Lionel Messi | PSG Watch
- Thread starter Samid
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Yes please
Who could it be!
Newcastle.
Ali would have 110% taken Saudi money anyways. They weren’t the battle he was fighting and he fought for cash.
If he had been offered a Saudi gig no doubt would have taken it in a heartbeat.
I actually have a pretty low opinion of Ali in many ways. Very complex character.
He had courage to get what he wanted in life which I respect but he was no deep thinker or oracle of virtue like some would have us believe.
More someone who was looking out for his own interests first and just happened to get involved in a topic which resonated with a wider audience.
He was both a revolutionary for some and man of his time in all the worst ways to others. ie Joe Frazier.
I think yeah ligue 1 isn't amazing but i feel hitting the milestone of more or less equalling Ronnies goal tally in Europe in less games is impressive whilst taking up more of the creative burden in his latter years instead of streamlining his game to be a goalpoacher. But yeah Messi is a freak. Nothing new about that.
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I'm always a bit amazed how precise you guys seem to know his thoughts and motivationsHe's not as explosive as he used to be but in terms of work ethic and off the ball movement, Messi hasn't changed much. I find it very difficult to predict what he is going to do. I would neither rule out that he goes into the MLS or Saudi Arabia nor that he ends up in the EPL if the Barca move fails.
Agree, Messi has more footballing ability in his pinky finger than 70% of current premier league players. As someone not from an anglo-saxon culture it always amazes me how people prioritize athleticism and explosiveness over actually knowing how to play the game.
At the end of the day its a bit like Jii sung park taking out Pirlo. At some point when your body slows down a player of inferior technical ability can take a greater but old player out of the game. The time limit goes for everyone.
Yeah I agree, but he has shown this season that he is more than fit to play as a super sub in any of the top clubs of the PL.
Messi is aware of his stature. He himself commented on Zidane making the right decision to retire while on top. Messi doesnt want to continue in Europe as long as he´s able to do a job. He wants to retire from the top lvl of football on a high. And everything is in place for that.
Surprised to hear you say this. Would be nice for Messi to win it to cap off his final years, but Haaland's consistency has been really good from what I recall. But of course, the World Cup will trump all. I think the voting will be very close.
They said, about one of the most freakishly athletic and explosive players of all time
I read something today that Barcelona were excited about bringing Messi back because they’d received a calculation saying his return would be worth 230m (dollars or euros, can’t remember)
A lot of what CR7 achieved also depended on his superhuman physique. Messi had qualities other than that hence he is still considered to be class. His passing, vision and flair is still ridiculous.
Mind you i don't think Messi can produce 20 assists in the PL but feck it if he ever played for us i know I'd be excited to watch every game.
Messi mauled the PL best teams repeatedly, bar Chelsea. If a resurrected Eriksen can get 8 PL assists then Messi can triple that even at this age if he's fit and motivated.
Freakishly athletic?! Not IMO. He's very short, was built like a twig until he put a bit of bulk on (still not an extreme amount, witness 86 Maradona for contrast), has great acceleration but his actual top speed has never been extraordinary (like cheetah Mbappe for example) and he can't jump that high. That doesn't sound like a freakish athlete to me. While he's a good athlete, the freakish thing about him is his wizardry with the ball.
Exactly. Never heard of the term “top 5 league” until recent year from media. Agreed it should either be top 4 or top 7.
He had one of the most insane combinations of acceleration, deceleration, lateral quickness and balance we've ever seen. While he may not have had the crazy top pace of a Mbappé, he was damn fast - often outrunning defenders with the fecking ball at his feet. He was also fairly strong at his size, and combined with his agility, low center of gravity and balance almost impossible to bump off the ball. That's freakish athleticism mate
Hell, just pull up a youtube video of his dribbling runs, any video, he looks like he's fecking teleporting across the pitch. He's so fast defenders can't even tackle him ffs
The reality is that Messi had pretty much the perfect body type and athleticism for an attacking playmaker/scorer type. It's really not a coincidence that Pelé and Maradona - the only 2 players comparable - had the same body type and similar athleticism(Pelé even more so in certain ways, such as elevation and hanging time, though he didn't have Messi's turning speed)
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Disagree. Pele was freakish athlete. 100m in 11 seconds, 48 inch vertical leap in a 5'8 frame. Michael Jordan was a freakish athlete. Messi is not. It is his skill that makes all the things you say possible, not his athleticism (which is good, but not freakish). I'd similarly say that Maradona was not a freakish athlete (though again a very good one) and it was his skill that made him stand out.
Who was faster running full pelt with the ball? Prime Giggs or Messi? I genuinely dont know.
Edit: got my answer
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...s-once-faster-lionel-messi-son-doesnt-believe
Edit: got my answer
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...s-once-faster-lionel-messi-son-doesnt-believe
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From Lequipe via twitter,
"Barcelona are working together with Inter Miami on the Leo Messi transfer.
To get around Barcelona's financial difficulties, the idea is for Inter Miami to sign Messi, before being loaned straight to Barça for 6-18 months.
