Lionel Messi believes England have every chance of winning this summer's World Cup, naming them as one of the three best teams in the tournament.
"I think that right now, the strongest sides going into the World Cup are Spain, England and Brazil," Messi told CNN International when asked whether the Spanish should be considered favourites. "They [all] had a strong, easy qualifying and are very tough."
Messi said he was hopeful that Argentina would also be in contention and defended his performances for the national side. He has been accused of not performing at the same level for Argentina that he regularly does for Barcelona, but Messi insisted that he could handle the criticism, even if he might not agree with it.
"People have an opinion and I respect it," said Messi. "I'm the first person who wants to do well with my national team and perform like I do with Barcelona. I know that this is a really good opportunity for me and I'm going to try to do it.
"[But] they are different systems and different styles and everything, no? At Barcelona, [manager Pep] Guardiola decided to use me more in the middle and that's when I had more touches on the ball and played more around the front of the area. And well, I've had the luck to be able to score more goals."
Asked about his relationship with the Argentina manager, Diego Maradona, Messi added: "At first, it was strange to have him as our coach. The truth is he was a little imposing. But afterwards, we started getting used to him and he's been our coach for a while, so now it's normal. Also, he's really close to the players, he's one of the guys, so there's no problem.
"The truth is that Maradona has always been very nice to me. Even before he was our coach and I took my first steps as a professional. Now that I have him as a manager, he's even closer and gives me a lot more confidence than he did before."
The full interview will be broadcast as part of the transmission South Africa 2010: CNN Counts Down to The World Cup 2010 on CNN International today at 5pm in the UK.