Not that you would know it from the rousing standing ovation Craig Bellamy received when he came on to replace Robinho against Stoke on Boxing Day, but there is still one Manchester City fan who rates the club's record signing higher than the Welshman.
Bellamy smiles wryly when he mentions it but he has a sneaking suspicion that if his elder son, Ellis, 12, had to choose between him and the Brazilian, he might not pick his dad.
"Does he think I'm better than Robinho?" Bellamy said. "Probably not. Because Robinho will do a couple of step overs and a couple of tricks and my son would appreciate that more than me tracking back and doing the dirty work.
"I think all kids are Robinho fans. When I went over to Sierra Leone in the summer, Robinho was the first person they all asked about..
"He catches the eye. He catches my eye. To be mentioned in the same breath as him is an honour. I am just enjoying that fact. To be fighting it out with him is an achievement all on its own.
"If you had told me a couple of years ago when I was out with injury for a year at West Ham that I would be fighting it out with a player someone paid £32m for, that people would be holding me in that regard, I would have laughed."
Don't pinch yourself too hard. That's Bellamy being modest. It's not part of his image but it happens quite often actually.
Not on the pitch, obviously. On the pitch, he turns himself into the snarling, yapping, moaning player who referees and opposition fans love to hate.
"I have to turn myself into that person to get myself going," Bellamy said. "If my mouth's quiet, then I'm quiet in the game, too."
The real Bellamy, though, is a thoughtful man with a keen sense of his own limitations and a hunger to learn from the superstars who surround him at City.
He has not thrown his toys out of the pram in the wake of Mark Hughes' sacking as he was reported to have done.
He was shocked when Hughes was fired and he readily admits that he owes him and Sir Bobby Robson great debts of gratitude as the biggest influences on his career.
But he has not demanded a transfer. He has not led a player rebellion. He has not had a row with new boss Roberto Mancini. He does not want to leave.
"Listen," he said, as he kept an eye on the Arsenal-Aston Villa game at his Cheshire apartment yesterday, "Man City could get another Craig Bellamy within two minutes.
"There are better players than me out there. But this has been my best year in football and I just want to keep going the way I am. I think the way I have been playing reflects on Mark Hughes.
"If you do your homework on me and check my background, you might be surprised to find that a lot of people speak very well of me inside the game, because believe it or not, my attitude is very good.
"I wasn't upset about being left out of the starting line up against Stoke on Boxing Day. I knew about that at least four days earlier.
"I have had seven knee operations in the last nine years and it is no secret that I struggle to play two games in a week because of my patella tendon.
"The physios went to see Mancini about it early in the week and he was great. He understood. Me playing two games in three days just wasn't going to happen. The headlines from it about me being dropped were predictable but they weren't accurate.
"I've just seen Cesc Fabregas score for Arsenal after coming off the bench. They didn't say he was dropped, did they?
"I knew there would be a lot of stories like that because people knew I had a very good relationship with Mark Hughes.
"This might surprise you but even though I completely respect Mark Hughes, I don't have his mobile number on my phone. I wouldn't ring him up. I don't have that relationship with him.
"I have not spoken to him since the day he was sacked. I have a professional relationship with him. He is a very quiet guy. He keeps himself distant and I am similar.
"I am relieved that I was able to play well for him because he put his reputation on the line to bring me to this club and I take enormous satisfaction from the fact that I was able to reward him for that.
"I went to see him in his room after we had been told he was fired. I wasn't yelling about what I was going to do or anything. I just wanted to thank him.
"When I got there, I didn't know what to say. What do you say to a man who you highly respect and who has just lost his job?
"He said to me: 'You have been incredible this season. Just carry on. You are on the best stage you could ever have. Carry on playing the way you are. This is the perfect platform for you'.
"Then his family came in and it all got emotional. It was the first time I'd seen him emotional and I realised it was not the place for me to be."
Bellamy has dedicated his life to football, from the moment he left home in Cardiff at the age of 14 to join Norwich City because he realised he was being drawn close to teenage delinquency.
Now he is revelling in being at a club that appears to have limitless potential and taking huge joy in being surrounded by a cast of superstars.
"The players I have been around and the stage I have been on has given me a massive incentive and allowed me to play at this level," Bellamy said. "I know in a few years this will all be gone. I just enjoy it while I can.
"When Carlos Tevez came in, I watched what he did and didn't do and I try and pick up as much from him as I can. I like Tevez a lot. These last seven or eight weeks, he has been brilliant. He has been a pleasure to work with.
"This has been my best year in football and the reason for that is that I have been able to work with this standard of player.
"If there are players who are going to come to the club in January, that might even lift me again to kick on towards the end of the season.
"But there might be a stage, if we get the players to win the Premier League, when I might be out of my depths. That might be too much for me.
"Do I think I am going to be here in two or three years lifting trophies? No I don't. I don't think I will be able to sustain the level of play necessary. I think fitness will be a problem. My body has taken a toll.
"I'd love to be here long enough to win a title but I haven't thought too much about it. People thought I would be shipped out when the big signings came in in the summer but I thought of that as an opportunity on the big stage.
"I was very touched by the reception I got from the City fans during the Stoke game. I will remember it for the rest of my life. I do give my all for the teams I play for. Newcastle, Blackburn and Celtic, I was a huge favourite with these clubs, too.
"But I try and keep it in perspective because I know how quickly things can change. I might get an injury next week and be out for four or five months. Then I'd become a bad signing again."
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