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Lionel Messi


kingofdeon

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Is he the greatest?

I don't think i have ever seen a better player. Only caught glimpses of Maradonna so hard to judge, never bought into the whole Pele thing (though im sure he would have got a game for the Dons post Fergie years), Zidane - brilliant.....

But if not now, i think Messi will go on to be the best that has ever played. I had never seen anything like it last night.

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Guest Gladstone

He is great. I've really not seen enough footage of him to say he's the greatest player of all time, but he is absolutely brilliant.

He does everything so effortlessy - similar to Kaka. He knows when to play things simple, but has the skill to pull of some great touches etc too.

Not in the same league, but it's kind of similar to Larsson at Celtic, who I think was the greatest ever player to grace the Scottish league - just knew where to be, what pass to make, what touch to make etc. Kept things simple when it needed to be simple but could produce pieces of absolute brilliance as well.

For players up there as greatest in the world of all time, you'd have to throw in Zidane who was just simply awesome, fat Ronaldo for the first half of his career was unstoppable, skinny Ronaldo has the potential, but he thinks far too much of himself to realise the heights of someone like Messi. Ronaldo tries to do everything himself, whereas Messi is a great team player. Johan Cruyff? I haven't seen that much of him, but didn't he singlehandedly get Holland to a World Cup Final? Maradonna was fucking magic as well, obviously. If Ronaldinho could screw the nut and get back to his early form, he'd be right up there as well - he's probably the most entertaining whilst remaining massively effective, footballer there's ever been. Good old George Best deserves a mention as well...

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Its pretty hard to call given Ive never seen Pele, Cruyff, Eusebio etc. over 90 minutes and wasnt old enough to appreciate Maradonas all round game when I was a kid.

Also, football has changed a lot in half a century. When you look at older footage of Pele the defending looks so bad that an amateur team would get a rollicking for it these days. Goalies too they were awful! I didnt realise that narrowing the angle that a striker has to aim at was only discovered in the 70s. For that reason, I dont know! The best player in my living memory is a toss-up between Messi and Zidane.

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I've seen a fair amount of footage of the players generally regarded as the all time greats, apart from Cruijff. And Messi in his current form is well on par, his close control is impossibly good, his finishing is clinical, and his vision/passing is second to none.

What really sets the like of him (and kaka) apart in this era, is his sheer humility. It seems impossible to dislike him. You never hear of him shagging granny prostitutes, crashing Ferrari's, fighting people in nightclubs or nutting people who make you're ma jokes to him. I'm pretty sure he still lives at home with his parents and is only now considering moving out.

He just seems like a genuinely nice guy who loves playing football and has the potential to write himself into history as the best ever. He's still only 22, imagine how good he can become.

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You just hope he doesn't fizzle out like Ronaldinho and Fat Ronaldo did, but I think that was more down to their attitude towards the game rather than them peaking too soon. I do wonder how Ronaldinho would have progressed if he'd have signed for United instead of Barca like he nearly did. Fergie wouldn't have taken any of that playboy crap.

I think Messi is unquiestionably the most valuable and effective player in the world right now, but I don't think that should be blown out of proportion due to last night. His finishing was clinical, and he was superb throughout, but Arsenal were absolutely awful, especially at the back. Silvestre has never, ever been a good player, and I have no idea why Wenger brought him in.

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What really sets the like of him (and kaka) apart in this era, is his sheer humility. It seems impossible to dislike him. You never hear of him shagging granny prostitutes, crashing Ferrari's, fighting people in nightclubs or nutting people who make you're ma jokes to him. I'm pretty sure he still lives at home with his parents and is only now considering moving out.

He just seems like a genuinely nice guy who loves playing football and has the potential to write himself into history as the best ever. He's still only 22, imagine how good he can become.

I don't dislike him but any player that gives an extra roll on the ground when tackled grinds my gears. it may be "part of the game" these days, but in my opinion very annoying to watch, if you are an awesome player and fouled fair enough, but please don't milk it if you weren't even touched, i would say it's unnecessary but then you could say they do it as a professional - making sure the ref gives a foul / penalty chance & potentially card for opposition & crowd shouting for a foul, so then it's deemed as clever...

When comparing with the strikers like Pele you can safely say they didn't have this part to their game... but I'm sure of those players would've loved the "protection" you get these days.

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I don't dislike him but any player that gives an extra roll on the ground when tackled grinds my gears. it may be "part of the game" these days, but in my opinion very annoying to watch, if you are an awesome player and fouled fair enough, but please don't milk it if you weren't even touched, i would say it's unnecessary but then you could say they do it as a professional - making sure the ref gives a foul / penalty chance & potentially card for opposition & crowd shouting for a foul, so then it's deemed as clever...

When comparing with the strikers like Pele you can safely say they didn't have this part to their game... but I'm sure of those players would've loved the "protection" you get these days.

Give Pele his due - he did have cool boots.

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I don't dislike him but any player that gives an extra roll on the ground when tackled grinds my gears.

Admittedly Messi was a little guilty of this in the match against Arsenal, in general I think he does his best to stay on his feet and if he does go down, he usually gets up without much fuss.

Messi is certainly the best player about just now but I don't think you can really make the best ever comparisons until after or at least in the latter years of his career.

He is a joy to watch though, I've been lucky enough to see him play a few times at Camp Nou and it's certainly a different experience than watching Mackie at Pittodrie!

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Pele was a teenage sensation in an era when ballplayers were routinely kicked off the field and he was clogged mercilessly throughout his career.

He never played club football in Europe but would have been as successful as Cruyff, Best and Maradona were. Messi is at an early phase of his career and already starring in an outstanding team. He has great talent and application - but I'll wait to see what he does in South Africa, before speaking about him in the same breath as the all time greats.

(Btw....... the Dutch national teams of the 70s were excellent and the clubs were dominant as well. Not only was Cruyff's 74 squad full of talent, the 78 team made the WC final without him)

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