Former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre says Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, football's two most celebrated modern superstars, would be far better served facing each other from opposing MLS benches than sharing the same locker room, should Ronaldo ever make the jump to American soccer.

Speaking to Goal.com, Silvestre, who played alongside Ronaldo at Manchester United for five seasons, weighed in on persistent speculation about whether the 41-year-old Portuguese forward could eventually follow Messi to Major League Soccer, reviving one of sports' defining modern rivalries on a new continent.

Why Silvestre favors keeping them apart

Silvestre said he would not rule out Ronaldo eventually making a move to MLS, given the flexibility Ronaldo has shown throughout his career in choosing where to play. "I don't know if he would want to go to the US, but definitely that's something that you can't take out of the picture for him. If he plays in Saudi, he can play anywhere to be honest. I wouldn't rule this out," Silvestre said.

But when it came to the idea of Ronaldo joining Messi specifically at Inter Miami, Silvestre pushed back, arguing that keeping the two on rival teams would serve the sport better than uniting them. "I think it would make more sense to have them in a different team and compete against each other. It would be........

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