Former Arsenal and Barcelona superstar Thierry Henry claims that he thinks Lionel Messi is a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo simply because of having played with the Argentine. Henry played along with Messi during his couple of years at Barcelona.

He has come up against Ronaldo on several occasions – both as an Arsenal star and while at Barcelona. Henry, therefore, is well placed to judge between the duo, who have occupied the top two spots in the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards for the last five seasons. Now working as a Sky Sports pundit, Henry says that Ronaldo and Messi are almost perfect but he would pick Messi on the verge of having played with the 27-year-old.

Ronaldo recently set a new record of having scored more than 30 league goals for the past five consecutive seasons. Messi is next on the record with four. The little Argentine is comparatively younger than Ronaldo and he is expected to dominate world football at least for a few more years than the Portuguese.

After having recently announced his retirement, Henry is expected to take up his coaching badges sooner rather than later. For the moment, he has been looking at the world game from a different perspective. Messi trails Ronaldo by three goals in the la Liga goalscorer charts.

“I played alongside Leo, so there’s my answer.I have an enormous amount of respect for Cristiano, as someone who maintains such a high level for several years.It’s one thing to have a good season, and then have another four years later but to keep up with that level for consecutive years is something else.People realise it, of course, but I feel like we still don’t grasp the real measure of what these two are doing. In the future, people will look back in awe at the continuity, the goals and the pressure that comes along with doing this for so long,” said Henry.