Cristiano Ronaldo has launched a surprise attack on the quality of Major League Soccer, which Lionel Messi currently plays in for Inter Miami.
The MLS was launched back in 1996, having originally been conceived a decade earlier as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 World Cup.
The league struggled financially in its earlier years and there were fears that it could collapse altogether by the early 2000s.
David Beckham's high-profile arrival to sign for LA Galaxy in 2007 changed that, though there were still criticisms of the league's perceived quality for a number of years afterwards.
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Those perceptions have altered in recent years, with the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luis Suarez all choosing to play in the States while still having plenty to offer from a performance perspective.
Throughout his career, Inter Miami star Messi has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, with those comparisons now largely centring on the quality of the MLS versus the quality of the Saudi Pro League, which Ronaldo plays in for Al Nassr.
Now, in a new interview with La Sexta's Edu Aguirre, Ronaldo has fired back at critics of the Saudi league and believes that the MLS is actually worse.
He explained: "When I made the decision to come [to the Saudi Pro League], I didn't think it was going to grow so fast. But I knew that in one or two years the league would be very top, as it is now.
"People don't know, give their opinion and talk too much. I'm sorry, because it's a different reality when people talk about Arabia and when they talk about the United States.
"Is the MLS league worse? Obviously, but as it is Arabia, it is belittled. But since I know that people don't know what they're talking about... only for those who are here do we have to give it value."
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, MLS, Major League Soccer, Saudi Pro League, Al Nassr, Lionel Messi
Ryan Smart