Former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand has lavished praise on Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, branding the pair "two different superstars".

It has long been discussed whether Barcelona's Messi or Real Madrid's Ronaldo is the better overall player, but both are widely considered to be two of the best footballers in the history of the sport.

Ferdinand has said that while Messi's talent is mostly "natural", Ronaldo has had to work harder to become the player that he now is.

"It's two different superstars. The best way to describe it is Messi is like a genius. He shouldn't be that good," Ferdinand said during a Q&A for FA TV. "He's small. If you're going to build a footballer you're going to build Ronaldo, so Messi is working from a disadvantage straight away, and he's doing ridiculous things. He's like an artist, he's just a genius.

"Ronaldo is like a driven, well-oiled machine, who has made himself that superstar. Messi seems like he's more natural. It's just been given to him. Someone looked down and said 'You're the man'. And he went out there and did it, and he's just a beautiful footballer.

"There's two different players, but the respect for both of them is huge. I just think it's great that we're in this time where we can appreciate these two ridiculous footballers putting up numbers that no-one has ever even seen."

Messi has scored 421 goals in 496 games for Barcelona since stepping into the first team, while Ronaldo has 329 goals in 318 appearances for Real Madrid.