Barcelona star Lionel Messi admits he's keeping a close eyeing on Javier Pastore's exploits with Palermo.
Fresh from scoring a hat-trick in the Sicilian derby against Catania, Pastore has now won the praise of his international teammate.
"You can see he's tough, he's physically fit and he's going to go far - I'm convinced of it," Messi told FIFA.com.
"He's come on leaps and bounds at Palermo.
"I didn't know much about him when he played for Huracan, but I got to see his quality first-hand at the World Cup, even though he didn't play much.
"We played alongside each other [in 8 October's 1-0 friendly defeat] in Japan and we struck up a good understanding."
