Jose Mourinho says Lionel Messi is 'a genius' and believes the Barcelona forward's continued progression is the product of his unshaking professionalism.
Messi scored twice to hand Barcelona a three-goal aggregate lead ahead of their Champions League semi-final second leg against Liverpool, after scoring a brace against Manchester United in the quarter-final second leg at the Camp Nou.
Messi's free-kick against Liverpool in the first leg of the last-four tie was the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's 600th goal career goal.
Mourinho, who was sacked as United manager in December, has observed Messi closely during the 31-year-old's 15-year first-team career and says the Argentine's life off the pitch plays a part in his brilliance on it.
"I don't know what to say, really," Mourinho told BeIN Sports when asked about Messi.
"What I can analyse is what I see. And what I see is a player that during his career went through a process and that process was always based according to his qualities and how can he give the most to the team.
"I was very fortunate because I was, let's say, close in all his career.
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"In fact, the first game that he played for Barcelona was Porto vs Barcelona in the opening of Porto's new stadium in 2004. And then I played against him when I was in Chelsea, I played against him when I was in Inter, and I go to Madrid for three years so I played against him many times when he was coached by different managers in different positions on the pitch.
"And the only thing I can say is that progressively he was always better and better and better. For me, genius, I think is the word you choose and I think the word is correct. Genius."
On Messi's life away from football, Mourinho added: "Lots of work, I don't know, I'm not there to see.
"A fantastic social life, it looks. You don't see many things about Messi in his personal and social life. It looks like [he has] everything together, plus very good teammates."
