Champions League Top 10 Goal Scorers of All Time: Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo Fighting For Top Spot

By Damon Salvadore First Posted: Dec 10, 2015 01:30 PM EST

The UEFA Champions League is without a doubt the most popular annual soccer tournament in all of Europe. The best clubs in the continent compete for the right to be named the best, but it's also a great time to showcase the best players from around the world.

As usual, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo lead the discussion of "best player in the world." And, not surprisingly, Messi and Ronaldo are the two most prolific goal scorers in the history of the UEFA Champions league.

Messi found the net against Bayer Leverkusen in a 1-1 draw in group stage as Barcelona secured Group E. That was Messi's 80th career goal in the Champions League, which is the most ever by a South American born player. It is also the most ever by a player who has played his entire career on one team. His 80 goals is the second most in Champions League history behind only (you guessed it) Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo had himself quite a day against Malmo in Real Madrid's overwhelming 8-0 victory. The 30-year-old forward out of Portugal scored four goals to bring his career total to 88, the most ever. Ronaldo has scored a wide majority of his Champions League goals for Real Madrid as opposed to Manchester United. Both Ronaldo and Messi are very young, so we can expect this rivalry to continue for quite some time. There's a good chance that both Messi and Ronaldo will score more than 100 career Champions League goals when it's all said and done.

Although Ronaldo has eight more goals, Messi has the edge in efficiency. Messi has scored 80 goals in 102 games, an average of 0.78 goals per game. Ronaldo has scored 88 goals in 121 games, an average of 0.73 goals per game. With Real Madrid and Barcelona always in contention, it would be exciting to watch these two superstars go at it against each other.

Messi and Ronaldo are also tops in Champions League hat tricks. Messi is the all-time leader with five while Ronaldo has four.