 7.65

The 31-year-old is a goal-scoring machine and has been key to Atalanta’s incredible rise in the last few years.

The club are this year’s dark horses for the Champions League and play some of the most entertaining football on the continent.

9. Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund) — 7.64

A record-breaking campaign for the England youngster, who netted 17 goals and 17 assists in 32 Bundesliga outings.

He looks set for a move to the Premier League, with Manchester United the likely destination.

10. Timo Werner (RB Leipzig) — 7.60

The Premier League-bound striker has been one of the very best forwards in Europe this season and Chelsea fans will be licking their lips at the prospect of the German leading the line.

Werner hit 28 goals in 34 appearances to help RB Leipzig to third in the league standings.

Others: 11 — Alejandro Gomez (Atalanta) — 7.58; 12 — Luis Alberto (Lazio) — 7.56; 13 — Adama Traore (Wolves) — 7.53; 14 — Duvan Zapata (Atalanta) — 7.52; 15 — Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) — 7.52 — The Sun/talkSPORT.