Speaking at the World Snooker Championships, because...well...why wouldn't he, Sir Alex Ferguson has drawn a line in the sand on the never-ending debate about who is better: Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo?
It turns out the former Manchester United manager prefers Ronaldo to Messi, much like a connoisseur of fine wines might prefer Malbec over Cabernet.
"People say, who is the best player in the world? Plenty of people say Messi, and you can't dispute that opinion," Ferguson told former snooker champion John Parrott on a video filmed by the BBC. "But Ronaldo could play for Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Doncaster Rovers or anyone, and score a hat-trick in a game. I'm not sure Messi could do that."
"Ronaldo has got two feet, quick, good in the air, brave," he went on, "Messi is brave of course, I think Messi is a Barcelona player."
This is not, of course, entirely surprising given that Ferguson brought Ronaldo to Manchester United and cultivated his talent when he was young. Indeed, Ferguson called out Ronaldo as the player who perhaps improved the most during his tenure with Man United.
"Ronaldo's the biggest improvement really, because he came as a young skinny kid at 17. And he had all these things about him that we used to criticize, his diving and all the rest. But once the players got around him on the training ground, he was fantastic. He, Scholes and Giggs...you have to say that those three [improved the most.]"
And so, another log has been added to the fire that is the Messi versus Ronaldo debate.
