Forlan (left) also had a brilliant career.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 500th career goal last Wednesday.

I played with Cristiano and saw how much he sought perfection when we were at Man Utd.

We all left Manchester to go to Spain and if you look at the list of top scorers in La Liga over the last seven seasons you will see there are only three names.

If you look at the list of European `Golden Shoe` winners during that time, you will see the name Ronaldo three times, Messi three times, Luis Suarez once and me once – also in 2009. That is `The Shoe`.

Ronaldo (left) and Messi are the two most successful players of their generation.

I never consider myself to be at the same level as Messi or Ronaldo.

My achievement of 32 goals in 33 matches is an impressive number.

I don’t want to say these are the greatest players in history.

Forland and Ronaldo were still in the same Man Utd shirt.

Ronaldo has changed a lot.

I’m not getting into the debate about whether it’s easier to score goals in Spain than elsewhere.

But Ronaldo just kept going.

I think Messi is a little better, but there will be people who will object.

Finally, in my opinion, we are very lucky to watch Ronaldo and Messi perform at their best.