Manuel Pellegrini believes Sergio Aguero must help Manchester City win the Champions League to topple Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s best player.

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The Argentine’s amazing five-goal heroics in Saturday’s 6-1 win over Newcastle left his boss and team-mate Pablo Zabaleta in no doubt that he stands among the game’s top stars.

It was a striking masterclass as Aguero’s feat came in just 20 minutes after City had gone 1-0 down. But Pellegrini, who worked with Ronaldo at Real Madrid, believes the 27-year-old will only get the plaudits he deserves if he achieves more on the biggest stage, such as Europe’s elite competition.

“After what we have seen, of course Kun is at that level,” he said. “The important thing is, not only for Kun, but as a team we must continue to improve, to win the Premier League again and to win the Champions League because Messi and Ronaldo are always involved in that competition and that is very important for a player.

“I have already said that, after Ronaldo and Messi, he is the best player in the world. He always makes important contributions in competitions. Remember, three years ago he decided the title in the last three minutes of the season, last season he was the top scorer in the Premier League.

“So everyone is happy for him because every year he is improving, every day is a better professional and he has more maturity so I think he will finish his career with some important achievements.”

While Pellegrini loathed to make comparisons with Ronaldo, he added: “Kun has some important qualities, Ronaldo has some different qualities, but both of them are top players.

“You remember at the beginning of the season I told you that we would see a different Kun this year. He’s more mature, he’s seeing all kinds of different things on how he can improve. We’ll see in the way he plays in every game, the way he improves, the titles he will win.”

City defender Zabaleta, who also plays with Aguero for Argentina, hailed the frontman’s performance as “outstanding” and said they never doubted he would find form despite a five-game drought in the Premier League.

He added: “For the South American players it was a very busy summer, we reached the final of the Copa America, we didn’t have much of a break.

“We came back late so it takes time to build things up. It needs time to get back to the levels of the rest of the team and physically and fitness levels.

“But Sergio is so important for this team because he can score at any time – he’s that good. We’ve been talking recently about him being among the best strikers in the world and for sure, he is one of them.”