Ronaldo vs Messi

I realize this is likely an old topic, but I couldn't find a thread on it.

There are several recent quotes from Ronaldo saying he believes he is the best (over Messi) no doubt leading up to Balon de Oro (the annual publicity award!). What is the general consensus on this, who is the better player (not who should win Balon de Oro)?

I suspect there will be lots of pro Messi Barca views while there will be a lot of pro Ronaldo Madrid views.

My own personal view (and remember I am a life long Madridista (and my lifetime is at least double most of you)) is when one takes into consideration team play, team accomplishments (it is a team game after all and individual accomplishments / awards mean nothing if the team doesn't reach any accomplishments), it is Messi who is the better player.

They are no doubt the best players by a fairly large margin of this generation of players, but Ronaldo's selfish personal pursuit of individual accomplishments puts him a distance second not only for this past season (i.e Balon de Oro) but overall. There have been a couple of years where I do believe Ronaldo was more deserving of that individual award, but if you look at team accomplishments (not just Barca or Madrid but Argentina and Portugal), Messi stands out. You can also see this when watching their play / interaction with teammates both offensively and defensively (actually the mere mention of defense and Ronaldo in the same sentence is kind of weird).

I do find faults with Messi as well for instance I do not agree that he deserved the player of tournament in last WC (I would have taken Robben or Neuer before him), nor do I particularly like him (given he plays for 2 teams that I don't particularly favor), but you have to objectively look at these things and I feel without doubt that Messi is the best.

In 10 years time, Messi will be included with the best all time legends. I'm not so sure Ronaldo (even with all his goals) will be included in that list, particularly when one recognizes the changes in today's game vs the games from 10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago.

Besides scoring a bunch of goals and playing in the 2 biggest teams in the world, what do messi and Ronaldo really have in common playing wise?