Exclusive: Ronaldo Koeman passes the crown to Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi's free-kick against Athletic Bilbao saw him net his 27th dead ball for Barcelona, matching Ronald Koeman's record. The Everton manager spoke to SPORT about it... 

You mentioned Leo on your Twitter account...

For me it would be an immense honour of the best footballer of all time, Leo Messi, overtook my record.

Best of all time? Those are big words... 

I have never seen anyone like him. And, believe me, I’ve coincided with some great footballers. Messi is a genius, one of those players that appear every 50 or 100 years. 

But Cristiano Ronaldo won the prizes this year...

We are not talking about the same things, excuse me.

I don't understand.

These prizes have a lot to do with marketing, they’re global and even though I respect them, they nearly always rewards goalscorer who have won a title. Ronaldo won the Champions League and the European Championships, he scored a lot of goals, yes, but the best, the best footballer is Messi. 

You don't allow for comparison between them...

Ronaldo is really good, a great goalscorer, but Messi is more complete, more technical. He makes those around him better and he does things [Ronaldo] could never do. 

Why did you write your tweet about Messi? 

Because my younger son sent me a message from Holland after seeing Messi's free kick against Athletic. And he told me that if anyone was going to overtake my free kick record at Barcelona, who better than Leo?

Did you see it?

I saw it on the highlights. It was impressive, just like the one he scored against Villarreal. Sometimes it seems a lie that he’s made from skin and bone because he does things that are out of the reach of normal players.

You were a monster in these situations.

Yes, but Leo is better than I was. And it doesn't hurt me to say it or recognise it. I tell the truth. I had a very strong kick, it's true, as much with the instep as well as the inside, but Leo is capable of putting the ball where he wants. That is a virtue. He mentally sees the space and there he puts it. He is very intelligent in a football sense. He's the best free kick taker ever. 

How could he reach this level of perfection?

It's something innate in him. He has a glove on his foot. It's like he calculates the strength, the direction and the distance, impressive.

How are you seeing Barcelona at the moment?

It's tough for them to move forward and it's coincided with Madrid being very strong and fresh. They don't have the superiority of before but they keep playing very good football. Now they have the pressure of knowing they cannot fail.