LeBron James lauds Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi as two of the greatest of all time ahead of World Cup final

LeBron James has praised Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe ahead of the World Cup final, calling the duo two of the greatest of all time.

The basketball icon has often spoke about football (not soccer) and he bought 2% of Liverpool with his business partner Maverick Carter for $6.5million (£4.7m) in April 2011, and has exchanged their stakes in Liverpool for part-ownership of Fenway Sports Group.

As top athletes and stars often do, James gave a shout out to two of the biggest stars in football, and was recently seen commenting 'LEGEND' on Cristiano Ronaldo's Instagram post following his exit from the World Cup with Portugal.

Earlier this year, LeBron was revealed to be the highest paid athlete in 2022 across all sports, ranked ahead of Messi, Ronaldo and Saul Canelo Alvarez.

And he turned his attention to football once again, in the build-up to the biggest game in the sport.

Lebron was asked who he believes will take home the trophy before then going onto make a somewhat bold statement regarding Mbappe's status in history, despite still being only 23.

"I’m not gonna chose. Umm, what time is the match? ‘7 am.’ 7 am, okay, cool. So I can get up and watch it. I just want to see a great match like the rest of the world, besides who’s ever rooting for friends or Argentina; so we’ll see.

"I mean, it’s gonna be a great one, and look forward to seeing, you know, two of the greatest who have ever played that sport go at it. It’ll be fun."

Argentina face off for the second consecutive World Cup, given that the two sides played out one of the most entertaining games of the 2018 tournament.

France won 4-2 in a dramatic game filled with great moments, most notably there were two stunning goals from Angel Di Maria and Benjamin Pavard.

LeBron is ready for Messi vs. Mbappe 🍿 pic.twitter.com/xRNbbTWQEk

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 18, 2022

Both have been in imperious form during the tournament so far, with Messi and Mbappe locked on five goals each in the race for the Golden Boot.

Outside of the two star attractions, the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Enzo Fernandez, Julian Alvarez, Raphael Varane and Nicolas Otamendi have all been in great form too.

We're sure LeBron can't wait to watch, in his words, two of the greatest players of all time square off for football's biggest prize.