A Premier League player has opened up about the "demoralising" experience he had playing against FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who seemingly did not care to be there but still ran the show.
The Argentine is often rested for the majority of the Catalan club's pre-season matches, but featured in his side's 4-2 friendly victory over Leicester City in 2016.
Recalling that clash, England left-back Ben Chilwell said the 33-year-old looked like he hardly wanted to be playing, but added that, even so, he was still difficult to keep up with.
"You never really get starstruck, but I think it was (four) years ago, it was a pre-season game against Barcelona," he told MOTDxyz.
"He didn't actually seem like he was interested at all to be there. The worst thing about it was you still couldn't get near him when he had the ball!
"He was just so sharp, so good, and it was kind of demoralising to play against someone who wasn't trying in the slightest, but you still couldn't get anywhere near him."
Chilwell then gave his opinion as to who is the better player between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Messi, 100%. It was an easy answer," he said.
"Do you know what? It's funny because there's so many people that say Ronaldo and so many people that say Messi.
"There's such a split divide between who's the best when they are so different, but for me, it's Messi."
