Jonjo Shelvey's Newcastle United teammate Matt Ritchie says the midfielder could play for Barcelona, if only his head was screwed on.
England international Shelvey, who has been capped six times but never since 2015, is in his fifth season at St James' Park and has delivered several standout displays for Steve Bruce's side across the campaign.
And Ritchie says the former Liverpool midfielder's ability is beyond question.
"What a player, I've been at Newcastle four years and I've seen him inside a box no more than 10 times," Scotland international Ritchie told the In The Box YouTube channel.
"That's how good he is. His natural ability to see passes, to receive the ball, to move the ball.
"I remember playing against him as a kid - I think he scored a hat-trick, he was unbelievable.
"He's got his moves - ending up at Newcastle. I say to him on regular occasions: 'if you had your head screwed on you could play for Barcelona.'
"He's that good. He's got everything."
Ritchie adds Shelvey's love of golf is one of the reasons he hasn't reached his potential as a footballer.
"I've said to him so many times 'if you just got head down and focused just solely on football and forget about golf and whatever else...'," he added.
"He's mad - he'll play golf like three times a week.
"I'm like 'Jonjo, you can't do that.'
"At Newcastle, he hits the longer passes, he's the one we look to open teams up and create - I feel like, and this is no disrespect to us at Newcastle, but if he was playing at Barcelona or Real Madrid, you can just imagine...he would just blow teams away with his ability.
"You have to have everything in the right place and he likes his golf too much!"
