Daily Times

FC Barcelona shot-stopper Marc Andre ter Stegen was all praises for club-fellow Lionel Messi as he termed the latter someone every footballer, regardless of the playing position, can learn from.

Talking about Lionel Messi, Stegen said it is always better to have him on one’s own team than playing against him.

“It’s not just about Messi. We have so many good players, but of course he can make the difference, but we have a lot of players that can make the difference as well. Every player who’s on the field can learn from Leo.”

Also read: Messi is more vital than ever for Barcelona

“He’s an idol in this respect for everybody, and one of the people that is working a lot on his own skills, not just looking at the others. He just wants to make himself and the team better, and everyone should think like this. It’s very easy to work with him — he’s a very humble guy, everybody has a good opinion about him — and when it comes to football, there are no words for what he’s capable of doing on the field,” Stegen said.

Last few weeks have been very rough for Barcelona keeper as he saw his nation getting eliminated from the WC sitting at the sidelines. Stegen was sidelined even after having a phenomenal season with Spanish giants Barcelona.

The German keeper spent few weeks with his family after the world cup and now have joined the Barca loft to get ready for Spanish and European competitions.

Talking about the last few weeks he said “Spending time with my family is very high-rated. It’s what I really like to do on my holidays. But also, I like to really be far away from everything just to disconnect and to be myself”.

He added that it was very hard seeing Germany getting eliminated from the world cup and not getting a chance to save them. “You need to imagine that you had a good season and then you go with expectations to reach the World Cup and then in the end you’re not playing. Of course, it’s not fun being in this situation. I knew that even if I didn’t play, I had to be supporting the team — to be there for them 100 percent.”