Juventus forward Gonzalo Higuain believes Paulo Dybala -- a teammate for club and country -- has what it takes to become as good as Lionel Messi if he works hard.

Dybala, in only his second season at Juve, has been linked with Barcelona and could reach the level required to play for them, Higuain believes.

"They are very similar," he told Mediaset. "Messi is better and he shows this day-by-day, but Paulo is still young -- he's only 23 so it all depends on him. He will have to show great mental strength.

"When you reach such high levels so quickly, it is not so easy to stay there for many years. There will be lots of highs and lows and he's got to try to keep a level head and not listen too much to the criticism or the praise. But to have made it to the very top as soon as possible is an advantage because you learn to mature quickly and then you play like a world class player straight away."

Paulo Dybala joined Juventus from Palermo in 2015. Matteo Bottanelli/Getty

Higuain set a new scoring record in Serie A last season with 36 goals for Napoli before joining Juventus in the summer, elevating him into the gilded company of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Robert Lewandowski.

The 29-year-old said he is particularly fond of the latter two, but that it is former Brazil international Ronaldo who remains his all-time favourite.

"When I was young I would watch a lot of Italian football, which is where all the top forwards like [David] Trezeguet, [Gabriel] Batistuta, [Hernan] Crespo and [Vincenzo] Montella were playing," he said.

"And then there was the best of all time who for me is Ronaldo. Suarez is in his best period of form and he has improved a lot compared to his Liverpool days, while Lewandowski is also great, as is Aguero.

"But I like players who entertain me over those who just score goals."

Higuain learned from another of the best in the form of Raul, who he says helped him a lot in the early days of his career at Real Madrid.

The Argentinian forward played almost 200 times for Real between 2007 and 2013 before joining Napoli.

"When I joined [Real] I was 18 and I matured a lot there," he said. "I had some great teammates: Raul, [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy and Roberto Carlos and they helped me a lot settling in. Raul was already a legend and he had a huge impact on me because he helped me and gave me the opportunity to be his successor.

"I got there in January and we were 14 points behind Barcelona and we were not playing well, but we caught up with Barca and it was at that moment that I knew we would win the league."

That 2006-07 title was the first of three he won at Real, although he has yet to win Serie A. He would happily delay his first Scudetto by a year if it would mean winning a first Champions League title, however.

"I would prefer to win something huge with this time, like the Champions League," he said. "We have a feeling that we can do it, although I came here also to win the sixth straight Scudetto. Those who won the first five Scudettos here will remain important, but winning the sixth will be even greater."