Football
Richard Jolly, ESPN.com writer 9y

Yaya Toure: Man City's Sergio Aguero as good as Barcelona's Lionel Messi

Yaya Toure believes Sergio Aguero is on a par with Lionel Messi, saying it is difficult to choose between the two Argentines.

Manchester City midfielder Toure was a teammate of Messi's at Barcelona, winning the Champions League in 2009 before moving to the Etihad in 2010.

Now Toure lines up alongside Aguero, who is the Premier League's top scorer this season with 10 goals, for the English champions.

While Messi is Barcelona's 363-goal record scorer, has won the Ballon d'Or four times and was named the best player in this summer's World Cup, Toure was reluctant to put him ahead of Aguero.

"I've been able to play with Messi but now I am able to play with Aguero," Toure told Nissan. "Aguero is a fantastic striker.

"If I have to choose one of them it's quite difficult. Messi is one of the best in the world, definitely, but Aguero as well is strong, clever, he's fast.

"Both strikers are fantastic and I really enjoyed to play with Messi and now to play with Aguero, I really enjoy it."

Toure scored a career-best 24 goals last season as City struck 156 times under Manuel Pellegrini and the 31-year-old believes the coach is much more attacking than his predecessor, Roberto Mancini.

He added: "In the past with Mancini we were a defensive side and with Pellegrini it's totally an offensive side. Every player has his opinion. At the moment with Pellegrini, everybody is very delighted. I think both are fantastic managers."

Toure is dreaming of winning the Premier League and the Champions League this year, saying: "For us the perfect scenario is going to be both but we know it's going to be difficult but we'll try to do it."

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