Cristiano Ronaldo believes his rivalry with Lionel Messi was healthy and inspired both of them to do better.

The Portuguese forward is among the contenders for this years Balon D’or and gave an interview to France Football where he talked about his goals and the rivalry with Messi.

“My goal is to stay young even as I get older,” he told the magazine

“When I finish my career I’ll disconnect from everything. To stay among the best you have to be smart. My 700 goals? An impressive number, I’m proud, few have reached that figure.

“My favorite goal? You ask me to choose, I would say the goal against Juve: the overhead, because it’s a goal that I tried to score for years.

“What is needed to score so many goals? Talent, in the first place, then work, because talent without work is useless and nothing falls from the sky.

“Tell me a player of the same age as me who plays for a team at the level of Juventus.

“At the age of 19-20 I realized that football was made up of numbers, records, goals and titles .

“Messi? In Spain, we were rivals and this allowed us to be better. I felt his presence more than when I was at Manchester, so there was a bit of extra pressure. It was a healthy rivalry. “