Arturo Vidal, fresh from winning Serie A with Inter Milan, spoke to TNT Sports Chile and referred to Lionel Messi, among things.
Vidal and Messi were teammates at Barça and struck up a close friendship during their time at the club before the Chilean moved to Inter last summer.
"There's no possible comparison with Messi," Vidal said when asked if the Argentina forward is the best player in the world.
"It's strange to even talk about if Leo is the best or not. It's as if he's not from this planet."
Still on Messi, Vidal also spoke about his Copa America wins over his friend with Chil: "I know him as a person, a a rival, I trained with him... the two Copa Americas we won against Argentina have so much merit for being against Messi."
Vidal, who insisted it's a "dream" to play for Flamengo before retiring, said the best strikers in the world "right now are Luis Suarez and (Robert) Lewandowski."
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He added that his teammates at Inter Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez could reach that level if they keep on progressing.