Summary
Piers Morgan snubbed Messi when naming his greatest ever XI.
Morgan's XI includes one former England international who won the World Cup.
The likes of Pele and Thierry Henry also miss out.
Piers Morgan snubbed eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi when naming his greatest XI in football history. The journalist-turned-television host is known to hold some disdain for the Argentine, having previously claimed that he wasn't even among the top four players to have ever played the game.
Morgan's strong relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo is also public knowledge, with the 60-year-old never shy of throwing praise the way of the Portuguese at any opportunity. Unsurprisingly, the Real Madrid legend does make the team, as does one member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad.
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Goalkeeper and Defenders
Gordon Banks, Cafu, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Roberto Carlos
The position between the sticks has been handed to none other than Gordon Banks, who won the 1966 World Cup as part of Sir Alf Ramsey's heroes. Though he is the oldest player in the team, even Pele believed that the Englishman would still be among the very best if he played in the modern game.
Two Brazilians flank the back four. Cafu was the talismanic captain in his country's 2002 World Cup triumph and also had a legendary career in Italy with the likes of Roma and AC Milan. Meanwhile, Roberto Carlos was as feared a defender as you could find due to his ability to hit a dead ball with a level of power few could match.
In between them, it is the Italian duo of Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini. As teammates, they helped build an impenetrable backline for club and country, with the latter of the two in particular being revered as the greatest defender of all time due to being just as good at left-back as he was when he moved central later on in his career.
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Midfielders
Zinedine Zidane, Lothar Matthaus, Ronaldinho
The midfield is hard to argue with, as Morgan opts for Lothar Matthaus to sit at the base of midfield to protect the defence. The German is the first of three Ballon d'Or winners in the engine room and made 150 appearances for Germany in a career that also saw him lift the World Cup and European Championships.
Alongside him is arguably the greatest midfielder to play the game in Zinedine Zidane. While the Frenchman is more well known for his strengths going forward, his grit and nastiness, which have also been on display plenty, allow him to be the perfect bridge between Matthaus and the carefree third man.
He may have been more of a winger in his peak, but Morgan has opted for Ronaldinho to be the final member of the midfield trio. The Brazilian was as exciting as they came back in his day, always playing with a smile on his face while making defenders quake in their boots.
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Attackers
Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo Nazario
There may be no Messi or Pele in the front three, but it remains an attack that no defender would want to come up against. Beginning with a man that no doubt would've won several Ballon d'Ors if he was eligible to, Diego Maradona was the heir to King Pele's throne and was as naturally gifted with the ball at his feet as anyone else has been.
If Maradona was moved to play on the right, you would imagine that Cristiano Ronaldo would take up the position on the left. Although he is the greatest goalscorer in the game, the Portuguese's best years came off the flank, while strikers such as Wayne Rooney at Manchester United and Karim Benzema at Real Madrid sacrificed their games to allow the five-time Golden Ball winner the opportunity to flourish.
His namesake, Ronaldo Nazario, is who finishes off the list. For many, the Brazilian could've been the absolute best had he been blessed with the fitness and perhaps the professionalism that the man who came after him did. Nazario was blessed with pace and frightening power that made him unstoppable when in full flow.