Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has hit out at rumours suggesting he has a poor relationship with Argentinean team-mate Lionel Messi.
Media reports in Argentina had claimed that the City player does not get along with the Barcelona star because of their differing personalities.
"Here people say that it is either Tevez or Messi and it does not have to be like that, because I get on great with the dwarf", Tevez told Fox Sports.
"Those people are wrong, he is a kid who does not talk much and I do not like when people say that we do not get on. I have a good relationship with him.
"It is easy to play with him. How could it be any different? If he has the ball, he has three players marking him. He is the greatest."
Tevez is on his way back to England after his self-imposed exile from Manchester following his well documented fallout with club manager Roberto Mancini at the end of September. Tevez is no stranger to controversy though and he revealed that he almost did not play in the Copa America last summer because of a bust-up with then Argentina coach Sergio Batista.
"I called Messi to ask him for a shirt for my charity foundation," Tevez said.
"Then he asked me why I was not called up. I told him that when Batista travelled to Manchester, he did so to speak with [Pablo] Zabaleta, and not me.
"Messi then told me to speak with the Argentine FA, and that is what I did. I spoke with Jose Luis Brown and Alberto Rodriguez and they told me that I was not going to play the Copa America and that I should keep working for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
"I told them that if I was not going to play the Copa America, I was not going to play the World Cup either. Then Batista called me and we solved everything."
The Argentinian Football Association terminated the contract of the Albicelestes' coach Sergio Batista at the end of July after a disappointing Copa America campaign.
Hosts Argentina were eliminated in the quarter-finals by eventual champions Uruguay.
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