Former Brazil international Julio Cesar has weighed in on the debate about who is the best goalkeeper out of Liverpool's Alisson and Manchester City's Ederson.
The duo have been fighting on all fronts in Europe and England once again this season, most notably in the Premier League title race, and were close to facing each other in the Champions League final.
For their country, Alisson and Ederson are battling it out over Tite's number one spot with the World Cup coming up in the winter. Cesar, who is considered one of Selecao's best ever shot-stoppers, has given his view on the pair.
What did Julio Cesar say about Alisson and Ederson?
"Great question, I will stay quiet!" Cesar replied to GOAL when asked about who is better, but added his view on their emergence in the sport.
Adding in the chat set up by Enterprise Rent-A-Car: "In the last years, after Dida and me, the people in European football started to look for our position in Brazil as an important position.
"When I arrived in Italy, there was talk about Waldir Perez in 1982 [a goalkeeper who made high profile mistakes in a World Cup]. They said I was an example that goalkeepers in Brazil were getting better.
"I was like, ‘no, Brazil has always had great goalkeepers.’ Now, you guys have just started to respect our position.
"Now, if we talk about the best three goalkeepers in the world, we could talk about Ederson and Alisson. It isn’t just those two but there are many others in Europe. Most people respect Brazilian goalkeepers in football now.
"It could have been Emerson vs Alisson in the Champions League final but for those two late goals in the semi-final. When you talk about goalkeepers for the World Cup, Tite doesn’t need to worry about either of those two."
What are Brazil's prospects in the World Cup?
There hasn't been a South American winner of the World Cup since Brazil last won it in 2002.
A nation steeped in success is desperate to win it again and Cesar believes they are capable with Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar and manager Tite leading the group.
"I don’t know if it will be Neymar’s last chance," he added. "Most people say that because Neymar is 30 years old and he is still one of the best players in the world.
"For me, Brazil has a good chance. There aren’t other national teams much stronger than Brazil. There’s France and Germany but Brazil has the right ingredients to become the world champions. Most importantly, the federation retained Tite and I think he is key to the project.
"You don’t have much time to introduce a new plan in a short time so when you talk about national teams, it is important to have consistency for the players to know the methodology and philosophy of the coach to know what they are asking of you.
"It’s like Germany, they had a bad World Cup in South Africa but kept the coach and then became world champions in Brazil with the same coach. They haven’t changed their players too much. I think it helps Brazil have the chance to win the World Cup."
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Enterprise Rent-A-CarJulio Cesar and Lloyd Griffith featured in Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s‘ Mission Keeper’ series ahead of the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League final. You can view episode three in full here.