Lionel Messi outbid Cristiano Ronaldo at an auction for incredibly rare £27m racing car

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been part of a fierce rivalry on the football pitch for some 15 years but the competition between the duo once spilled out into an auction room for an incredibly rare car.

Messi represented Barcelona and PSG during his time in Europe, while Ronaldo has played for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

Both players have now left the continent during the tail end of their playing careers, with Messi now in the MLS with Inter Miami and Ronaldo at Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr.

The pair have a remarkable 13 Ballon d'Ors between them, with Messi being awarded eight and Ronaldo winning five.

Messi won 10 La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues during his time at Barca, along with league crowns at PSG.

Ronaldo meanwhile has won league titles at United, Real Madrid and Juventus, including five Champions League winner medals from his time at Old Trafford and the Santiago Bernabeu.

Their success is not limited to club level either, as Ronaldo has won the European Championship and the Nations League with Portugal, while Messi has claimed two Copa America titles and the World Cup with Argentina.

The pair are rightly regarded as among two of the football GOATs and they frequently faced one another when Messi was at Barcelona and throughout Ronaldo's time at United, Real and Juventus.

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But their competition extends beyond the football pitch, and it once went into an auction room over an extremely rare car.

Back in 2016 at the Retromobile auction in Paris, the duo entered a bidding war over a Ferrari 335 S Spider Scaglietti, which you can check out in the image above.

The car is incredibly rare, with only four models made between 1957 and 1958.

It boasts a V12 engine, nearly 400bhp with an estimated top speed of 186mph and is a striking car in iconic Ferrari red paint.

And the car the duo ended up bidding for went under the hammer for a cool £27 million, with Messi being the one who ended up buying the vehicle and outbidding Ronaldo in the process.

Messi celebrated at the time by posting a photo on Instagram as he held a toy Ferrari from the film Cars with the caption 'My new car'.

With the amount of money Messi has made throughout his career, splashing that amount of money on a car will probably not have put too much of a dent in his finances.