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What's the story?
Lionel Messi has been hailed as the best player in the world ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo by German international Ilkay Gundogan, who believes the Barcelona star is more of a 'Galactico' than the former Real Madrid ace.
The Manchester City midfielder conceded that he has been a long-time admirer of the Argentine forward. According to Gundogan, Messi has always been a cut above the rest.
In case you didn't know...
The 31-year old La Masia graduate has enjoyed a remarkable campaign so far, in which he finds himself at the top of European goalscoring charts, after finding the back of the net 34 times in LaLiga.
He has yet again breached the 40-goal barrier in a top-flight campaign and is only two strikes away from completing a half century of goals this season.
After scoring a brace against Liverpool, Mesis has now scored 600 goals for his club in all competitions. This season, both Ronaldo and Messi, who both have been awarded 5 Ballon d'Ors each, have scored their 600th career goals. The Portuguese reached the mark before the Blaugrana captain.
The heart of the matter
Messi and Ronaldo are widely considered to be the top two footballers in the world at the moment and they continue to divide fans over who is the world's best.
This season, both of them have led their clubs to triumphs in their domestic leagues, while only the Barca captain remains in contention of the UEFA Champions League.
Ilkay Gundogan, has hailed Messi as one of a kind ahead of Barca's crucial semi-final fixture at Anfield, calling him the undisputed footballing genius, while also praising Ronaldo as world class. He told DAZN (via Goal):
"For me he[Messi] has always been on a different level to anyone else."
“Cristiano Ronaldo is the world class player after Messi, but for me he is not on this Galactico level of Messi."
He concluded on a serious note and said that there might never be a player like him, so we should enjoy his brilliance while we can. He added:
“I don't think we'll ever get a player like him again, so we should watch him and enjoy him while he's still here. I'm a big fan.”
What's next?
Barcelona lead 3-0 on aggregate against Liverpool in their Champions League semi-finals tie. They will go up against the Reds at the Anfield later tonight, who are without key players such as Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita.
