The Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Lionel Messi debate has gone on for years due to the fact that the two players are arguably the best in the world and play for the fiercest rival clubs in the sport.
This summer the rivalry added a new pair of players. Real Madrid made a world record buy in Gareth Bale while Barcelona also seemed to make its own world record purchase in Neymar (this is still an ongoing investigation). Back in December, we compared the two purchases at the midpoint of the season and looked at which had benefited his respective team more. Here is an updated look at the two players.
As we noted in the previous article, Neymar looked like the better buy early on mainly because Bale not only struggled to remain healthy but also struggled on the pitch. Bale eventually got going and his emergence helped his fellow teammate Karim Benzema find his scoring touch.
Injuries have plagued both players since then. Neymar missed a few weeks for his club while Bale was also in and out of the lineup do to nagging leg injuries. But both players are now back for their respective teams and having different impacts.
Neymar unfortunately has had little to offer his club. He scored a goal in his big return for Barcelona against Rayo Vallecano back on Feb. 15; then again the entire team scored in a 6-0 romp. While he hasn't scored a single goal in the two matches since, he provided a crucial assist against Manchester City in the Champions League bout. He is looking to get up to speed after being out for almost an entire month. Thus far this season he has scored seven goals and eight assists in 18 matches; he has started in 13 of those games. Overall, Neymar has provided Barcelona with 12 goals and 11 assists in 29 matches.
Bale's injury woes had him on the bench for a great deal of the last few months, but he has seemingly cemented himself into the starting lineup of Madrid after a string of brilliant performances. He only scored one goal in nine matches dating from Dec. 10 against Copenhagen in the UCL through Jan. 25 in the Spanish League against Granada; he started in seven of those matches.
In the five games since he has been a different animal completely. He has four goals and two assists in that stretch, including a brilliant performance against Schalke 04 on Wednesday in the Champions League. He also put together a brilliant performance against Villarreal in the Spanish League on Feb. 8; many expected him to elevate his game in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and he did just that with one goal and one assist. On the year Bale has scored 10 goals and nine assists in the Spanish League in 17 games; overall he has 14 goals and 10 assists in 27 matches for Madrid.
Bale is scoring on 21.5 percent of the shots he takes; Neymar is scoring on 16.6 percent of the shots he takes. Neymar has totaled 72 shots in the Spanish League and UCL (Copa del Rey shot totals not included) while Bale has taken about 65 shots in the same competitions.
The statistics seemingly favor Bale but one must remember that he is also three years older than the Brazilian phenom. At the moment the purchases are seemingly working favorably for both sides. Let's see what happens once the season has come to an end.
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