Portugal legend Eusebio feels that Barcelona's Lionel Messi fully merits the title of best player in the world.
The diminutive attacker is one of the 23 players who have made the shortlist for the 2011 Fifa Ballon d'Or award, whose winner will be announced on January 9.
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo is also one of the favourites to win the prestigious accolade, but Eusebio says that his countryman falls short of the Argentine star.
"Who won the award [last year]? Messi? So, for me, Messi is the best," he told reporters. "Right now, the best player in the world is called Messi.
"There is no second-best, third-best or fourth best. Ronaldo, too, has won it in the past, but right now, Fifa and the people who voted chose Messi. He is a player who deserves this.
"I also agree with it, and Ronaldo himself accepted that Messi, this year, was better."
The 69-year-old, who represented Portugal from 1961 to 1973, then rejected suggestions that Pele is the best Brazilian player in the history of football.
"There was one player who was better than Pele," Eusebio explained. "It was Garrincha. He had one leg crooked, the other one straight, normal.
"How did he do all those things with such difficulties? He was a paralytic! And the way he played! Much better than us all!
"But since he was an ordinary guy and he liked to drink something that was not water, he was marginalised."
The diminutive attacker is one of the 23 players who have made the shortlist for the 2011 Fifa Ballon d'Or award, whose winner will be announced on January 9.
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo is also one of the favourites to win the prestigious accolade, but Eusebio says that his countryman falls short of the Argentine star.
"Who won the award [last year]? Messi? So, for me, Messi is the best," he told reporters. "Right now, the best player in the world is called Messi.
"There is no second-best, third-best or fourth best. Ronaldo, too, has won it in the past, but right now, Fifa and the people who voted chose Messi. He is a player who deserves this.
"I also agree with it, and Ronaldo himself accepted that Messi, this year, was better."
The 69-year-old, who represented Portugal from 1961 to 1973, then rejected suggestions that Pele is the best Brazilian player in the history of football.
"There was one player who was better than Pele," Eusebio explained. "It was Garrincha. He had one leg crooked, the other one straight, normal.
"How did he do all those things with such difficulties? He was a paralytic! And the way he played! Much better than us all!
"But since he was an ordinary guy and he liked to drink something that was not water, he was marginalised."
Starting last week and continuing every Friday through to January, Goal.com will publish extracts from Graham Hunter's highly-anticipated book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World. Friday's second extract was about how Joan Laporta and Sandro Rosell used David Beckham as a vote-winner in the club elections of 2003, even though a deal was already done between Manchester United and Real Madrid.