Messi has consistently stolen the limelight from the Real Madrid forward and most expensive player in football history with a string of sublime performances for Barcelona in the first half of the season.
Ronaldo has not scored in three matches since Real's 6-0 demolition of Zaragoza in mid-December, while Messi has netted five in his last two to climb to the top of the La Liga scoring chart on 14, double Ronaldo's tally.
The 22-year-old Argentina international, who was instrumental in Barca's unprecedented haul of six trophies in 2009, netted his 100th and 101st goals for Barca against Sevilla on Saturday in his 188th appearance.
"We don't need to prove anything to anyone, not even to ourselves," Messi, a product of Barca's youth programme, said in an interview with the club's TV channel on Sunday.
"We have the same mentality as last year, we want to carry on winning things and I believe we have demonstrated this."
"The truth is that, right now, as with all the important things that have happened to me, I don't attach too much importance to them or I don't notice them.
"I am taking it calmly, in a normal way and with a desire to achieve more."
"I have the ambition to be the best," the Portuguese told Marca sports daily last month.
"By God's grace I have already won the trophy for the best player in the world and I hope to win it again, either this year or next, but I will win it again."
Silverware is key to winning the World Player award and with Real already out of the King's Cup and lagging in the league he will need a spectacular performance in the second half of the season if he is to eclipse Messi.
The World Cup in South Africa and the Champions League final at Real's Bernabeu stadium in May would be the ideal stages for him to prove he is worth the 94 million euros.
