Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the current holder of the Ballon d’Or award after having won it for the past three years, but he is widely expected to lose this crown to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery when the award ceremony takes place in January. Messi has not been performing up to his exceptional standard he has set in the last few years, but Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero says that Messi is still the best player in the world according to him. Aguero has a great relationship with Messi due to his connections in the national team.
Both strikers have been doing exceptionally well for Argentina in recent World Cup qualifying matches. They have been playing together since the age of 17. Aguero has said that irrespective of who wins the Ballon d’Or award this campaign, the Barcelona superstar will be the best player. Aguero has not come into contention for this award, but he is expected to do so in the next year. He has begun the season extremely well with Manchester City. He is the top scorer in the league with 10 goals.
“Messi is a very important person to me. Lionel is the best footballer in the world, but to me we are friends first, always. We started playing together when we were just 17 years old. He was always going to be the best, always. He’s the number one and maybe I can be number two. Not yet though, I’m doing OK but I have to keep training hard and playing well,” said Aguero to the BBC.
He has formed an exceptional partnership with Alvaro Negredo, who came from Sevilla in a £ 25 million deal in the summer. Despite Aguero scoring a lot of goals, City are outside the top four at the moment.