Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has expressed his opinion that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of all time ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi and Ronaldo have won 11 of the last 12 Ballons d'Or and have scored a mammoth 1,253 senior club goals between them, with Messi one ahead of his perennial rival on 627 to Ronaldo's 626.
Rudiger chose both players in an XI of the toughest players he has faced, but believes that Barcelona icon Messi pips Ronaldo to the title of the best ever.
"The next two stand out, they are in a different world, they are different quality. When you're playing against Messi, the feeling you have is that it's just up to him, if he is in a good mood or is having a good day you cannot stop him. That is my honest opinion," Rudiger told Sky Sports News.
"The same applies with Ronaldo. They have two different ways of playing, one to try and score goals and the other is enjoying his football. If I had to pick one it would be Messi. Is he the best ever? I didn't see Pele or Diego Maradona playing because that was not my time, so it's Messi."
Rudiger also selected the likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk in his team, commenting on the latter: "In the last two years he's shown he is definitely one of the best, even maybe the best at the moment. He is a beast.
"You always look up to those kind of players because these two centre-backs are, at the moment, the best centre-back, so of course you can learn something from them. Everyone has their own style of playing, but you can learn from them."
Rudiger's toughest XI in full: Neuer; Wan-Bissaka, Ramos, Van Dijk, Robertson; De Bruyne, Kante, Iniesta; Messi, Aguero, Ronaldo
Barney Corkhill
