Eamon Dunphy has shut down Roy Keane's comparison of Jack Grealish and Cristiano Ronaldo and labelled it "ridiculous".
On Tuesday, the Aston Villa captain was named in Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad for Euro 2020 despite missing a chunk of the season due to injury.
He featured in England's 1-0 win over Austria on Wednesday night, and received glowing praise from the former Man United captain who was speaking as a pundit on ITV.
Keane said: "He is the star man, he makes things happen.
"He has courage and always wants the ball in tight areas.
"Like Cristiano Ronaldo at Portugal, you need players like that in your team. It is brave."
When asked about the comparison, the former RTE pundit Dunphy said: "He’s a very good player but he’s nowhere near Cristiano Ronaldo’s level.
"He’s an entirely different type of player so I wouldn’t agree with that.
"But he’s a very good player and if he has a very good championship, I think he can get a move to one of the very top clubs.
"He’s an outstanding player and he’s young but he’s no Cristiano Ronaldo, that’s ridiculous.
"But he is a very good player."
Dunphy was speaking as part of a Paddy Power campaign that aims to encourage Irish people to support England, as the company will donate €10,00 to Irish grassroots football for every goal scored by England at the Euros.
And the bookmakers will double that to €20,000 if Jack Grealish, or Declan Rice, get on the scoresheet.
Both players infamously switched allegiances from Ireland to England before making a competitive senior international appearance.
And former Premier League star Damien Delaney, who is also on board with the campaign, believes Grealish is the player that the current Ireland set-up is missing the most out of the two.
He said: "With the lack of goals up until Andorra, you'd probably have to go with Jack Grealish.
"You can always insulate defensively with numbers, and Declan Rice does a great job in that role for West Ham and England.
"But I think creativity is the most difficult thing in football. It's the hardest thing to do.
"That final pass, that final cross, that final finish.
"Jack has the potential to be world class but for us right now, I'd have to go with Jack."
Regardless of how many goals England score, Paddy Power has committed to donating at least €100,000 to local clubs.
Dunphy and Delaney joined Paddy Power in calling on adult representatives from clubs with senior teams across the Republic to get in touch via saveourgame@paddypower.com or via Paddy Power’s social media channels explaining what they need the money for and why.
