Cristiano Ronaldo has hailed his long-term rival Lionel Messi as an "amazing player" - and insisted there is a deep level of respect between the two superstars.
Both Ronaldo and Messi are widely recognised as the two finest footballers of their generation and have won countless awards during their glittering careers. Messi (seven) is the only player in history with more Ballon d'Or triumphs than Ronaldo, who has won the coveted award on five separate occasions.
The duo have locked horns on numerous occasions during their respective stints at Real Madrid and Barcelona, but in the latest part of his explosive interview with Piers Morgan, Ronaldo has shared his admiration for the Argentine superstar.
When he was quizzed about Messi, Ronaldo told Morgan: “Amazing player is magic, top… As a person, we share the stage 16 years, imagine, 16 years. We share. So, I have great relationship with him. I'm not friend of him in terms of, what I mean friend is the guy who was with you in your house, speaking on the phone, no, but it's like a teammate.
"He’s a guy that I really respect the way he always speak about me. Even his wife or my wife, my girlfriend, they always respect and they're from Argentina. My girlfriend is from Argentina. So good. What I am going to say about Messi? A great guy who does great things for football.”
Messi joined Paris Saint-Germain last summer but is due to be a free agent in the summer, and Ronaldo quipped that the two of them would "sell a lot of shirts" if they did end up playing on the same team in the future.
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While Messi could potentially still agree a new deal to remain with his current club, there appears to be no way back for Ronaldo at Manchester United in the wake of some of the remarkable comments he has made this week.
The Portuguese superstar has claimed he feels "betrayed" by the club after being reduced to a bit-part role and even launched a scathing attack on boss Erik ten Hag, insisting that he has no "respect" for the Dutchman.
Ronaldo also issued his own blunt assessment on how the club have "stood still" since he first left Old Trafford 13 years ago.
Speaking in the first part of the interview, which was released on Wednesday night, Ronaldo said: "Piers, to be honest, when I signed for Manchester United, I thought everything was changed because it's 13 years... I was in Real Madrid nine years and three in Juventus.
"And when I arrived, I thought everything will be different, you know, the technology, the infrastructures and everything. But I was surprised, in a bad way, let's say in that way because I saw everything was the same.
“And Manchester it wasn't, in that moment that as you mentioned that Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] was sacked, Michael Carrick he assumed the job for two games. Villarreal, and Chelsea away. And everything was so fast, but surprised me a lot, [the] instability in the club.”
“No, they stopped on a clock, in my opinion, which is something that surprised me.”
Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored: 90 Minutes with Ronaldo at TalkTV :: Unavailable or www.youtube.com/piersmorganuncensored.
