Messi retires from Argentina.

izec said:
Some just waited for this. You can see the haters just waited for this moment for years, to turn up now and throw abuses and comparing him to inferior players.
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Aye, it's clear as day. Now he's apparently not even a GOAT discussion, the discussion is if he was actually even better than Ronaldo da Lima. As much as everyone loved him, injuries completely ruined his longevity and prime. So the discussion should be moot.

Soon the Cristiano fans will show up and start debating that one again, too.
 
Lostie007 said:
He obviously intends playing both forms of football club and internationally at the highest level until he's 38 years old ! :lol::lol::lol:
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Love the "could be" part of it. So he might even stick around for the 2026 one:lol:
 
Ish said:
Aye, it's clear as day. Now he's apparently not even a GOAT discussion, the discussion is if he was actually even better than Ronaldo da Lima. As much as everyone loved him, injuries completely ruined his longevity and prime. So the discussion should be moot.

Soon the Cristiano fans will show up and start debating that one again, too.
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I think Messi is right up there with Maradona and Pele, but I think this is a huge blemish his career. Not so much the lack of success at international level, but the quitter mentality when he isn't playing for an all conquering side, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and tips the balance in favour of Maradona for me.
 
SV_Planegg said:
This is pure ignorance and a statement I'd only expect people to make who never saw Ronaldo play in his prime. Honestly - if his knees hadn't started to give in at the age of 23 he would be in contention for the title of GOAT right now. If fit he was unplayable. He was like Suarez with better technique and better finishing. He really wasn't dependant on anyone to feed him balls to score. Too bad his body couldn't handle the strain.

Comparing Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima and Messi is a bit silly as you pointed out. Ronaldo chose to let the doctors inject painkillers and anti-inflamatories for his knees to hold out at the 2002 World Cup and sacrificed his carreer for the WC Title win with Brazil scoring two goals in the final. That's why he's a legend and will always be remebered by the poeple of his country, while Messi apparently chose to call it quits at the NT (at 29 with a healthy body) of his own volition, while there's still a possibilty to win titles with the team. Weak minded as feck. He's a marvelous player to watch and a Barcelona club legend already, but not GOAT material.
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Who defines GOAT? I don't, sure you don't as well. Everybody has their own view of GOAT. I am pretty sure Messi doesn't need to prove anything to you or anyone else. What he does is his decision, and I don't think he cares at this stage of his career whether people think him as GOAT material or Freddy Adu material.
 
Big rebuilding job for the manager to do. Next game could be without
Messi, Di Maria, Aguero, Mascherano, Lavezzi, Biglia & Higuain
 
Pink Moon said:
But then is it fair to let that cloud an entire career?

I don't know if you're a fan of American sports or maybe even an American, but put Tom Brady on the Jaguars. Does he still have 4 rings? Or Michael Jordan on the Philadelphia 76ers, is he still the greatest? Unfamiliar/inferior teammates obviously puts you at a massive disadvantage regardless of how good you actually are. Yeah, if you overcome that it's a massive bonus but that's exactly what it is... a bonus.
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When you are competing against players who have achieved greatness in difficult circumstances like Maradona then it doesn't become a bonus.

Messi is already top three of all time .. so to get above Pele and Maradona, he has to win something on the international stage to be the indisputed champ. As of right now he is arguably not better and by retiring like this it reflects very badly on his mental toughness in adverse conditions. A fairweather footballer who only liked to play in great teams but when the going got tough.. he quit. Its one of the worst things you can do as a supposed greatest of all time. He's not helped his legacy one bit.

I suspect he will rethink his decision by 2018.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
I think Messi is right up there with Maradona and Pele, but I think this is a huge blemish his career. Not so much the lack of success at international level, but the quitter mentality when he isn't playing for an all conquering side, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and tips the balance in favour of Maradona for me.
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I agree with that, though I think once the dust settles, he'll probably reconsider and play at Russia 2018.

I agree with the mentality, but the amount of pressure he's under and failing in 3 finals in 3 years, it's actually the first time I've seen Messi shedding a tear at losing a final.

So I think the emotions are overwhelming. And in the background, there's obviously either issue with how Argentinian football is run or with the amount of criticism he faces back home.
 
Big hit to his legacy, losing 3 finals in a row. It's hard to put him above Maradona now.
 
Shocked by this. Didn't see it coming.

