Former Manchester United midfielder Markus Neumayr has hailed Cristiano Ronaldo's desire to be regarded as the best player in the world, insisting his work ethic is unrivalled.

Ronaldo received the Ballon d'Or award - football's greatest individual honour - for the fourth time on Monday, pipping Barcelona star Lionel Messi to the accolade.

The 31-year-old has enjoyed a remarkable 2016 after helping Real Madrid win the Champions League, before captaining Portugal to European Championship glory.

Neumayr - a United youth academy graduate who trained with the first team during the 2005-06 campaign, before moving on without having made an appearance for the club - has suggested Messi is more naturally talented than Ronaldo.

However, the current FC Luzern man reckons there isn't another player around who works as hard as Ronaldo does.

Recalling what it was like training with Ronaldo at United, Neumayr exclusively told 'Goal': "You saw from the beginning that he had so much talent.

“I guess he doesn't have the same talent as Messi on one level, but he works harder than everybody else. This is why he is the world-class player he is.

“When I met him for the first time at United he had a completely different body. He started to work on it every day. Another example is his heading ability. Through hard work he developed into a player who is one of the best headers of a ball in the world. Every single ability was increased permanently because he did everything for it".

Although Neumayr never made a first-team appearance for United, despite captaining their reserve side, he insists he holds great respect for then-Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

"He was a coach with great charisma,” he added. “His style was kind of carrot and stick. If he did talk to you he either praised you or spoke in a way you thought you were going to experience the last days of your life.

"I had a lot of respect for him because he was 100 percent honest. Some players could not handle that, but for me I only can say that I appreciated knowing what he really thought. He had an eye for us young players and did always know where we were".