Simply the best player I've seen. Best ever? Yeah.
Lionel Messi
- Thread starter cesc's_mullet
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This.
In 20 years I will remember Ronaldo for his time at United, great player and all that, but Messi...
Aesthetically, I will probably never see anything remotely like it again. And yes, part of it is the team around him, so what? That is another thing I will probably never see again. They make things look so ridiculously simple.
The sooner people stop being bitter about Barca and just sit back and enjoy watching them turn it on, the better their quality of life will be.
... wait, has someone told Romario?? 
To be fair, Maradona is such a national hero over there that it will be difficult for any player, no matter there ability, to overtake him... so I'm not sure it's an accurate sample of opinion to go by (though still a valid one... if that makes sense).
I personally think World Cup 2014 will be a big competition for Messi...
I always think it's kind of ironic that the main stumbling block to Messi being unanimously acclaimed as good as Maradonna was the under-performance of Argentina in WC 2010, thanks mainly to the incompetence of their manager... Maradonna.
Mind you, in terms of their ages, it's worth bearing in mind Messi's WC 2010 was the equivalent to Maradonna in '82. In that tournament Argentina got knocked out in the second round, with Maradonna getting sent off in their final game. If he keeps on improving at his current rate I see no reason why Messi can't perform even better in 2014 than Maradonna did at the same age, in '86. He just needs to get a half-decent team around him and a manager who knows what the feck he's doing.
Mind you, in terms of their ages, it's worth bearing in mind Messi's WC 2010 was the equivalent to Maradonna in '82. In that tournament Argentina got knocked out in the second round, with Maradonna getting sent off in their final game. If he keeps on improving at his current rate I see no reason why Messi can't perform even better in 2014 than Maradonna did at the same age, in '86. He just needs to get a half-decent team around him and a manager who knows what the feck he's doing.
One 'n', Pogue. Otherwise it reads like some hideous amalgamation of Diego and Madonna. Even if Messi wins a World Cup it won't stop people thinking Maradona was better because he's not going to carry and lead a team in the same way, and even if he doesn't win it plenty of people will still think he's the best ever, so really, it solves nothing.
Edges him? He's miles away from any other player on the planet, and i'm not just talking about goals.
feck's sake. I would have to misspell a word used five times in a single post.
48 goals for Barca this season
One player we can all truly appreciate
One player we can all truly appreciate
Revealed, ball is indeed magnetized to his boots
You could've got away with a couple of mispelling's first time round but going back to edit it and still getting it wrong completely makes it so much worse!
Revealed, ball is indeed magnetized to his boots
This is worse than the Maradona drug scandal.
Seriously, how shit was Leverkusen. Absolutely embarrassing. I would have scored against them last night.
Yes, clearly, otherwise he woundn't be "miles" away anyway. Each to their own, Ronaldo is a fantastic athlete that has some abilities that Messi doesn't have and vice versa. And as I said before, he is surrounded by more quality in midfield, there is no denying that.
In CL terms his ratio of goals per game is now better than RvN, out of Messi's 49 goal 24 in the knock out stages and 25 in group stages. For RvN's 60 goals, 50 goals in group stages, 6 in knock out and 4 in qualifying. In terms of the knock stage Messi has the highest number of goals, next are Shevchenko and Raul with 18.
He turns it on when it matters the most that is for sure.
He turns it on when it matters the most that is for sure.
Mara Doner Kebab never won the European Cup, dude sucks imo.
That's a bit harsh don't you think?...They played hard for quite a long spell but once Barça found their rhythm it was only a matter of time...I thought Leno did a great job except for perhaps Tello's 2nd goal...Castro never could get close to Iniesta and after having dodged a booking quite early, he had to give the Don more space than he would've liked from then on...High line can be smart againt this side when there's no Villa and a Pedro who has yet to find his form...but Leo changed that
Butt's team have had a great run of matches in Germany and ran their socks off in the 1st leg...I believe they came in pretty confident and certain of what they had to do...Just never came together as they had hoped
I am surprised that Schürrle didn't get the start considering how instrumental he was against München on the weekend...A true box to box mid with skill & pace...I don't think the Germans have much to hang their heads over, they played hard but came up against a side that was clicking quite well...About 15 minutes into the match, I thought Barça were beginning to find their rhythm and were working out how to find the gaps like a velociraptor testing the electrical fences in Jurassic Park
...I figured it was only a matter of time, glad to see they kept up the intensity after the half, well done PepWe'll see about that.
IMO he's already better than Maradona was at the same age and he's getting better all the time.
Problem for him is that this whole winning the World Cup thing gets more difficult each and every time, more people are playing the game, more coaches, more nations becoming adequate....and then you have the stacked nations that are Spain and Germany, on top of his best chance being in Argentinas biggest rivals grounds.
can't argue with that
my sole point was that maradona didn't win that world cup by himself
Agree completely. Judging one player on the achievements of his team is a nonsense anyway.
It's just that I think Messi will be good enough by 2014 to put in individual performances as good as anything Maradonna has ever done. Whether his team-mates respond to this by raising their own games (as happened in '86) remains to be seen.
