Jamie Carragher chooses between Ronaldo Nazario and Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona and more

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has stirred up quite a controversy on Twitter. He picked Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo over Diego Maradona and Ronaldo Nazario, respectively.

Carragher provided his opinion on a thread that compared past footballing icons with their present counterparts, settling a lot of past vs. present debates.

The thread by Twitter user @MenWhoLived3ce consisted of 72 “Who are you picking?” questions, and Carragher popped up with some rather tasty choices.

First and foremost, he settled the age-old Messi-Maradona debate, picking the PSG man ahead of the Napoli legend. Messi, who guided Argentina to the Copa America in the summer of 2021, won his seventh Ballon d’Or in November.

Carragher did not exactly justify his choices, but the PSG number 30’s recent exploits may have played a role in swaying the verdict in his favor.

The Twitter thread also pitted Cristiano Ronaldo with the great Ronaldo Nazario. Carragher, who saw the Brazilian great at his best, still adjudged Cristiano to be the better player. The Manchester United ace has been the Red Devils' leading scorer this season with 14 goals in all competitions.

If the aforementioned questionnaires were not enough, Carragher also picked Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola over Manchester United icon Sir Alex Ferguson.

Some of his other debatable picks included: Kylian Mbappe over Wayne Rooney, Sadio Mane over Ryan Giggs and Mohamed Salah over Rivaldo.

Messi in The Best FIFA Football Awards Shortlist while Ronaldo misses out

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2021 will crown its best men’s player in the world on January 17th, 2022 at 7:00 PM CET. Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi has managed to break into the top-three shortlist alongside Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

The Manchester United number 7, on the other hand, has failed to squeeze into the final three for the first time in over a decade. The former Real Madrid man has won The Best Men’s Player award twice since the ceremony’s inauguration in 2015. Whether the 36-year-old will be able to beat the odds to return to the podium next year is anybody’s guess at the moment.