I think we shouldn't emphasis too much on the steep decline of his football this season. He is 34, and going to turn 35 in few months, at this age its only normal, and the same happens to almost every great players out there. He will always be GOAT, regardless of how poor he was this season. Did he deserve his last Ballon Dor though? Personally I'd say Lewandowski deserves it more, as he has been brilliant throughout whereas Messi has been shite for 2nd half of the year. But then Messi is still one of the closest rival out there and has his claim to justify it (best player in LL and Copa).
Lionel Messi | PSG Watch
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He always misses penalties in big matches, he's the most overrated player of all time.
I think playing for a disjointed team leaves you in a severe disadvantage when facing a team stronger than yours, no matter how good you are.
That aside, I also disagree in general that Messi didn't look good against top opposition. Last season e. g. he had 3 goals and 1 assist in 4 games against PSG and Juve and was arguably the best player on the pitch when they lost 3:0 to Juve.
No prime is when you are physically and technically in your prime. Like R9 before his injury problems. Messi has been declining as you would expect after 32. I agree with you though on Ronaldo. He was a more complete player when he was winning less with Real Madrid. Of course any player looks better in a functional team as long as they are good enough to be in it.
No one comes close to Ronaldo in that aspect with him missing penalty against Chelsea in the CL final with United, and against Bayern in CL semi-finals in 2012 with Real.. He just missed a penalty against Middlesbrough last week leaving United out of the FA Cup.. "he's the most overrated player of all time"..
I think he played well. Was dispossesed a few times but also made some great key passes and plays that ended in nothing. Yes, of course this isnt prime 2010 Messi but im confident he still has a whole damn of football in his boots. Cant wait for the return leg
Messi overtook Ronaldo in taking the most pens in CL history and instantly matched Henrys record of most pen misses in CL history.
Enough with the nonsense. Off the top of my head Messi missed a semi final pen against 10 men Chelsea and went out to missing a pen v Chile in a Copa America final
Lets all agree. Messi's goat abilities isn't his pens.
What's your point? I am joking with that silly post above.
Almost every single top player in history missed a penalty in a high-stake game, that doesn't make you an overrated player as that post above suggests.
Regardless, nothing comes close to missing a penalty in a CL final in club football in terms of importance.
To be fair he has played in like 7 of them!
And, so? it is not like he has used penalties in every single one of them.
He missed it when it mattered most just like Baggio in WC 94 or Messi in Copa final. He should thank John Terry for helping him not share the same fate with Baggio or Messi.
It’s the law of averages. He has scored in finals, scored last minute pens ala v Juve to get through semi finals etc. Ronaldo has played in more big games than any other player in history. Salah (for example) missing a CL pen is a big deal. Ronaldo missing one is a footnote.
Ronaldo missing a pen in a shootout that they win isn’t that big of a deal. Messi doing it v 10 men and going out is.
A big semi final isn’t any less watched than a big final. Edit even then Messi missed v Chile and lost. Both are far worse
Yeah, I thought he wasn’t bad at all outside of the poor penalty.
Messi wasn’t the only one who missed a penalty in that final
He’s nearly 35, he’s not going to play at the same level as he did at 30 and before and adapting to a new team that is not built around him is difficult. He’s probably still going to win Ballon d’Or if PSG win CL (don’t think they will but there’s an outside chance of that happening) but realistically he probably has another 1-2 years at the top level before he retires/goes to a weaker league outside Europe. To be fair this goes for both him and Ronaldo.
If PSG win CL this year, he will pick up Ballon d’Or and got to US I think. Thought he might go to Argentina but it may not be his preference.
If PSG win CL this year, he will pick up Ballon d’Or and got to US I think. Thought he might go to Argentina but it may not be his preference.
Why would he and not Mbappe pick up that award if PsG win the CL 
I mean, Mbappe has 10 more goals and 6 more assists than him, and in their biggest CL game so far this season, one choked and the other just single-handedly won it with an outrageous goal.
I don’t think either of the former big two should be picking up any more of those awards, there’s simply better more worthy players than them now, and no-one should be picking up those awards because of their name.