Hopefully he changes his mind.
 
winning international cups is harder than ever, and the watchability of international football is in utter shambles, so why do some people still holds that against Messi (and Ronaldo)? Frankly the abuse they've suffered for it has been sickening. They probably wish they had competed in world cups with 2 group stages to go directly to semi-finals, and with so few strong nations as before.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
What a quitter, lucky he has it so fantastic at Barca, this gives me serious doubts about how his attitude would have been had he changed clubs at some point.

Not at all impressed by a player like him turning his back on his country aged 29 because it's not as "easy" as his club, imagine if the poor fecker played for Sweden like Zlatan or Wales like Bale?
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The guy has played close to 650 professional games over a 12-year period, he's bound to look after his body soon. Just because he's aged 29 doesn't mean shit.
 
Raees said:
When you are competing against players who have achieved greatness in difficult circumstances like Maradona then it doesn't become a bonus.

Messi is already top three of all time .. so to get above Pele and Maradona, he has to win something on the international stage to be the indisputed champ. As of right now he is arguably not better and by retiring like this it reflects very badly on his mental toughness in adverse conditions. A fairweather footballer who only liked to play in great teams but when the going got tough.. he quit. Its one of the worst things you can do as a supposed greatest of all time. He's not helped his legacy one bit.

I suspect he will rethink his decision by 2018.
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I just find these arguments utterly bizarre.

Messi is ahead of Maradona and Pele by almost every conceivable metric both in terms of trophies won and actual playing ability except the world cup. And it's not as if he's been shit either. He's lead Argentina to 3 consecutive finals while being their best player. And yet, you cannot rank him as better because he didn't win the WC.

The argument does not stand up to any scrutiny.
 
Ji_Maria said:
At his peak, arguably yes. I would take a 1998 Ronaldo Lima over any Messi any time. What does Messi have over Ronaldo Lima? More individual accolades. Career wise? Hard to say.

Yes, Messi won too many La Ligas and CLs for me to count. It's impressive, clearly one of the greatest of all time. But then Ronaldo Lima won the WC, won multiple leagues, also won every trophy Messi has won at least once. Volume wise, Messi may have the edge (since he has had a longer career) and certainly he has made more money and is more famous due to this modern global football era, but Ronadlo Lima really won everything there is to win and so it's a different type of career, one that personally I would much rather prefer to have than Messi's record.
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Which tournaments they won or which of their careers you would rather have says very little about which one of them is the better player, don't you think?
 
Akash said:
I just find these arguments utterly bizarre.

Messi is ahead of Maradona and Pele by almost every conceivable metric both in terms of trophies won and actual playing ability except the world cup. And it's not as if he's been shit either. He's lead Argentina to 3 consecutive finals while being their best player. And yet, you cannot rank him as better because he didn't win the WC.

The argument does not stand up to any scrutiny.
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100% agree. Funny thing is those critics would probably sing praises if Argentina had won the World Cup (with Messi exactly performing the same as he did while they lost), which was easily possible. The margins are very, very fine in this one and at least for me hold no significance when comparing him to Pele or Maradona. If Argentina went out to the first capable team in every tournament I'd tend to agree with the critics, but they lost a final on pens and a World Cup final in ET, hardly the worst record ever.
 
Akash said:
I just find these arguments utterly bizarre.

Messi is ahead of Maradona and Pele by almost every conceivable metric both in terms of trophies won and actual playing ability except the world cup. And it's not as if he's been shit either. He's lead Argentina to 3 consecutive finals while being their best player. And yet, you cannot rank him as better because he didn't win the WC.

The argument does not stand up to any scrutiny.
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You are in absolute lala land. Maradona was absolutely amazing with respect to playing ability. He had just one weakness and that was he never used his right foot but his left foot was so good who cares.
Your comment earlier that Messi "shits" all over Maradonna and Pele is gross ignorance in the extreme. I bet you are too young to have ever seen Maradona play, your assertions with respect to Maradona and Pele are laughable.
The good news is i know not to bother to take anything you say from now on with any hint of seriousness.
 
Beej said:
100%

By all accounts this seems to be a protest against the FA in Argentina
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I feel sorry for the bloke and everything (sort of... ish), but if he didn't play in the next World Cup, and Argentina won, that would be feckin hilarious.
 
Ji_Maria said:
I give you that Messi is probably a better finisher (as I conceded in my post as a relative weakness of Robaldo Lima), and yes better passer, free kicks, done it longer yes. Only problem is, Messi is incapable of performing when he's not surrounded by Xavis, Iniestas, Suarezs, Neymars. It doesn't matter who Ronaldo Lima played with, he won everything everywhere he ever played.
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Didn't he have 5 goals and 4 assists in this years Copa? And he didn't even play every game. Argentina's best player by quite a big margin I would say..
 
