Cristiano Ronaldo has upstaged Messi

August 12, 2003. Manchester United take the field for the first time after one of its most iconic superstars, David Beckham, has departed the club for Real Madrid. His legendary number 7 jersey has been given to an 18-year-old boy from Lisbon. After 70 minutes, the lad comes on the field and his nifty moves mesmerise the 70,000 people in the stadium and millions of others watching on TV. Cristiano Ronaldo had arrived.

Exactly a decade later, people are finally - and some still grudgingly - accepting that Ronaldo is among the greatest football players ever.

Ronaldo's journey during these years has been nothing less than extraordinary. An inconsistent couple of years at United later, he cemented him reputation with 42 goals in the 2007-08 season, helping his team win the Champions League. And just as he appeared to be a permanent fixture at Old Trafford, Real Madrid pulled out £80 million to buy the Portuguese.

Today, those £80 million sound like a bargain the Spanish club hadn't expected. Ronaldo has scored 225 goals in 216 games for Real Madrid in the last four years and is now fourth in the all-time goal scorers list for Madrid. That's over a goal per game, a statistic that would be hard to beat.

This year has been extraordinary for the man from Madeira. He has netted 67 goals for his club and country in 57 matches, outscoring even teams in total in the process. These have put him on a pedestal which he has craved for the last four years - the Ballon D'Or, or Golden Ball Award for the best footballer in the world. And Lionel Messi, who has monopolised the award for four years, will not dispute it. The Argentine lags with just 45 goals in 46 games. Ronaldo's complete dominance was on show recently when he singlehandedly carried Portugal into the World Cup by scoring four goals in a double-legged playoff against Sweden.

Unlike Messi, Ronaldo isn't too easy to like. He is petulant on field, is often described as selfish and although he has cut down on the diving, people still criticise him for that. The thing with Ronaldo is that he knows he is a great and doesn't make any bones about it. "People hate me because I am handsome, rich and famous," he said in 2011. Ronaldo is admired, Messi is admired and loved. Alex Ferguson, former United manager, calls Ronaldo the best player he managed at Old Trafford in his 27-year-reign. Jose Mourinho calls coaching him at Madrid "the highlight of his career".

While Messi is a joy to watch and has almost every skill in his locker, Ronaldo is arguably the most complete player. He's quick, clinical, can dribble and most important, score goals at will. Comparing the two often leads to petty squabbles and Marcelo Bielsa, former Argentine coach, perhaps put it aptly, "The problem with choosing the best is that, rather than being a eulogy for the man you choose, it can appear a rejection of the man you didn't."

Whatever the criticism levelled against Ronaldo, the tall, sinewy player has countered all with performance. His goals come from powerful strikes, headers, freekicks, penalties and he scores against all kinds of opposition.

With Messi flagging by his standards, Ronaldo's only genuine rival for the title of the best player is Frenchman Franck Ribery who plays for Bayern Munich. Ribery helped Bayern win the German League, German Cup and the Champion's League. Even then, no one would think that Ribery, with 22 goals, comes close to Ronaldo's mastery on the football pitch this year.