I mean, Mbappe has 10 more goals and 6 more assists than him, and in their biggest CL game so far this season, one choked and the other just single-handedly won it with an outrageous goal.
I don’t think either of the former big two should be picking up any more of those awards, there’s simply better more worthy players than them now, and no-one should be picking up those awards because of their name.
Why would he and not Mbappe pick up that award if PsG win the CL
I mean, Mbappe has 10 more goals and 6 more assists than him, and in their biggest CL game so far this season, one choked and the other just single-handedly won it with an outrageous goal.
I don’t think either of the former big two should be picking up any more of those awards, there’s simply better more worthy players than them now, and no-one should be picking up those awards because of their name.
Would make sense actually. It will further prove how much of a farce that award has become.
You have some journalists using FIFA pace to rate players ffs.
Why would he and not Mbappe pick up that award if PsG win the CL
I mean, Mbappe has 10 more goals and 6 more assists than him, and in their biggest CL game so far this season, one choked and the other just single-handedly won it with an outrageous goal.
I don’t think either of the former big two should be picking up any more of those awards, there’s simply better more worthy players than them now, and no-one should be picking up those awards because of their name.
If both continue the way they play, I agree with you. Even if Messi goes up a gear or two, he was basically invisible during the first half of the season. Yet I still think Mbappe hasn't reached the level Messi displayed last season.
But I think neither will win it to be honest. Can't see PSG winning the UCL. Too early to tell but right now I think it's the most open it's been since 2006 or so
If Neymar can stay fit, would that help Messi's performances since they know each other styles very well ?
I’m not saying Mbappe should win it, I’m asking why on Earth @Sarni, or anyone else for that matter, would suggest a CL win for PsG should signal a Ballon D’or for Messi, when he’s been clearly outperformed all season by his own teammates.
Forgot it’s a World Cup year, so whoever performs there will probably get it and I don’t expect Argentina to go far.
Messi and Ronaldo get a huge number of votes in these awards by default which always puts them in strong position.
Which is utterly ridiculous. How can anyone so far this season consider either even in the top 20?
Messi last season
Most goals in La Liga
Most Assists in La liga
Most MOTM in all top leagues.
Doing all this playing for a terrible Barca side while past his peak.
This season has been poor but people saying he’s been not at top level in a few years are hilarious
Most goals in La Liga
Most Assists in La liga
Most MOTM in all top leagues.
Doing all this playing for a terrible Barca side while past his peak.
This season has been poor but people saying he’s been not at top level in a few years are hilarious
Isn't the world cup too late to count towards the ballon d'or? I thought the voting was in October this year which was why people said Messi being poor for psg while lewandowski was excellent for Bayern in the first half of the season didn't actually count much towards this years voting
Love how you keep on repeating that he missed vs 10 men as if the number of players on the pitch mattered for a pen, showing your obvious bias
Yeah officially this will be the first WC that will have no affect on Ballon D’or due to it being in winter
It's pretty likely they'll wait until the end of the world cup to close the votes.
They aren't, but you can bet that if you ask people to vote for a top 10-15 list of the best players in the world right now, you will still see Messi and Ronaldo there because of reputation bias, despite both of them not even being the best players of their respective leagues.
I have no doubts that people will still put them ahead of Robertson,Alexander Arnold,Jota, Bernardo Silva,Sterling,Vlahović,Jorginho, etc in a top 10 list, due to reputation bias.
We will have to wait for them to feck off and retire, so other players can be more properly appreciated.
As long as they keep playing, big media will keep pushing for them to be top 10-15 in the world, no matter what.
There's no doubt in my mind he'd have done way better with Barca. People are underestimating how hard it is for someone to move to another country and a completely different club culture in their mid 30's, when they had spent all their live living elsewhere.
Let's be honest. It's a bad move for him. Can't blame him since he didn't really have a choice though.
Let's be honest. It's a bad move for him. Can't blame him since he didn't really have a choice though.
Messi not even top 20? Which 19 players are supposed to be better than him, let alone clearly? He's still at 15 scorers in 1700 minutes across all competitions despite being a playmaker.
You guys are really getting carried away.
