Jamie Carragher has given his verdict on football's perennial debate of who is the better player out of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Argentine superstar Messi, 33, has clinched six Ballons d'Or and plundered countless goals and assists during his glittering career with Barcelona.
Meanwhile, Portugal legend Ronaldo, 35, has five Ballons d'Or to his name and narrowly edges Messi in the goalscoring charts thanks to his prolific spells with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
Carragher is in no doubt Messi is the better player of the pair, but the pundit remains conflicted on the fiercely-contested subject and insists he has "more respect" for Ronaldo.
"Messi, I've never changed that. I think I'm with the majority on that," Carragher told the Pure Football Podcast when pressed on who is better out of Messi and Ronaldo.
"I think I have possibly more respect for Ronaldo and the reason I say that is because he has got unbelievable talent but his mentality, his focus, his work rate has made him what he is, or got him to where he is, has taken him to another level.
"Whenever you think he's finished or Messi's done something amazing, he comes back with something again and again and again.
"And it must have been tough for him at times. Even when he was at late stages at United, early days at Madrid where no matter what he did, people would say Messi, Messi, Messi. I think now it's a bit more even.
"But I think with all those Ballons d'Or Messi was winning, even when Ronaldo was playing out of his skin. But he still came back for more and that's what I respect so much."
Do you agree with Carragher's verdict on the Messi-Ronaldo debate? Have your say in the comments.
Continuing his explanation, Carragher explained how Messi is able to perform "off the scale" feats no other player is capable of.
He added: "What I would say is, Ronaldo does things that other players can do but he does them more often. He scores more goals but I think Messi does things that other players can't do.
"So you see Ronaldo score a great goal and you think, 'Okay, well I've seen that before.' Ronaldo does it so often but Messi, the way he dribbles and runs with the ball, you very rarely see that in football now.
"I mean most teams don't even have a dribbler in the team anymore now. You don't see anyone run with the ball so... he does things that professional footballers are open-mouthed with, that's the best way to describe it.
"It's not just supporters, it's top players thinking, 'I can't believe that. I can't believe he's done that.' And that spell with Pep (Guardiola) going into Luis Enrique, that era of like seven, eight years when Barcelona were just off the scale, what Messi was doing.
"That's what I'd always go for Messi because he does things that other players can't and leave them open-mouthed."
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