Apart from the attacking options, the Argentina team is really poor compared to other top nations. It will be difficult for them to go all the way regardless of how well Messi plays.
Me había olvidado de ese detalle, esa era una contra grande que tenía post-86 con la selección. Era un genio en la cancha pero todo lo de meter las narices en temas que no le conciernen pasó a ser más que su contribución futbolística.
Si, la suerte fue lo más importante, jugaron horrible -defendiendo bien- todo el campeonato y no hizo las maravillas del 86.
No se destacó tanto pero con su presencia desbarataba a la defensa. Lo marcaban de a dos o tres y eso dejaba a los otros 9 jugando contra 7 u 8. Caniggia aprovechaba eso muy bien, estaba continuamente pendiente de "si Diego va para allá se lleva a tal y tal así que yo debo estar... ahí". Y la bola no se la daban a Diego, se la daban a Cani porque quedaba solo. En serio, fijate cuando vuelvas a ver uno de esos partidos, el tipo no "hace" nada, pero todo lo que pasa gira en torno a él. Con el movimiento de Caniggia en particular era clarísimo.
O sea, lesionado y sin poder rendir individualmente (lo infiltraban antes de cada partido y casi no le entraba la bota), hizo un laburo bastante sacrificado que le permitió a otros encontrar espacios en el partido y mantenía rivales atados en su media cancha... que defensivamente era útil
Nada que ver con lo del 86, pero sin Diego a esa final tampoco llegaban, ni cerca por más genio que fuese Bilardo.
totalmente de acuerdo
todo esto nace de una discusión que tuve con jopub, en la que él dijo que si en lugar de maradona en el mundial de 1990 hubiera estado messi, argentina no clasificaba a octavos de final, ahí le dije que estaba sobrevalorando lo que había hecho maradona
I don't think many'd disagree with that but I'd be surprised to see that degree of leadership ever become a part of his game, and that's as big a part of Maradona's legend as his skill on the ball. That said he is the Argentina captain and there doesn't appear to be anyone coming through in midfield or attack who are going to provide that, so maybe he will discover that side to his game.
If Argentina can improve their defence then I think they've got a side capable of doing great things in a World Cup. Mascherano in defence and a good fullback and they're have quality throughout the side. Obviously being capable and actually doing something are two different things but at the moment I'm not sure they're even capable. Have any side ever won a WC with worse defensive setup?
the thing is, pogue, that, no matter what messi does in the future, maradona did it first
he was the first to beat england in a world cup, he was the first to bring the world cup from a foreign country, he was the first to beat brazil in a world cup, and with him as captain, argentina beat italy in italy
plus, he played for argentinos junios, boca and newells
we all want messi to succeed, we want him to do well for argentina, but the comparison to maradona is going to be tough
there's one thing he could do, to shadow maradona
win the world cup in brazil in front ot the brazilians fans
if he achieves that, he will surpass maradona, else, he will be regarded as one of the best players ever, but, maradona will still be first in the list
It's unbelievable that he's still only 24.
Doesn't matter if he scores 100 goals and set up 50 every season.
If he doesn't win World cup with Argentina, he is no good.
Right.
If he doesn't win World cup with Argentina, he is no good.
Right.
Maradona never managed to stand out amongst a team of the quality of Barcelona. He had some good players around him, but he only stood out so much because he felt like the big fish in the pond. Innit.
Until Maradona stands out amongst a team consisting of the ridiculous quality that Barcelona possess in Villa, Fabregas, Xavi, Fabregas, Pique, Busquets, Puyol, etc, he'll never be as good.
Rich man's Ibrahimovic.
Until Maradona stands out amongst a team consisting of the ridiculous quality that Barcelona possess in Villa, Fabregas, Xavi, Fabregas, Pique, Busquets, Puyol, etc, he'll never be as good.
Rich man's Ibrahimovic.
shopped
Why the feck is Defoe in that pic
Could be wrong here, but it might be a little late for that.
He's yong 'n lernin'. Still got time to stand out amongst a team as great as the one Messi is currently playing in.
When he does that, maybe then we can rank him above Messi as the greatest player of all time.
I just threw up. Really?
What, was that aimed at me?
The question and the puke, I mean.
The question and the puke, I mean.
Does Robinho's gesture indicate he wants to have Messi's child?
Nah, the picture.
Is Messi really miles ahead of Xavi and Iniesta? He's better, but miles?
Tevez gesture is clear, "ok, i'll suck your cock, but at least you could have the decency of taking off your trunks"
fecking moaner
fecking moaner
Why is Defoe there
Ah, fair play.
Probably not miles better, no. Those two are greats, themselves.
He's just substantially more ridiculous. Xavi and Iniesta are understandably good, but I'm still not sure how it's possible for Messi to rack up the stats that he does. People always go on about Xavi and Iniesta's importance to Barcelona (rightly so), but Messi is the most important Barcelona player by some distance, in my opinion. Not exactly a revolutionary opinion, but it may as well be reiterated.
Defoe? What in the name of feck is he on there for?
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