To be honest, if PSG win CL, I think Mbappe will pick up Ballon D'or instead. He has been by far best player from PSG this season...17 goals 13 assist in 29 games, and in general best performer, best goalscorer, best assist, 2nd best dribbler (behind Neymar) in PSG.
Which 19 players have had a better season than Messi so far? Is this a pisstake?
There’s about 10 players from City and Liverpool alone, and at least 3 just from his own team.
Nah last one was Messi's final win. I think Messi more than happy to feed Mpabbe, and Mpabbe has clearly been the star player of PSG this season. Personally I think him and Salah are favourites. The world cup might turn everything upside down though.
Ronaldo missed 3 penalties (against Barca, Bayern, Chelsea) and scored 5 in CL semi finals & finals, almost 40% so your "law of averages" is not applicable here. The guy misses almost half the time when it matters most in CL SFs and finals and waits to be bailed out by his teammates or by rival team's players. Whether or not he was bailed out by others is irrelevant as he failed in his task of converting his penalty just like Messi in Copa or Baggio in WC. That others bailed him out just means that he was lucky (remember Terry's miss) unlike Baggio in WC or Messi in Copa who were not that lucky. He did not have the same luck against Middlesbrough last week, and tbh, looking at the way you are evaluating penalty misses, it should a “big deal” and source of embarrassment for Ronaldo (from your perspective) to lose to a team from a 2nd division with him missing the penalty in FA Cup (the only remaining winnable thing for United this year) and United going out., especially considering all the fuss surrounding his arrival at United for a new challenge.
I am only responding to this post due to the people making a big fuss of Messi's miss against Real for obvious reasons acting as if other top players never missed one in high-stake elimination games. I have seen Van Basten, Baggio, Zico, Maradona, Platini, Ramos, Kaka, Riquelme, Robben and many other top players missing them (Mbappe this year at EC) at their prime in very high stake WC, ECs CL games, so as a principle, try to stay away from criticizing them (like most normal football fans after the initial happiness or pain) for their miss as I know that there is a big luck factor involved in such situations and kind of feel sympathy towards them. Messi's miss was not even a tie ending miss, the game was the first leg of a 2nd round CL game and he had a good game overall creating most chances, couple of really clear chances for Mbappe. That does not mean that it was not an important miss (tbh it was kind of painful for me to watch it as I kind of knew he would miss it probably due to Courtois heroic saves earlier and his history with Real), of course it was important and Messi obviously failed in that task, but evaluating his overall game performance only focusing on this miss does not make any sense.
Also, disagree that Ronaldo played more big games than any other player when you have players like Muller, Xavi, Messi, Iniesta etc. who played in multiple WC, EC, Copa, Champions League, League Cup finals, El Classicos etc.
Until I saw Real against PSG, I was thinking it would be between Benzema, Salah and Mbappe. Now, I also think it would be between Mbappe and Salah. Whoever goes further in the CL will probably win it assuming they maintain their form this season.
I think Messi has a decent conversion rate overall, but lets be honest, he's just not the most clutch to take pens in high stakes games. I know he's scored plenty of pens vs big clubs and Real Madrid, but among the great players he'd not be the one I'd want to take a penalty in a final.
Ronaldo starts every game for us based on his name alone.
There are various top leagues in Europe, and various players show up in their goalscoring charts. But we don't really make that big a deal about it. Suarez scored 21 goals for an incredible defensive Atletico Madrid and won them the league, but no one had any illusions about him still being at top level. Cristiano Ronaldo was the Serie A top goalscorer with 29 goals (1 goal less than Messi), also playing for a "terrible" Juventus side, and most people know he's not really at top level. Lukaku was the 2nd highest goalscorer in Serie A and people here correctly assessed that he'd flop in the PL.
Messi did not have the most assists in La Liga. I'm not sure where you're getting that from, it appears to be completely made up. He's at 11 on transfermarkt and 9 on FBREF and La Liga official stats. The player with most assists was Iago Aspas, who I doubt anyone here thinks is worthy of lacing Messi's boots, and who was playing in a much more terrible club than Barcelona. If we look at Serie A, Redcafe favorite Romero Lukaku had 11 assists and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had 10 assists.