Raul settled the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo GOAT debate with perfect answer

Real Madrid icon Raul put his club allegiance to one side to give his honest take on the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo GOAT debate.

Raul is a bona fide club legend at Real Madrid, having scored an incredible 323 goals in 741 games for the Spanish club.

That puts him third on the all-time list behind only Karim Benzema (354) and Ronaldo (450) – with the Portuguese's stunning record unlikely to be broken any time soon.

Raul played alongside Ronaldo for just one season at the Bernabeu, the 2009/10 campaign – the latter's first season at Madrid following his then world record £80m move from Manchester United.

Few would have predicted at the time that Ronaldo was surpass the Spaniard as the club's all-time top scorer.

Ronaldo wasn't the only world-class player Raul played alongside in Madrid, with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo Nazario also his teammates in the previous Galactico era.

However, Raul said the greatest player he ever saw wasn't one of his teammates but was instead Lionel Messi, who was of course a legendary player for Madrid's bitter rivals Barcelona.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated [via FourFourTwo] in 2015, Raul said: "I was lucky enough to play with Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, Cristiano but Messi is different.

"He makes everything look so easy, so effortless - even the impossible.

"When you watch him play, it's almost as though you are watching him in the street playing with his friends.

"From the time when I started out, the best players around then were Roberto Baggio and Ryan Giggs."

Messi has seemingly edged ahead of Ronaldo in the GOAT debate in recent years following Argentina's triumph at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Raul is now head coach of Real Madrid Castilla (Image: Getty)

He also has the edge in Ballon d'Ors, with the Argentina winning the award on eight occasions to Ronaldo's five.

The 2024 award will go to a different name, however, with Messi and Ronaldo left off the list of nominees for this year's award - marking the first time neither star was nominated since 2003.

Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr is favourite to win the award, with club teammate Jude Bellingham and Manchester City star Rodri also thought to be in contention.