On February 13, Ronaldo suffered his umpteenth knee injury, the one that many fear will end his career. Less than 24 hours later, Raúl renewed his relationship with Real Madrid, seemingly ad infinitum. The two events raised the debate of what constitutes greatness and who will be remembered. Will it be Raúl’s longevity and records, or will it be Ronaldo’s relatively fleeting flirtation with immortality?

“On this day, which is Valentine’s Day, Raúl and Real can say they love each other, they need each other and complement each other and will commit for life,” the ever-so-sentimental and loving Ramon Calderón, the Real president, said. Raúl’s new contract runs to 2011, on the eve of his 34th birthday; thereafter it will be automatically renewed for another year if he makes 30 appearances for the club.

Ronaldo also received a lot of love that day. He was inundated with messages of support from wellwishers, a testament to the fact that, no matter what happens, he remains immensely popular. For those who do not know, here is a brief recap of two of the greatest strikers to have played the game.

Raúl overwhelms you with the sheer immensity of his numbers. At 17 he became the youngest player to appear for Real. He is the second-highest leading league scorer in their history and the seventh-highest in the history of La Liga. Given that he is only 30, both records are likely to crumble by the time he has finished: he needs 17 league goals to catch Alfredo Di Stéfano, the club’s No 1, and 52 to match Telmo Zarra, who starred for Athletic Bilbao in the 1940s and early 1950s. He is also likely to have played more Spanish league games than anyone in history - he needs 148 to match Andoni Zubizarreta, the former Barcelona goalkeeper.

Now that he is back with the national team after an 18-month hiatus, he has a good shot at breaking Zubizarreta’s mark for international caps; he needs 24 to reach his 126. Three behind Filippo Inzaghi, the AC Milan striker (who is still active but is four years Raúl’s senior), he will probably end up as the all-time leading scorer in European competition Then there are the records Raúl has already set. He is the all-time leading scorer for Spain by 15 goals. No one has made more appearances (115) or scored as many goals (60) in the Champions League. And as far as silverware is concerned, his trophy cabinet must be the size of a shipping container: five La Liga titles, three Champions League crowns, a European Super Cup and a World Club Cup.

Ronaldo? Well, the numbers are not too shabby, either. Only Pelé has scored more goals for Brazil. No one has scored more in World Cups. Two-hundred and twenty-nine goals in 312 league games is the kind of strike rate you might encounter on the Xbox.

At 20 he became the youngest winner of both the Fifa World Player of the Year award (which he has won three times) and the Ballon d’Or (which he has won twice). And he, too, has a fair amount of silverware: a La Liga title, a Dutch Cup, a Spanish Cup, a Uefa Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup at club level, plus two World Cups (albeit one as a nonplaying squad member) and two Copa Americas.

But what defines Ronaldo is not numbers or silverware. It is the lasting memory of when he was simply “The Phenomenon”, that two-season spell – his year at Barcelona and his first campaign with Inter Milan – when he was arguably the most dominant player in the history of the game.

Ronaldo defied the laws of physics while redefining the limits of human biology. He was faster, stronger and more skilful than anyone playing the game. And by a wide margin. Injuries robbed him of nearly five seasons and, possibly, at the age of 31, the rest of his career. But there was a spell when he was untouchable in a way that no player has managed since Diego Maradona was at his peak in the 1980s.

Ronaldo’s greatness - between 1996 and 1998 – was luminous, ubiquitous and inescapable. Raúl’s greatness, despite his precocious exploits, crept up on the footballing world. Both have had highs and lows. The difference is that Ronaldo’s highs were higher, while Raúl’s lasted longer.

Who will be remembered as the greater player? Aesop would have voted for the tortoise, Raúl, but Aesop was not a football fan. Rightly or wrongly, football is a game of memories, snippets burnt into the mind’s eye. In the currency of football, one awe-inspiring moment is worth a decade of sustained mere excellence.

Raúl may end up rewriting the history books. Ronaldo, the hare, made footballing history, even if it did not last very long.

Dazzling Agüero leaves rivals in the shade

It is not often that Lionel Messi is not the best pint-sized under21 Argentine starlet on the pitch, but that is what happened on Saturday evening when Barcelona were beaten 4-2 by Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderón stadium. Just 19, Sergio “Kun” Agüero stole the show with two goals and a display reminiscent of the man who could one day become his father-in-law (Agüero is dating Giannina Maradona).

Hiroshima: ‘No one likes us, we don’t care . . .’

Eleven yellow cards, three sendings-off, controversial refereeing decisions and a pitch invasion by a hundred or so angry fans. The Den circa 1981? Dynamo Zagreb v Red Star Belgrade circa 1992? No, the Xerox Super Cup, the traditional curtain-raiser in Japanese football in which, on Saturday, Sanfrecce Hiroshima upset Kashima Antlers, the hot favourites, after a controversial penalty shoot-out. So much for national stereotypes.