Cristiano Ronaldo Leapfrogs Lionel Messi as Pele's No. 1, Neymar Warning Sounded

Football icon Pele believes Cristiano Ronaldo has overtaken Lionel Messi as the best player in the world, although he suggests that both will eventually succumb to the emergence of Neymar.

"Now, after several years of Messi dominance, the best is Cristiano," Pele told L'Uomo Vogue (h/t Mark Doyle of Goal). "The future will smile on Neymar. He can be the key man at Barcelona and help Brazil to return to its rightful place in the rankings."

Ronaldo captured his second consecutive Ballon d'Or at the beginning of 2015 but has struggled to hit the heights of last year since the winter break. He has netted nine goals in 13 matches so far in 2015, per WhoScored.com, but that stat matters for little when Madrid have gone three games without a win.

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CR7 also took a vow of silence after Madrid were booed off the pitch following Tuesday's 4-3 Champions League defeat to Schalke. Los Blancos qualified with a 5-4 aggregate score, and Ronaldo scored two on the night, but he appeared unhappy with the fans' treatment of the team, per Sky Sports: "I won't talk to the press again until the end of the season."

Messi is in full flow following last year's injuries, and after leading Argentina to the 2014 World Cup final, he has fired Barcelona to the top of La Liga. Seventeen goals in 16 games, per WhoScored.com, has outlined the iconic star as an early contender for next year's Ballon d'Or, but Pele believes the present is about Ronaldo.

Interestingly, Messi previously outlined Neymar as a future winner of the prize, per AFP (h/t FIFA):

"

He's going to get it, through his qualities, the way he is, I've no doubt that he can at some time win it. He has great potential, he's a player who has a lot of qualities and he can go as far as he wants. I'm lucky enough to rub shoulders with terrific players on the pitch and he's among them.

"

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Neymar is improving with every season and has worked hard to fit in at Barca. He quickly dropped his tendency to hold onto the ball too long—something that was possible at Santos—to fit in with the side's passing style.

He can already be considered a leader for Brazil, underlined by the events of last summer's World Cup. The Samba Boys never looked the same when he fell to injury, and his ability to inject pace and create something out of nothing was made conspicuous by its absence. Like Pele, he manages to stand out in a team of top Brazilian stars.

The Messi-Ronaldo debate will continue until the end of time, similar to how fans still discuss whether Pele was better than Diego Maradona. Pele's latest comments are sure to rile some and receive the applause of many others. While Ronaldo has undoubtedly been the dominant force over the last two seasons, he is lagging behind Messi in 2015.

That could change at any moment—highlighted by the duo's career-long tussle to be the best.