The ex-England international Crouch did not hesitate in revealing what the Portuguese told his Man Utd teammates when they were teasing him telling him the Argentine was better than him: "Yeah, but Messi doesn't look like this."
A curious response from the now Juventus striker which left nobody indifferent. On his part, Redknapp commented: 'I'm Ronaldo over Messi. I love both of them but I’m Ronaldo. There's him, Maradona, Pele, George Best was a genius. I’m a big fan of George Best but you look at Ronaldo, he’s done it on the world stage, he’s won everything, he’s just incredible.", the ex-Portsmouth manager said.
"Ronaldo's an incredible professional. They say he's the last one out of the training ground every day, he trains, I thought Messi would be the same. I met two fitness coaches who worked at Barcelona with him, they said he was a nightmare for Pep. "They said he would come in in the morning, didn’t do a lot of training, he’d kick a couple of balls around and off he went. I couldn't believe it.", he continued.
Even though Crouch praised Ronaldo, he disagreed with Redknapp on Ronaldo being better. "I admire his mentality and determination. But, if you are talking about talented footballers, there is no comparison with Messi."
Martin Keown was more than clear: "I think Messi for me, the way he links the play and ghosts past players, I think Messi will reinvent himself now, a bit like Ryan Giggs did at the end of his career, I don’t think Ronaldo can do that."