La Liga Top 10 Goal Scorers of All-Time: Will Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo Pass Barcelona's Lionel Messi? [VOTE]

By Damon Salvadore First Posted: Jan 01, 2015 03:02 PM EST

Ask anyone in the world who the best soccer player is, and odds are, they will tell you either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

You really can't go wrong with either player. Both Ronaldo and Messi have represented their country in the FIFA World Cup, broken numerous records and are in the prime of their careers.

However, Ronaldo may have a slight edge over Messi in the near future. Ronaldo has scored an unbelievable 48 goals for Real Madrid's this La Liga season. Unfortunately for him, he did not break Messi's 50-goal record set back in the 2011-12 La Liga season.

On top of that, Ronaldo and Messi are fighting for career goals.

Although Ronaldo played a very large portion of his career at Manchester United, he has scored 225 La Liga goals as a member of Real Madrid since 2009. During that exact time span, Messi has scored 232 La Liga goals. Messi recently broke Telmo Zarra's all-time scoring record, and now has 286 career La Liga goals.

Ronaldo is the only Portuguese player with more than 200 career goals. Hugo Sanchez has the most career goals (234) by a Mexican or any North American born player. And, of course, Messi of Argentina has the most career goals of any South American born player. Every other player in the top 10 hails from Spain.

Raul currently holds the franchise record for most career goals by a Real Madrid player, but it looks like Ronaldo will eventually surpass him.

Ronaldo and Messi are the only active players in the all-time top 10 scoring list. (See Below)

But, not all is lost for Messi. Messi may have scored less goals than Ronaldo this season, but he has a few factors on his side. One, age. Messi is two and a half years younger than Ronaldo. That's not to say that Ronaldo is getting slower or past his prime, but Messi is showing no signs of slowing down. Messi is still just 27 years old, and there's a good chance he will finish his incredible career with more than 400 career goals. Another factor that can't be ignored is Messi has a five-year advantage over Ronaldo. Messi has played his entire career with Barcelona dating back to 2004. Ronaldo didn't begin with Real Madrid until 2009.

Ronaldo and Messi are the two best players in the world, and there's a good chance we could see both of them end their incredible careers with more than 400 career goals. Ronaldo is slowly catching up to the Barcelona striker, but Messi's age and consistency may keep him on top for a very long time.