The NBA star has revealed that Ronaldinho told him of Lionel Messi's greatness even before the Argentine had fully broken into the Barca first team

Kobe Bryant has revealed that Ronaldinho predicted Lionel Messi would eventually turn into the world’s greatest player.Messi has credited Ronaldinho with being one of the key figures in the Barcelona dressing room who helped ease his breakthrough into the first team, while the Argentine has gone on to inspire the club to seven La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies.Messi lifted the Ballon d’Or for the fifth time in his career earlier this month, and NBA star Bryant claims that Ronaldinho knew how far the Argentine would go when he was just 17.“A long time ago, Barcelona came to Los Angeles,” Bryant explained ESPN.“Ronaldinho who was a good friend, I was talking with him and he told me ‘Kobe, look, I’m going to introduce you to the guy who is going to be the greatest player of all time’.“I said: ‘you what? You are the best’. But he said: ‘no, no. This kid right here is going to be the best’.“And that guy was Lionel Messi, who was only 17 at the time.”