Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are considered to be the best players in the world, meaning everyone else's achievements can fly under the radar.

This includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic - one of the finest strikers in the modern game having won 31 trophies and titles in Italy and Spain - who is still banging in the goals for fun Milan at the age of 40.

He has eight in 15 Serie A matches this season, a remarkable return for a man who has scored in four consecutive decades since starting out with Malmo in 1999.

To put his figures into perspective, Ibrahimovic has the same number of league goals as Ronaldo, whilst he has six more goals than Messi at this stage of the season.

Messi, by his usual incredible standards, is having a poor campaign.

Big things were expected when of him when he swapped Barcelona for Paris in the summer but he has seven goals in 20 appearances, with five of them coming in the Champions League. It's a good job it's Real Madrid next for a man who used to revel in scoring against them.

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Ibrahimovic, though, had quite a different experience at the Ligue 1 club when he was the same age.

In his fourth and final season at the Parc des Princes, Ibrahimovic had arguably the best season of his career and made history with his goal-scoring exploits.

He became the club's single-season top scorer and Ligue 1's 2015/16 top scoring player with 38 goals - two in a 4-0 win over Nantes saw him bow out of France in style before heading to Manchester United.

Messi can often do the unthinkable, but with just two goals to his name this season, it’s safe to say he won’t net another 36 goals in the 14 remaining games to match Ibra’s tally.

He has scored more than 570 career goals, including more than 500 club goals and has done it for ten different teams in five different counties. 

A look at his incredible workouts in the gym suggest there's a few more years left in the tank yet.

Perhaps people will understand just how good he is when he hangs up his boots once in for all.

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