It's been an unarguable truth over the past decade that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the world's two greatest footballers.

The two of them have each managed an unprecedented level of dominance at an individual level that has led to possibly the greatest rivalry there has ever been between two players.

Kaka was the last man not named either Cristiano or Lionel to win the Ballon d'Or - all the way back in 2007 - and since then Messi and Ronaldo have picked up trophies and records so frequently that they seem to accomplish a young fan's wildest dreams at least once a season.

Being a decade into their amazing success has brought about one important question: what happens when they're gone?

These are the players who the world's two biggest clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, are built around, after all, and their excellence has become an accepted, expected truth about the game.

They are two of the absolute greatest of all time, talents that don't even come around once in a generation - let alone twice - and replacing them seems impossible.

But if one player can step up to that level, it is surely Neymar.

Neymar has been tipped for the pinnacle of the game for almost as long as Messi and Ronaldo have been there; the Brazilian was singled out nearly ten years ago for greatness and has met every goal set for him since.

His world-record transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer was an effort to continue that development, although there has been loud speculation ever since that his ultimate goal is to be Ronaldo's replacement at Real Madrid.

Ronaldo, now 33-years-old, will surely slow down before Messi does and that has left Neymar in pole position to be his heir at the top of football - but according to Pele, people are wrong to expect a like-for-like replacement.

"Neymar has been compared with Cristiano Ronaldo," Pele told ESPN. "So I've said several times, told friends, in Europe, given interviews - Cristiano Ronaldo is an excellent player, he could be like our Vava, our Coutinho, the finisher.

"Neymar is really more of a Messi-style, one who constructs the play, but scores the goal also."

Neymar certainly does seem more suited to filling a void left by Messi than Ronaldo, and will likely do it better than anyone had any right to expect after what the Argentine has become.

What's more likely, really, is that Messi and Ronaldo won't ever be replaced - this is a unique era of football and we should enjoy it while it lasts.