Even if Lionel Messi is still playing competitive football, his former teammate Xavi has already picked the Argentine as the greatest of all time, beating out rival Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona legend Ronaldinho. Xavi added the two Barca greats had a deep bond while playing together and treated each other as family.
From Paris Saint-Germain, Ronaldinho moved to Catalonia and there he found a teenage Messi showing potentials in the Barcelona academy and impressing the then already established Brazilian star. Eventually, the two played for five years winning titles and honors for the Catalan giants and they were like brothers together with Deco.
"They had a good relationship: Leo, Deco, and Ronaldinho. As a very good family group and Ronaldinho, like everyone else, saw that Messi had something special," The Sun reported Xavi as saying.
Now a football manager, the former Barca midfielder recalled that the seniors in the club did their share in helping out the then young Messi but it was Ronaldinho who really connected with the eventual club captain.
"You could already see that when he was 16, Ronaldinho adopted Messi as a little brother and they had a very good relationship. Ronaldinho helped him a lot ... We all helped him, but Ronaldinho did as the best player in the world," the Spanish legend revealed.
Xavi underscored the fact that the way Barcelona embraced Messi surely contributed to how the Argentine turned out.
"A teenage boy sees that the best in the world is welcoming you as a member of the family. This helped Leo a lot to be where he is now," the Barca hero explained.
And Ronaldinho playing the mentor to Messi resulted in the latter eclipsing his big brother's achievements. The Brazilian won the nod as football's best three times, twice coming from FIFA and once from Ballon d'Or.
Messi captured six Ballon honors and rightly so, according to Xavi, adding that due to a more consistent showing on the pitch, the student proved with humility that he was the better and in fact the greatest player seen on the pitch.
"Ronaldinho is at the level of the best, perhaps what he lacked was consistency ... Perhaps he lacked consistency in being at his peak. For me, only Messi is above Ronaldinho because of the consistency of the last few years," Sport Bible reported Xavi as saying.
As far as the game, football has yet to see someone better than Messi, described by Xavi as "the best in history." And the following best level includes Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, he added.
