The new year is less than a full month old and already the two best footballers on the planet, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have scored hat-tricks, won games single-handedly for their clubs and reinforced their status as the best in the game.
With the two topping the La Liga scoring charts, January 2013 has proven once more that they have the consistency and longevity to keep up their astonishing scoring rates like no other in Europe's top leagues.
It is not just in scoring goals, though, that they are expected to contribute.
Here is a complete rundown of how Messi vs. Ronaldo has shaped up in the first month of this year.
