Born in 1976, Ronaldo started football on streets of Rio de Janeiro. Scored 166 goals in first season with Social Ramos futsal team. Joined Cruzeiro at age 13, became professional at 16
Galácticos policy started in 1950s with Bernabéu's signing of star players. Pérez's first presidency (2000-2006) focused on signing one superstar annually. Real Madrid won three consecutive La Liga titles under Pérez. Beckham's signing in 2003 brought significant marketing opportunities. Club became world's richest in 2005-06 despite poor transfer decisions
El Clásico refers to all matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Matches have global audience of hundreds of millions. Real Madrid leads in head-to-head results with 105 wins
Messi scored 91 goals and 22 assists in 69 games for Barcelona. Ronaldo scored 63 goals and 13 assists in 71 games for Real Madrid. Messi played 5,972 minutes for Barcelona, Ronaldo 6,310 minutes for Real Madrid. Messi had 1.32 goals per game, Ronaldo 0.89 goals per game
GOAT stands for 'greatest of all time'. Term popularized by Muhammad Ali in 1964 after defeating Sonny Liston. GOAT must be better than all contemporaries and predecessors