"Having him as a rival is complicated. You see game after game that it is impossible to take the ball off him, impossible to stop him. There are no words to decribe his talent. For me, and as others have said, he is from another planet."

"Messi is out of this world. He is a special player and you can't compare him to me. It would be unfair to him."

"It's a gift. I haven’t seen any other player, at least during my career, who plays like Messi does. For me that makes him the best footballer in the world."

"For me, he's the best player in the world. That's football. Defending Messi one-on-one is not possible."

"Messi is the best player of all time, and today he had a stormer."

"I think Messi's just beyond everyone else."

"The best striker I have ever faced? Lionel Messi. It has always been Messi."

"The best player ever? Lionel Messi."

"I spent four beautiful years with Messi at Barcelona. He is an exceptional player. I'm very happy that he was my teammate."

"This award says I’m the best player in the world, but I’m not even the best player at Barcelona."

"I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi. Messi is a genius and he can become an even better player. His potential is limitless and I think he’s got everything it takes to become Argentina’s greatest player."

"He deserves 10 out of 10 for doing what he does."

"I see Messi every time he grabs the ball and accelerates. But he is shy, like a little brother who likes to hang out with PlayStation rather than talk. We must protect him. I'd personally put him in a drawer of my bedside table."

"The other day I saw one of his games. He was running with the ball at a hundred percent full speed, I don’t know how many touches he took, maybe five or six, but the ball was glued to his foot. It’s practically impossible."

"Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona."

"Leo floats over the field - sometimes you have the sensation he's not even there, that he's hiding. But he's there and the rival knows it."

"Messi is out of this planet, I would say he is so far ahead of the rest of the players playing right now and I would say historically as well. There are not words to describe him."

"Once they said they can only stop me with a pistol, but today you need a machine gun to stop him."

"For me, to watch Messi play is a pleasure – it's like having an orgasm – it's an incredible pleasure."

"When I see Messi playing, I think he should win the Ballon d'Or every year. I have no doubt. He is an unbelievable player."

"The ball stays glued to his foot; I’ve seen great players in my career, but I’ve never seen anyone with Messi's ball control."

"He is probably the best player of the last 20 years. He is such a slippery player. Because of his height and quickness he is difficult to pin down and his balance is exceptional."

"He is an exceptional talent. I still think Diego Maradona is the best player I have ever seen – but Messi is closing in fast. He's a wonderful sight in full flight and we are lucky to have him around."

"Leo is a virtuoso. He does things with the ball that just seem impossible. He's got great ability. His control of the ball when he is running at high speed is excellent. He has a superb shot. There is precision in his passing. To summarise... he's got everything. He has every single attribute you would want to find in a player."

"If Gary Lineker is saying that Messi is making him realise just how sh*t he was — then imagine how the rest of us feel."

"My record stood for 40 years - 85 goals in 60 games - and now the best player in the world has broken it, and I'm delighted for him. He is an incredible player, gigantic."

"Technically, we’re practically at the same level."

"His control and technique while going at full speed is unique in the world."

"Messi will be the player to win the most Ballons d'Or in history. He will win five, six, seven. He is incomparable. He's in a different league."

"For me, Messi is the greatest. I played with Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Michael Laudrup and Stoichkov but Messi is the best I’ve seen. He has evolved in a way that nobody could expect."

"When it comes down to natural talent there’s no one who’s at Messi’s level."

"Messi is better than Maradona; he is more complete, more consistent, more spectacular. He is reinventing the game – a mix of the real and the virtual."

"Messi is better than Maradona and Pelé. Every week he shows that he is capable of things that no one had done until now. Messi defies the laws of anatomy, he must have an extra bone in his ankle."

"I can't believe anyone can have played the game of football as well as Messi."

"I think now he’s probably done more than most players. But he is in the same class as Alfredo de Stefano, Johan Cruyff, Pelé. When he finishes and he retires, he will automatically become one of them. A player that people will talk about forever, while the game of football is as good and as popular as it is. He is a sensational player."

"Messi is simply the best player in the world. Messi is alone in his class as a player, it is impossible that there is another like him."

"Messi is the best player I've ever seen, better than Maradona and Cruyff combined."

"Messi is Maradona every day. He has played at the level of Maradona in 1986 for the past five years."

"I can only repeat what I have already said before and that is that Messi is the best in the world at the moment. It pains me to admit it, but it’s the simple truth."

"Newton and Einstein also had a certain level of autism. I hope that like them, Messi surpasses himself every day and continues giving us his beautiful brand of football."

"What’s really incredible is his consistency. It’s practically inhuman to keep going like him. What Messi has achieved, far outweighs what Cristiano has done."

"When Messi has the ball at his feet he can do things that you can’t imagine."

"There is only one player who is doing things that I could never do and that is Messi."

"He's the great player of this generation, like there were great players in other generations."

"Messi produces more pieces of exceptional skill in a single game than I managed in an entire career."