Gareth Bale didn't hesitate when asked to pick between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the GOAT debate

Gareth Bale has been asked to name his top five attacking players and made a big decision when it came to choosing between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Bale hung up his boots last year after his participation with Wales at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

It brought an end to an illustrious career which spanned spells with Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid and latterly Los Angeles FC.

The 35-year-old moved to Real in the summer of 2013 for a then world-record transfer fee of nearly £86 million.

During his time in Spain, Bale won three La Liga titles and five Champions League crowns as he scored 106 goals in 258 games.

Bale moved to Real following his best season at Spurs in the 2012/13 campaign where he scored 26 goal in 44 games.

When he moved to Los Blancos, Bale became teammates with Ronaldo, whom he usurped as the world's most expensive player after the Portuguese moved from Manchester United in 2009 for £80 million.

And by playing for Real Madrid, Bale took on Messi and Barcelona each season as both sides vied for supremacy in Spain and in Europe.

Messi and Ronaldo are the pair who many regard as the two GOATs in football.

Messi netted 672 goals in 778 games for Barcelona, while Ronaldo scored 450 times in 438 matches for Real.

The now retired Bale ranked his top five attackers in the viral blind ranking challenge in a recent YouTube video with Futcrunch where he was eventually forced to choose between Messi and Ronaldo.

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He placed himself in fifth and former Spurs team-mate Harry Kane - whom Bale played with during the 2020/21 campaign when he returned to the North London club on loan for the season - in fourth, with the England captain now at German giants Bayern Munich.

In third place, Bale went for former Brazil international and Real striker Ronaldo, who played for Los Blancos during its original Galactico era alongside the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham and Roberto Carlos.

And when it came to the big decision, Bale opted to choose his old teammate Ronaldo as the No.1 forward and put Messi in second place.

Given that he shared a dressing room with the Portuguese for several seasons and experienced plenty of success with him, it is perhaps not a surprise to see where the former Wales international's loyalties lie.