The culture of the individual is said to have taken over from the overriding team ethic of football. But on Sunday, two of the modern game's greatest collectives come head to head as Barcelona meet Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.
Yet it is still not the traditional match-up of 11 against 11 that has everybody transfixed so much as the face-off between the sport's two greatest strike forces that has the world talking ahead of the latest Clasico.

While Real Madrid have the much-lauded BBC of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar have been dubbed the MSN.

It is typical of the battle between the two clubs. Barca make headlines with Messi, Madrid with Ronaldo. The Blancos' front-line has a nickname, so too must the Catalans trio have one.

But which is the best-performing of the two triumvirates as the Gran Derbi approaches?

In the opening half of the campaign Real Madrid's superiority was summed up by the brilliance of their front three. They led La Liga with authority, collected the Uefa Super Cup and strolled to the Club World Cup title. All the while, Bale, Benzema and Cristiano were thriving.

Between them, the star trio bagged 57 goals in 71 appearances over Madrid's 28 games before the winter break. At a combined rate of 2.41 goals per game the BBC were sending out one hell of a signal as Los Blancos looked set to steamroller the division, with 22 consecutive victories providing testament to their effect as a party.

But their form since the break has been nowhere near as convincing. In 2015, the front three are combining for 1.3 goals per game, down more than a goal on their average in the first half of the season.

And that fall has been replicated in Madrid's results, with five defeats in 16 games seeing them fall off the top of the table, suffer elimination from the Copa del Rey and very nearly go down to a humiliating Champions League exit against Schalke.