La Liga stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are "the embodiment of modern football," Brazil icon Kaka has said.
The former Ballon d'Or winner is the last player to lift the coveted prize before the dominance of Ronaldo and Messi began, and said the two are setting a new standard for the game.
"Lionel Messi is a genius and Cristiano is an icon of modern football," the 33-year-old, getting ready for his second Major League Soccer season with Orlando City, told Algerian magazine Le Buteur.
"He is a strong player, dominates the ball with both feet, heads the ball well, hits his penalty shots and that is why I say he is the embodiment of modern football. Of course, both of them define the football of their generation. They are the stars of the sport."
Kaka won a Serie A title as well as the Champions League, two UEFA Super Cups, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Italian Supercoppa in his first spell with AC Milan between 2003 and 2009.
After four years at Real Madrid, he returned to Milan for the 2013-14 season before leaving at the end of that campaign to return to Brazil.
While the 2007 UEFA Champions League winner's days at Real Madrid will not be remembered as the best spell of his career, he said: "I don't think you can speak of failure or that I didn't earn my keep.
"Obviously, it was an experience that was very different from the one I lived in Milan, but at the end of the day, I scored 29 goals in 120 matches over four years. We won three titles."
Kaka said injuries had hampered his consistency during his career.
"It was very difficult psychologically because you don't know when you will be able to return," he said.
"There is always that fear. I had two knee surgeries. Those were very painful times, but very useful for my personal development."
Kaka also spoke of his time with the Rossoneri, saying: "When I agreed a deal to sign with AC Milan, Leonardo was the club sporting director.
"Because of Leonardo's excellent relationship with Paris, and because I was very young when I got to Milan, the idea was that I would be loaned to PSG for a spell to give me time to play and then I would return to Milan with more experience.
"You shouldn't forget that at that time my place was taken up by players like Rui Costa and Rivaldo. But in the end the club decided to keep me in the squad so that I could be at [Carlo] Ancelotti's disposal."
Kaka is now the cornerstone of an ambitious project devised by Brazilian entrepreneur Flavio da Silva, who bought the Orlando City franchise a few years ago with dreams of tapping into the influx of Brazilian tourists and expats to Florida.
"The idea is to help the club grow, not only on the pitch, but also outside and also to help grow Major League Soccer," Kaka said.
"For Orlando City, the objective is to create a franchise that has world recognition. For example, there is a strategy in place to bring Brazilian supporters in so they have identification with a U.S. club.
"This is our way to contribute to the development of MLS in the hopes that it grows into one of the biggest leagues in the world."