nel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo find themselves fighting it out for FIFA's Ballon d'Or award once again -- but the contest between the world's two highest-profile footballers isn't only being played out on the pitch.
Bayern Munich's German international goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was the other player on the three-man shortlist revealed Monday, with Ronaldo the overwhelming favorite to take the award.
Which means there is no sign of Barcelona's Messi and Real Madrid poster boy Ronaldo's domination of the back pages ending any time soon.
Both are so globally known that that their every Facebook posting is worth thousands of dollars for brands associated with the two players, while the allure of their names helps shift any and every product with which they are associated.
But who is the most marketable?
Is it Messi, the newly-crowned all-time La Liga top scorer? Or is it Ronaldo, the current Ballon d'Or holder and a man seemingly able to score goals at will, no matter what the competition?
Sports marketing research company Repucom examined 15 different markets, ranging from Spain to the U.S., and found that Portugal skipper Ronaldo is the better-known of the two: 92% know of him, while 87% have heard of Messi.
The figures also show that the same number of men know about Messi as women know about Ronaldo -- 91%.
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