​Brazilian footballing legend Pele believes Barcelona's Lionel Messi is the best player to play the game over the last ten years, according to ​Goal.





Messi has won the Ballon d'Or four times since initially breaking on to the scene at Camp Nou, while former Manchester United attacker and current Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is just behind his long-time rival on three wins of the award. Both players have broken countless records and are easily the two stand out players of their generation.









It's something of an age-old debate of "Messi or Ronaldo?", but having seen both players countless times Pele - who is considered perhaps the greatest of all time - thinks Messi edges the duel between both players. He was also keen to stress that both players play the game in very different ways.





He said: "It's very difficult to make a comparison of players of different generations. But in last 10 years Messi was the best. Ronaldo plays forward and tries to score, while Messi plays with a different style."





Pele also reserved some praise for Neymar - a team mate of Messi at Barcelona - as he believes the left winger has a huge future in the game.





He continued: "In my team I would love to have both... We have Neymar who also has a good future."





Remarkably, at the age of just 23, Neymar has 67 international caps to his name and has already scored 46 goals for Brazil - and few would bet against him breaking Pele's all-time record of 77 international goals. And Pele believes he could have held his own and succeeded in this era had he been playing himself now as opposed to back during his time.





He added: "No doubt football today is tougher than before but when God gifts you to play football it's the same in any generation. Football is all about skill. I'm sure Beto would have been equally successful had he played in this era."







