GARY NEVILLE has been forced to defend himself after picking Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi as the greatest footballer of all time.
The former Manchester United skipper and now Sky Sports pundit made the call on Monday Night Football.
His comments immediately drew criticism from co-host Jamie Carragher, who threw his weight behind Messi’s claim to be the greatest.
And now Neville has found himself under fire on social media as Messi fans jump in on the debate.
In a call for calm, Neville tweeted: “You can choose Messi, you can also choose Ronaldo.
“Neither opinion can be seen as wrong due to them both achieving greatness and the comparisons in stats so similar.
“What style of football you like can be the difference. However I’ve got some weird Messi fans on my timeline!”
Neville played with Ronaldo during the Portuguese’s first stint at Old Trafford between 2003 and 2009.
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And after Ronaldo marked his return to the Red Devils with two goals against Newcastle, Neville hailed him as “the greatest footballer that has ever lived”.
The pundit weighed into the hotly contested debate ahead of Monday’s broadcast of Everton and Burnley.
He said: "I've always ignored the Ronaldo and Messi question, it's a bit of a fantasy and both need to be enjoyed.
"I was asked this morning by a gentleman who was driving me in: If you could pick any player in history to come off the bench and win you a game, who would it be?
"It would absolutely be Cristiano Ronaldo. I do think he's the greatest football player that has ever lived. That is not a bias.
"Messi is a ridiculous player who's scored an obscene amount of goals. It's incredibly similar (on the stats) apart from the wrong-footed goals, the headers, and the penalties.
"That takes me to a point whereby he's more complete in terms of the most important part of the game.
"What tips me is the international record, the most goals of all-time, and the five Champions Leagues with worse teams than Messi's."
Like Messi’s fans on Twitter, Carragher was not convinced and instead made the case for the Argentina forward.
He said: "Ronaldo is not the greatest player of all time. I'm going to say it's his mate here (Messi).
"It doesn't matter how a ball goes in the net, Messi has more goals than Ronaldo. Messi is also a playmaker, he can run a game, Ronaldo can't do that.”
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