Pele Comments on How Neymar Compares to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Brazil legend Pele doesn’t think Barcelona forward Neymar measures up to his team-mate Lionel Messi or Real Madrid man Cristiano Ronaldo quite yet. 

After a stunning start to the 2015-16 season and a nomination for the three-man Ballon d’Or shortlist, many were bracketing Neymar alongside the aforementioned duo. But speaking with Marca (h/t Goal via Yahoo Sports), Pele stated he doesn’t think Neymar has what it takes to match up with those two currently:

"

I've known Neymar since he was little and many years ago his coaches told me he was very good. That is so but he doesn't have the quality of Ronaldo or Messi.

If I had to say who the number one player is today, I would say Lionel. The Portuguese has a different style of play but the best is Messi, in my opinion.

"

Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

Neymar's form tailed off in 2016, with Luis Suarez eventually emerging as the main man in Barcelona’s exciting attacking trio. As we can see here courtesy of Bleacher Report UK, the setup yielded a spectacular amount of goals last season:

Ronaldo also upped his levels in 2016, especially when Zinedine Zidane took over the manager’s job from Rafael Benitez. The Portuguese excelled as Real Madrid booked their place in the UEFA Champions League final, before netting the winning penalty in that match to secure Los Blancos their 11th win in the competition. 

Neymar is still relatively inexperienced compared to the aforementioned duo and hasn’t been able to show quite the same amount of consistency as either yet. But there were signs earlier on in the campaign that he does have the talent to maintain those standards eventually.