Cristiano Ronaldo picks the best footballers of his generation in 'this or that' challenge

Cristiano Ronaldo is considered by some to be the greatest footballer of all time.

But the goal machine has rarely given a peek into who he thinks are the best footballers of his generation.

In a short 'this or that' video uploaded to his official YouTube channel UR Cristiano yesterday (Sept 8), Ronaldo picked his preferred player out of every two posed by former teammate and current YouTuber Rio Ferdinand.

The usual rule of this challenge is to keep the preferred option until a better alternative comes along.

Although it was not mentioned, it is clear the pool of footballers consists of the Portuguese forward's former teammates, but there were also a couple of opponents.

Most surprisingly, despite well-known respect for the senior players during his first stint at Manchester United, Ronaldo chose Ryan Giggs over almost everyone, including most of his Real Madrid teammates.

Giggs played behind Ronaldo during their highly successful years of the late 2000s, when the Welsh midfielder transitioned from a winger into more of a deep-lying playmaker to allow Ronaldo to flourish in attack.

Giggs is one of football's most decorated players but is rarely mentioned among the greats.

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Unsurprisingly, Paul Scholes, who partnered Giggs in midfield, also received a shout from the Portugal captain, but interestingly Ronaldo showed a soft spot for David Beckham, the man he replaced at United.

Beckham was the club's undisputed No.7 until Ronaldo took the shirt and wrote an even more illustrious chapter.

Ronaldo picked the English icon over Scholes and his Real teammate Angel Di Maria.

However, Ronaldo concluded the 'this or that' challenge with two Frenchmen - first by siding with strike partner Karim Benzema over all his ex-teammates, then by choosing current phenom Kylian Mbappe.

Benzema played nine years with the Portuguese at Real and was instrumental in the latter's transformation into a goalscorer.

Mbappe represents an obvious passing of the baton from one generation's superstar to another, but critics may wonder why Ronaldo's longtime rival Lionel Messi was omitted from the conversation.

It would certainly be interesting to hear Ronaldo's views on the Barcelona legend, though probably a futile exercise to ask him to pick between Messi and himself.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX8ykesLfSE[/embed]

Among the thousands of comments, many joked about Ronaldo's admiration for Giggs, with some speculating that he would have chosen his ex-teammate over his wife or his son in a 'this or that'.

Just last Thursday (Sept 5), the 39-year-old scored his 900th career goal in a match against Croatia.

As his career winds down, Ronaldo has started exploring other opportunities, including launching this YouTube channel. It reached one million subscribers within a record-breaking 90 minutes and currently has 59 million subscribers.

Ronaldo is also the most-followed person on Instagram, with 638 million followers.

tp@asiaone.com