He comes across like a spoilt little shit that thinks he has a divine right to win it all. Luckily for him he's been playing for a team at club level that is capable of doing this.
 
Stack said:
You are in absolute lala land. Maradona was absolutely amazing with respect to playing ability. He had just one weakness and that was he never used his right foot but his left foot was so good who cares.
Your comment earlier that Messi "shits" all over Maradonna and Pele is gross ignorance in the extreme. I bet you are too young to have ever seen Maradona play, your assertions with respect to Maradona and Pele are laughable.
The good news is i know not to bother to take anything you say from now on with any hint of seriousness.
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Get off your high horse. Quite possibly the most condescending and arrogant poster on the forum.

I've seen loads of full Maradona games. Thankfully, he did not play in the 1920's and there's actual footage available of his games which prevents posters like you from making shit up. Messi is quite comfortably the better player. Not even particularly close. Better dribbler, better scorer, better passer.
 
Akash said:
Messi is ahead of Maradona and Pele by almost every conceivable metric both in terms of trophies won and actual playing ability except the world cup. And it's not as if he's been shit either. He's lead Argentina to 3 consecutive finals while being their best player. And yet, you cannot rank him as better because he didn't win the WC.
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"Actual playing ability"? Did you never watch Maradona play?

And no, I think it's difficult to rank him higher than Maradona when he's only ever been the very best when playing for the very best team in the World and not trying out different countries.
 
I think he made the right decision. Underperformed or not, it's clear Argentina don't value him etc which is bizarre so why should you continue playing when most want you to fail.

Argentina have been desperately unlucky though. 3 final loses in a row, two of them from penalty shoot outs.
 
Akash said:
Get off your high horse. Quite possibly the most condescending and arrogant poster on the forum.

I've seen loads of full Maradona games. Thankfully, he did not play in the 1920's and there's actual footage available of his games which prevents posters like you from making shit up. Messi is quite comfortably the better player. Not even particularly close. Better dribbler, better scorer, better passer.
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Dont pick your nose, your head will cave in.

What complete and utter tosh.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
"Actual playing ability"? Did you never watch Maradona play?

And no, I think it's difficult to rank him higher than Maradona when he's only ever been the very best when playing for the very best team in the World and not trying out different countries.
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Yes, I have.

The rest of the post is tragically bad. The very best team in the world is exactly that because they have Messi. And someone should have told Messi he should be trying other countries out:wenger:
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
He's played roughly 39 games a year for the past 13 years. What are you making up here?

And what on Earth does it have to do with my post?
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He has played around 530 games for Barcelona and another 113 for Argentina, with his debut coming in 2004.

You said "Not at all impressed by a player like him turning his back on his country aged 29 because it's not as "easy" as his club..." – well, one could argue that he is frustrated as feck, and another could argue that it is the correct decision with all the crap going on in the background (AFA) and having already played as many games as he did. It will only prolong his playing career.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
"Actual playing ability"? Did you never watch Maradona play?

And no, I think it's difficult to rank him higher than Maradona when he's only ever been the very best when playing for the very best team in the World and not trying out different countries.
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Yeah someone else can take the Argentina reigns now. Let's see how far they go with a new star. Dybala perhaps?
 
Rojo's fault.

He'll be back for the World Cup.
 
Stack said:
Dont pick your nose, your head will cave in.

What complete and utter tosh.
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:lol:

Not surprised. People like you do appear to be completely clueless when you can no longer rattle out the "But you haven't seen them play" garbage.
 
Akash said:
Yes, I have.

The rest of the post is tragically bad. The very best team in the world is exactly that because they have Messi. And someone should have told Messi he should be trying other countries out:wenger:
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I'm not quite sure of your issue here, I think my points are quite valid and I rate Messi right up there with Pele and Maradona.

Bizarre that you appear so hurt by any critique @Akash :confused:

Or is Messi beyond critique? Genuinely confused here.
 
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What were peoples opinions when Roy Keane Quit internationals?

Dont forget he ended up returning (although it was brief) I wouldnt be surprised if Messi makes a return as well
 
Summit said:
He comes across like a spoilt little shit that thinks he has a divine right to win it all. Luckily for him he's been playing for a team at club level that is capable of doing this.
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wow

I really dont see it like that at all

I think its quite a sad story and probably a very hard decision for him to take
 
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