Lionel Messi has given a rare look in his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, but to be honest, he admitted that he is not friends with his Superstar rival.
The legendary duo remains two of the most decorated players in sport in history and have scored nearly 2,000 goals for club and country between them.
Messi collects a large number of individual titles and has been crowned eight times to the winner of the coveted balloon d'Ol, with Ronaldo his closest challenger with five.
It is therefore no surprise that they are both often mentioned as the goat and supporters who fiery their statistics, even if they approach the end of their career, with Ronaldo now 40 and Messi that will be 38 next week.
Ronaldo is currently processing his trade in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr, while Messi is in the books at MLS-Outfit Inter Miami.
Their paths looked briefly to cross this month at the Club World Cup, but Ronaldo achieved opportunities to join clubs that participated in the new look competition. Indeed, when the two big ones collided, it has always been for rival clubs or countries.
As a result, Messi has admitted that he will probably never share a close friendship with CR7, if only because they rarely get the chance to speak.
Messi opened his connection with Ronaldo and said to DSports: 'I have a lot of respect and admiration for Cristiano Ronaldo and for the career he had and remains, because he still competes at the highest level.
“The competition with him was on the field. Each of us wanted to do the best for our team. It is clear that everything stayed on the field as always.
'We are two normal people from the field. We are clearly not friends because we don't spend time together, but we have always treated each other with great respect. '
These thoughts reflect his earlier comments about the distance between them.
In 2017, Messi said to Marca: 'I don't know if we'll be [friends]. Friendship is built up by spending time together and getting to know each other.
'We have no relationship, especially because we only see each other during award ceremonies and that is the only time we speak.
“Everything is fine, but our lives don't go often.”
In the meantime, in an interview with the Spanish outlet El Chiringuito earlier this year, Ronaldo said he is on good terms with Messi because of their 'healthy' rivalry.
“I have a good relationship with Leo Messi,” said Ronaldo. 'I also translated him into English during an award ceremony! It was funny.
“It was a healthy rivalry, we could get along.”
Ronaldo leads Messi in the scoring effort, after he scored 938 goals for Club and Land during his shimmering career, compared to his rival's count of 866.