This would allow Messi to play at the highest level until the Copa America in 2024"
These sort of deals need to be outlawed. We saw City do it with Lampard now it sounds like Barcelona might be doing it too.
It's just another 'lever' to get around FFP.
"Barcelona are working together with Inter Miami on the Leo Messi transfer.
To get around Barcelona's financial difficulties, the idea is for Inter Miami to sign Messi, before being loaned straight to Barça for 6-18 months.
This would allow Messi to play at the highest level until the Copa America in 2024"
These sort of deals need to be outlawed. We saw City do it with Lampard now it sounds like Barcelona might be doing it too.
It's just another 'lever' to get around FFP.
You would have to make loan deals themselves illegal for that to happen.
You could just say that players aren't allowed to be loaned out until they have been at their new club for 12 months.
There are lots of legitimate cases of this, though. If you buy a young player who is not yet ready for the first team, it suits everyone to loan him out. We bought Saliba and loaned him out for years. He came back and quickly became our best defender. It was win-win-win.
Messi's case is obviously nothing like that, but rules preventing his potential move would have unintended consequences.
True.
Maybe have a rule that its ok for players under 21.
It just irks me to see clubs finding ways of avoiding FFP by using loopholes. If Barcelona can't afford Messi then they shouldn't be signing him.
Inter couldnt afford to pay Sanchez full wages either. I get where you are coming from but this is a highly specific scenario that hasnt happened yet.
In reality it is tiered top 2 - England Spain
Top 4 - plus Germany and Italy
Top 7 - plus Portugal, France, Netherlands.
Top 5 is just silly.
Nobody is perfect, that is why I mentioned also Diego and Eric, yet there were more sportmen that put themselves on the line at certain moments. I wasn't mentioning him like some sort of oracle, but a wise fella, with his ups and downs, but that dare to say what he think, either we like it or not and not only about merely sport issues...for moments and given the actual period in he did it, quite fecking brave. Socrates the brazilian player too, so entering that area with Messi, CR, or almost every super star pro football player nowadays it's kind of silly , because they tend to opt for a detached way of life, their choice, but not really a lot of space to extrapolate this to global political discussions.
There is a bit of throwing him under the bus lately in Barca camp with their declarations, they fecking know that till they really sort out La Liga rules regarding salaries, and all the mess they are it isn't really all in Messi's side (he might end with no club if that it's not sort out)...quite odd, more than probably they do not want to look like the ones that didn't allow to happen, while not really wanting him back, dunno, some strange declarations recently and all of them out almost at the sema time from Jordi, Xavi and cia. or sthg else is cooking with messi's approval? more when Xavi who is his pal is involved, really some weird stuff going on.
You are mentioning an athletic aspect that is irrelevant to a footballer (100m sprint) and one that is marginal to an attacking playmaker/scorer (vertical leap), while ignoring the athletic aspects that are actually important
Question, are you american? Because that would explain a lot
Messi is definitely very athletic. But I think that's not what was meant when the initial post claimed that Anglo-Saxons pay so much attention to athleticism. Messi's kind of athleticism isn't exactly what the typical German or English club is looking for.
You could argue that somebody like Verratti or Thiago is also very athletic due to their balance and agility but in a different way to, say, Goretzka or Bellingham.
You could argue that somebody like Verratti or Thiago is also very athletic due to their balance and agility but in a different way to, say, Goretzka or Bellingham.
Messi was super explosive at his peak, combining speed with dribble, which ended up in him dribbling past 5-7 players like nothing, it was his trademark move for many years
You can't ignore that as if it doesn't matter, his explosiveness was unrivaled at his prime.
Just because he is short doesn't mean he wasn't a freak athlete, and i would even add that in his case it helps cause his short stature gave him a great center of gravity (which i would say is the only advantage of being short, the rest clearly sucks)
That's because typical german/english/americans are dumb when it comes to evaluating athleticism. (to be fair, americans are more misguided than dumb. They're just used to thinking in terms of their sports. The english and germans have no excuse)
Thiago and Verratti have a couple outstanding athletic traits, wouldn't call them freakish athletes. Messi was freakish in every way bar strenght(which was still impressive), elevation(still good) and hanging time(again, pretty good)
I agree that Messi is quite athletic, but my point was more related to his knowledge and understanding of the game. Just watch other players talk about him, they never point out his dribbling or his speed, they are always amazed and how he can see things others can't.
Can't post media yet due to the status of my account, but googling the passing awareness of lionel messi takes you to a youtube video where the point couldn't be more clear. Of course his speed and explosiveness have waned over the years, but his awareness remains intact.
As Riquelme once said, anyone can run, but playing football is a bit more difficult.
Can't post media yet due to the status of my account, but googling the passing awareness of lionel messi takes you to a youtube video where the point couldn't be more clear. Of course his speed and explosiveness have waned over the years, but his awareness remains intact.
As Riquelme once said, anyone can run, but playing football is a bit more difficult.
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Which was sort of the initial point. And I agree by the way.
Maybe even worse because they came up with dumb sports.
well he’ll break the record when he returns to Barca