Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi is usually compared to the all-time greats such as Pele or Diego Maradona, but teammate Ivan Rakitic had one from left field for the Argentinean.

Rakitic compared the five-time Ballon d'Or winner to famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Gaudi was responsible for the design and construction of some of Barcelona's most iconic buildings - including the Sagrada Familia - and Rakitic said Messi is comparable to the architect for his genius on the field.

But like Gaudi, Messi has to have strong support behind him to succeed.

"Just talent is not enough," Rakitic explained to El Pais. "If you take the best in every position, it will not be the best team.

"We can speak about Gaudi - he was a genius, he had unique ideas. But behind him there was a math expert, with a structural plan, to support the genius idea. Or he would not have put up those buildings.

"They would be very pretty, but they would fall down. If Messi were an architect he would be Gaudi, [Jacques] Herzog and [Pierre] De Meuron, [Norman] Foster and the minimalism of [Ludwig] Mies van der Rohe.

"I would be his assistant, as I am now."