Brazil Legend Pelé Names His Favourite Player

Once a player reaches a specific standing in the game, an elevated status as one of the world's best, they tend to draw comparisons to those ranked ahead of them, but once they transcend that category, as Lionel Messi has, they get juxtaposed with Brazil legend Pele.

The three-time World Cup winner is very aware of his clout in world football and, while in Milan promoting his biographical film Pelé: Birth of a Legend, he spoke to La Gazzetta della Sport about his favorite players to ever draw comparisons to him.

"It's very difficult because there have always been players who have been compared with me [as the best player ever]," Pele said via ESPN. "First there was [Alfredo] Di Stefano, then [Johan] Cruyff, [Franz] Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, Maradona and now there is Messi. Leo is the one I like the most -- he's the most complete.

"Messi is my favourite player, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar are also good. They have different styles in a football which has changed."

Despite preferring Messi to Ronaldo, the 75-year-old backed Real Madrid to win the Champions League over Atletico on Saturday.

"Football is full of surprises and it's hard to say who will win," Pele said. "I'm sad to see how winning has become more important than the beauty of the game. I prefer Real at the moment because they have a more open way of playing, less defensive and more artistic.

"It's important that you play well. I always prefer a 3-3 or a 5-5 draw to a 0-0. Football is poetry, fantasy. It's not true that 0-0 is the perfect result."