The all-time top scorers in the European leagues

Their Liga BBVA goals from last weekend made Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo the top two all-time goalscorers in Spanish football. Indeed, the pair's impressive goals tallies place them amongst the most prolific strikers in the history of world football.

His stunning four-goal haul against RC Celta on Saturday was enough for Cristiano Ronaldo to leapfrog Athletic Club's Telmo Zarra into second place in the all-time Liga BBVA goalscoring charts. Ronaldo has notched 252 goals - one more than the Basque legend - in just 228 games, a return which means that the Portuguese forward averages over a goal a game.

Ronaldo however still has some way to go to topple Lionel Messi, whose 307 goals situate him top of the all-time Liga BBVA goal standings. The Argentine added to his record-breaking tally with a brace against SD Eibar on Sunday and right now he's far and away the contemporary leading goalscorer across the major European leagues.

.@Cristiano writes a new chapter in the history books.#LaLigaStats#RMAvCEL pic.twitter.com/uGH9PNiNTe

— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) March 5, 2016

The FC Barcelona man continues to smash record after record. The Rosario-born forward boasts a goals return which far outdoes any other top all-time European league striker. Quite some time ago now, Messi broke the 260-goal Premier League goals record held by former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United forward, Alan Shearer (1992-2006).

The Catalan giants' attacker has also claimed the record held by the legendary Italian forward, Silvio Piola, whose 274 goals for FC Pro Vercelli, SS Lazio, Torino FC, Juventus and Novara Calcio (1929-1954) were interestingly never enough to fire his team to Serie A glory, as Piola hung up his boots without ever lifting the Italian title. Piola's 274 Italian league goals record still remains intact, although another Serie A legend, Franceso Totti, who currently has 244 goals to his name, is closing in.

February saw Messi crack yet another record. The visitors' opener in the 3-1 triumph over R.Sporting saw the Barcelona number 10 claim his 300th Liga BBVA goal and surpass Delio Onnis's 299 Ligue 1 goals in the process. Onnis, an Italy-born Argentine, finished the season as the top marksman in the French league on five occasions during a career which saw him turn out for Stade de Reims, AS Monaco, Tours and Sporting Toulon during the 70s and 80s. 

Fellow Argentine, Messi, now has his sights firmly set on the 365 Bundesliga goals that German striker Gerd Muller netted over the course of a 13-season period, a tally which is yet to have been bettered across the major European leagues. However, Muller's 365 goals came in 427 outings, whilst Messi has hit 307 goals in just 338 appearances. At 28, the Argentinean international forward still has plenty of time to claim Muller's record and to continue etching his name into the history books.

The goalscoring feats of Messi and Ronaldo are something that very few players throughout the history of the game can even aspire to, and the fact that both are currently gracing the Liga BBVA is making for a chapter in the game's history that will live long in the memory.