There aren't many footballers who have had the prestigious honour of playing alongside both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But there is a select few and one of them is Premier League legend Carlos Tevez.

The Argentine striker linked up with Ronaldo at Manchester United and has played numerous times with Messi for the national team.

So, with experience of both players on and off the field, Tevez has added some flavour to the on-going debate about the two superstars.

Tevez detailed how the two operate in training and why they're such different players.

On Ronaldo, Tevez said, per Di Marzio: "He spends the entire day in the gym, it's an obsession. I remember that we needed to train at 9, I arrived at 8 and he was already there. So I tried to arrive at 7:30 and he was already there. One time I did everything to get there before him, I arrived at the pitch at 6:30, but he was already there. He was half asleep but there he was."

And then on Messi, the Boca Juniors forward added: "Messi isn't like this, to him it all comes naturally. But for what doesn't come natural to him, he trains for. One time he wasn't kicking free kicks well, now he puts them all in the corner. He trained and improved."

Ronaldo has had to earn everything he has got, while Messi simply turns up and does what he does.

However, it is interesting to note that the latter is far from a slouch in training.

At the start of his career, the Barcelona legend rarely found the back of the net with free-kicks, but he's now the most prolific marksman from set-pieces around.

I guess to be the two best in the world, you have to put in the hard yards. In Ronaldo's case, a couple more yards...