Messi’s recovery is on track: Barcelona coach Enrique

“I’m not going to dribble past three or four players – that’s Neymar’s thing”, highlighting the Brazilian’s flair and ability get past his marker.

Enrique was then asked whether he felt Neymar had embraced his role as a leader of the team in Messi’s absence, to which he replied, “This is a question I’ve not been asked yet!” If you look back over my past eight years, I’ve always been at the peak; and that is hard. “I’d be thinking, ‘Why should I go to the gala?'”

Ronaldo continued to say that the feeling of being the best in the world has being the motivating factor behind achievement all along and nothing can change that.

“I think Messi, having won the Champions League, is in pole position to win the Ballon d’Or”. I think this attitude is one of the reasons why I have improved so much throughout my career and why I have achieved so much.

“Ronaldo and Messi are favourites again, of course”.

Barcelona forward Messi suffered a knee ligament injury in the 2-1 win over Las Palmas back in September and with the crunch clash at the Bernabeu taking place on November 21, the Argentine is behind schedule in his bid to face Rafael Benitez’s side. “I don’t compete with Cristiano and I suppose he would not compete with me”, Messi said in an interview with Guillem Balague on Yahoo.com. But in one way I am very humble.

Despite this, Ronaldo has told reporters that his stance is that in order to maintain the levels self-belief demanded of professional football a player must see themselves as No.1. “If the time ever comes for me to return to Real Madrid, I’ll do it gladly”.

“You can not compare a Ferrari with a Porsche because it’s a different engine”.

Nonetheless, as outstanding as Suarez and Neymar are, neither has a pedigree for impacting these titanic tussles against Real Madrid quite as often as Messi. I respect other people’s opinions.