I am biased towards Lionel Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo, says Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry on his two day visit to India has been asked multiple times on his pick for this year's Ballon D'or winner and he has tipped many from Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann to Neymar.

When pushed to name one, Henry finally picked his former Barcelona team mate Lionel Messi. "Its the same discussion every year. Who is bit ahead or bit behind. Both Ronaldo and Messi are amazing to watch. What they have been doing is crazy. Cristiano won the Euro but I have played with Leo so I can be a bit biased that he would be the one. Both guys have been the best with what they have done and we are fortunate with what we have seen but I am always a Messi lover," he said in a media meet in Mumbai.

During Henry's Kolkata visit the previous day which marked his first viewing experience of the ISL, he enjoyed Diego Forlan score for Mumbai City FC. France's all time highest scorer gave his educated opinion of what could be the key for the Indian football league in the future. "I have just seen one ISL game and it's tough to say of a young league. But from what I have heard from likes of Freddie Ljungberg, Nicolas Anelka, Robert Pires, Diego Forlan, one thing I can say is, it needs is a bit of history. When you go to the stadium with your dad and you can talk about what a particular club did at a certain time, that's the sense of history." (Also read: Big names in ISL will increase profile of Indian football: Thierry Henry)

"But looking at the response of the fans things are going in right direction. Also there needs to be work on youth that will be the key. It's okay to bring in foreign players and coaches, but one has to have great youth system in place to survive and if you want to qualify for big tournaments," he said.

The Arsenal legend's primary assignment these days is working on the coaching staff of the Belgium national team. It helps him to keep his competitive juices flowing he said. "I miss the the competition level that used to drive me to train whole week. That you can compete against someone; there can be nothing better than that. Now I dont have that which is hard. So the closest way to find it to be a manager because it is close to what one can be as a player."

Henry serves as the second assistant coach to Roberto Martinez with the Belgium national team.