Piers Morgan has laid out a "sheet of facts" which he claims proves that Cristiano Ronaldo is a better player than Lionel Messi.
Messi starred as Argentina defeated Croatia on Tuesday to reach the World Cup final, scoring once and setting up two more. Meanwhile, Ronaldo saw his Portugal side crash out to Morocco in the quarter-finals and will end his career having never scored a goal in a World Cup knockout stage match.
Despite Messi's brilliant performances at this year's tournament, though, Morgan remains convinced it is Ronaldo who should be labelled as the 'Greatest Player of All Time' and has now laid out his reasons for that belief.
"Listen, I thought Messi last night was absolutely sensational. He's one of the greatest players to ever play the game - the debate though, is 'is he the greatest'?" Morgan told talkSPORT.
"And on that I will always put up a very passionate and I think quite forensic defence of Ronaldo and why I think he deserves that title because one World Cup does not make a GOAT.
"If it did, the debate about Maradona for example, who's won the World Cup and Messi hasn't won it yet - Maradona for me is the greatest Argentinian to ever play the game, I don't think Messi even gets that GOAT title."
Morgan then highlighted Messi's younger age, his decision to remain at Barcelona for much of his career and Ronaldo's technical abilities for reasons why the Argentine superstar is behind his Portuguese rival.
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"When you look at the stats for Ronaldo and Messi, it's important to remember Ronaldo is two years and four months older than Messi," the broadcaster added.
"Also important to remember that unlike Messi who stayed in his Barcelona comfort blanket for 16-17 years, Ronaldo has won league titles in all different countries including the three most competitive leagues in the world.
"He's taken himself out of comfort zones - he could have stayed at Real Madrid most of his career if he wanted but he didn't want to. He's deliberately taken himself into new leagues, new battles, new challenges.
"Even coming back to Manchester United last season was a big thing for him to do whereas Messi has only ever done it for Barcelona where all round him the entire time were the world's greatest players and Ronaldo has often had to lead that line pretty much on his own.
"So I think if you look at career goals, Champions League goals - Ronaldo is way ahead. He's better in the air, he's better with both feet, albeit Messi has a left-foot wand. I can rack up a pretty large sheet of facts which I think leads you to the conclusion that not only is Ronaldo the GOAT, but that Messi is only the second-biggest GOAT from Argentina."
Morgan concluded by insisting that if his team needed a player to come on and score a life-saving goal, many supporters would pick Ronaldo over Messi to do it.
"I've been watching a lot of the Messi fanboying over the last couple of weeks and laughing. Ok he's having a good World Cup - it's the first one he's turned up to, let's be honest," he said.
"Am I wrong to say if you stay at a team like Barcelona your entire career and then go to a very easy league like the French league, are you really a better player over that time than someone who has consistently won titles in three of the most competitive leagues that there are? I'm not sure you are.
"I veer towards Ronaldo simply on this question: if it was the proverbial wet Wednesday at Stoke and you had to bring on one player to score a goal to save your life - would it be Ronaldo or would it be Messi?
"And I think most football fans might veer in that scenario to Cristiano Ronaldo, to win a game for their lives."
