Messi: not just great, but the best?

[capriccioso 2,545]

Not really connected to Messi but I wanted to share this and it gives a very good idea of what the best are capable of.

I don't quite get the Rio de Janiero montage at the start. Wasn't he from the north of Brazil?

Some parts of that video are absolutely outrageous, like at ~5:10 where he somehow keeps control over the ball despite being almost parallel to the ground.

[Peace. 4,352]

42 games this season, 48 goals, 20 assists.

[zolayes 14,489]

42 games this season, 48 goals, 20 assists.

ignoring the stats ,,,he is by far the best I have ever seen.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Me55i

[termninja 5,290]

We should sign this lad, he seems to know what he is doing.

[True_Blue 469]

Here too? Fucking hell

[Santiago. 1,500]

Best footballer i have ever seen? No (Zidane)

[communicate 2,703]

We should sign this lad, he seems to know what he is doing.

We can ask him to tutor Sturridge

[Spike 12,049]

Best of his generation? Probably. Best of all time? Absolutely no chance. Pelé is by far and away and without a shadow of doubt, the greatest player this sport has, or will ever see. I for one rank the great Eusébio as the equal second greatest striker of all time, on par with Maradona simply because he carried Benfica and Portugal on his shoulders. Messi will never rank among those 3, Maradona and Eusébio were both by far the greatest players their respective clubs and countries produced and are solely responsible for the successes of their respective clubs and countries. As his teammate at Benfica and Portugal once said, "With Eusébio we could have been tri European Champions, without him maybe we could win the League." Messi has a long, long way to go to catch him and overtake him in my books as the equal 2nd greatest striker in the history of this game.

I'd rank Messi behind Ronaldo (the fat one), di Stefano and Puskas as the 6th best attacker.

I would like to see Pele deal with a real Defender like Benckenbauer. With both in their Primes of course.

[Wilson 358]

Was just thinkng, a really nice thought....Messi has never scored against Chelsea. Haha Messi!

[blue out west 27]

I would like to see Pele deal with a real Defender like Benckenbauer. With both in their Primes of course.

I would like to see Pele on an unlimited amount of steroids since he was 13, and shit, have him schooled there too.

Pele 5x the athlete, easily, and thats not even considering testosterone levels.

Zidane and Maradonna better than Pele too

Messi is a cheating egomaniac roid monkey

the perfect poster boy for the modern game

[Badboy 1,526]

Best footballer i have ever seen? No (Zidane)

Best footballer i have ever seen? No (Zidane)

Zidane was good but he was not as good as Messi. Zidane was probably better at one thing and that was vision (maybe his long shots too but that's debatable) but Messi kills him at everything else.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Zidane was good but he was not as good as Messi. Zidane was probably better at one thing and that was vision (maybe his long shots too but that's debatable) but Messi kills him at everything else.

Comparing Messi to Zidane....DEBATABLE

[Tomo 21,681]

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

Comparing Messi to Zidane....DEBATABLE

Touche

For me, Zidane and Ronaldo (Brazilian) are at the top. They've both won the world cup and the elegance of Zidane is unmatched today (Ozil slightly). That's not to say Messi can never reach it, because the stuff this kid does is mind-blowing. He's Broken yet another record today in being the first person to get 5 goals in one UCL game. At 24 he is poised to be the best, but for me that can never happen - as in their can never be a best. Different generations, with different opponents all created different legends. Everyone has their favourties, heck even Drogba is up their for me personally, but then again you wouldn't hear that from a United fan. Some even call Maldini the greatest, but that's defenders who can appreciate what he did. That is why, no matter how many he records he break, he can never be the best ever. It's an impossible feat even for this incredible player.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Quite comfortably player of his generation, tbf.

[DYC. 7,542]

42 games this season, 48 goals, 20 assists.

The great thing about Messi is that I don't even think about his statistics. Just watching him play, magical and majestic.

[capriccioso 2,545]

I would like to see Pele deal with a real Defender like Benckenbauer. With both in their Primes of course.

He played Real Madrid and other European powerhouses dozens of times in his club career. And still dominated. Whereas Messi bottles it whenever he comes up against Jose Bosingwa, Salomon Kalou or Javier Zanetti.

Edit: And he played against Bobby Moore in Mexico 1970, and despite not scoring had a pretty decent game. That was the game where Banks pulled off the impossible save. On top of that he scored against the Italian's in 1970, where he played against the likes of Facchetti.