Supporters of football superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have indulged in war of words on Twitter after a study by a University of Oxford mathematician declared the Portuguese icon the greatest of all time (GOAT) ahead of former Barcelona talisman and three-time World Cup winner Pele.
While Messi fans have claimed Ronaldo's PR team is behind Dr Tom Crawford's findings, the Portugal captain's admirers feel that the title actually suits him the most for having scored the most goals in the game.
With the ongoing debate about the greatest-ever footballer escalating after Messi's arrival in Paris and Ronaldo's return to Manchester United, Dr Crawford came up with a unique algorithm, which he has dubbed the GOAT index to measure a player's greatness.
His measurement module takes a player's achievements for both club and country into account as it compares some of the best footballers across eras to find the answer to the most debated question in the sport.
The study, conducted in conjunction with LiveScore, gives Ronaldo a score of 100 percent, followed by Messi, with a score of 94 percent.
Brazilian legend Pele, Hungarian great Ferenc Puskas, and 1994 and 2002 World Cup winner Ronaldo Nazario round out the top 5, with scores of 85, 57, and 52 percent respectively.
In his study, Dr Crawford came up with seven categories, which became the basis of analysing the performance of the footballers and how they would be rated in the LiveScore rankings.
Only players who have won the Ballon d'Or at least twice in their careers since the award's inception in 1956 or the men who were recognised as greats before that year, were considered for the study.
The stringent qualification criteria left only CR7, Messi, Pele, Maradona, Marco van Basten, Johan Cruyff, Puskas, Di Stefano, Brazilian Ronaldo, and Michel Platini on the list.
First, Dr Crawford, assessed the players' club achievements. Ronaldo with his seven league titles in England, Spain, and Italy and five Champions League trophies with Man United and Real Madrid ended up in pole position with Messi close behind.
Second, international honours were considered in the equation, with 150 points awarded to each player for a World Cup triumph and 100 points for winning the Euro crown or the Copa America trophy.
Here both Messi and CR7 lost to yesteryear superstar Ronaldo of Brazil as he won two World Cups in 1994 and 2002 and two Copa Americas in 1997 and 1999.
But Cristiano topped the international goals category because of his recent heroics for Portugal. It was only last week that he overtook Iranian Ali Daei's record of 109 goals to emerge as the leading goalscorer in men's football.