Has this percolated back to North America? This Messi versus Ronaldo thing?

It is nearly inescapable, here in the Old World.

Who is the better player? Who is more valuable? Whom do you prefer?

Lionel Messi?

Or Cristiano Ronaldo?

It’s almost as if two-thirds of the planet organizes itself into two camps. The Messis and the Ronaldos. Forget geopolitics or religion or art and culture; this is what engages billions of minds.

And I often wonder if the camp in which you land tells more than a little about you, as a fan.

For those who do not follow global club soccer, rest assured that most of the planet’s sports fans do. They may have interest in their local league, but they also are watching and consuming the major European leagues, via television.

And the two best players in world football, it seems fairly clear at the moment, are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The Portuguese and the Argentine.

And they happen to play for the glamorous arch-rivals of Spanish football, Real Madrid (Ronaldo) and Barcelona (Messi).

And soccer fans have opinions about those two clubs, too. You support one. Or the other. And you are a partisan of one player. Or the other.

Let’s generalize on the two camps.

Messi and Barcelona: An “every man” vibe. Unpretentious (and eager to make sure you know just how unpretentious they are). Little. Quick. Industrious. Innovative. Vaguely revolutionary/anti-government — because Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, where many people are in favor of a split from Spain. Messi looks like a guy who may not own a suit and certainly doesn’t like to wear one, pays about $10 for a haircut and is physically unimpressive. Short and plain. If you prefer Messi and Barcelona, you may also be something of a front-runner, because they have been ascendant for most of the past five years.

Ronaldo and Real Madrid: The establishment. The aristocracy. The rulers, rather than the ruled. Ronaldo fits in here perfectly because he pays more attention to what he wears than any royal anywhere. Ronaldo is strikingly handsome and is keenly aware of it; he uses more hair “product” than the whole of the Barcelona club (as long as Carles Puyol is not playing). He is the only footballer who can make a sprint look like a strut. His affectations have affectations. He is not “every” man; he is Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of you should react accordingly. The vanity oozes out of him. Messi is part of a system but Ronaldo is individually brilliant. Doesn’t play well with others? Or does he just go one without them because they can’t keep up? Oh, and you might be English if you prefer Ronaldo, because he became famous playing in the Premier League; Messi grew up inside the Barcelona commune. Traditionalists probably prefer Real and Ronaldo and those bright white uniforms.

So. This rivalry is played out in a handful of arenas. The Spanish league, the Spanish cup, the Champions League.

And the Ballon d’Or/Fifa World Player of the Year, which is soccer’s greatest individual award, the award handed out Monday night.

Ronaldo won it, for the first time since 2008, when he was still with Manchester United.

Messi had won four straight Ballons, from 2009 through 2012, a period when some began to write “best player in the world and maybe ever” without any qualifiers.

Messi might have won another had not Ronaldo been so good in calendar 2013 (despite his team not winning anything major; though his efforts with the Portugal national team were remarkable), and had not Messi missed a couple of lengthy spells with hamstring problems.

So, Ronaldo’s victory was embraced by his fans and decried by Messi’s supporters, who perhaps did not think their man really ought to have won but just wanted Ronaldo never to win again.

I was mildly pleased that he won. I am not a Ronaldista, but I like him better than Messi, who to me has always seemed mostly the benefactor of a revolutionary and productive playing system. While Ronaldo is about astonishing skill by Ronaldo, who sometimes seems a loner among 21 other guys.

So, maybe over in the U.S. you might hear vague echoes of how the vote went down. Pretty much everyone in Europe and Asia and Africa and South America knows who won.