Is Messi Now Officially the Greatest Footballer in History?

Is Messi the greatest player in football history?

  • Yes

  • No

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johnnytapia said:
Maradonna operated on a footballing planet so far removed from mere mortals that he sits a billion miles above everyone: Messi Pele Eusebio- the fucking lot.
He was, and always will be, the greatest footballer, ever. It’s not even close. He’s in a fucking different universe.
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And he did it on shite pitches whilst being constantly hacked down, if he’d had the protection and facilities that modern players enjoy I genuinely think he’d have gone up another level. I’ve had this debate with my lad who’s firmly in the Messi camp. We watched the Maradona documentary together on Sky to see what I was banging on about. He said he could see my point but he wouldn’t budge from Messi being the best.
 
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johnnytapia said:
Maradona operated on a footballing planet so far removed from mere mortals that he sits a billion miles above everyone: Messi Pele Eusebio- the fucking lot.
He was, and always will be, the greatest footballer, ever. It’s not even close. He’s in a fucking different universe.
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You only have to watch the video of him warming up to life is life and see the control he had over a ball.
No player before.
And no player since is close
 
Scaley said:
And he did it on shite pitches whilst being constantly hacked down, if he’d had the protection and facilities that modern players enjoy I genuinely think he’d have gone up another level. I’ve had this debate with my lad who’s firmly in the Messi camp. We watched the Maradona documentary together on Sky to see what I was banging on about. He said he could see my point but he wouldn’t budge from Messi being the best.
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Also did it absolutely off his bonce and banging everything in sight.
 
Betterdeedthan red said:
You only have to watch the video of him warming up to life is life and see the control he had over a ball.
No player before.
And no player since is close
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Love that footage. Fucking about like the ball was under some magic spell; his boots undone, basically doing what he wanted whikst his teammates were being put through their paces prior to cup final; overweight; one footed but laughing his cock off knowing he was the absolute bollocks.
 
He’stheleftbackremember said:
For me the greatest is Maradona. He did win the World Cup virtually on his own in 1986. His skill, acceleration, shooting and dribbling were better than Messi in my opinion, but he had a flawed character and Messi is the consummate professional. If I had to pick one in their prime for a game it would be Maradona.
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I didn't think that till recently till I saw fairly extensive highlights of 80s games where he was kicked to pieces but kept the ball. Astonishing.
 
urban genie said:
Demerit????

I said it is uncomparable and gave reasons why, different eras, attitide to fitness, leagues etc.

messis is a generational talent but no one can say world best ever because football generation had different condotions.

maradona is my personal choice of greatest, bit I never said messi. wasn't a great player.


now zidane, you mention, never rated him ;-)
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My bad, I've misread it with the usual "weak era narrative" used for any period when we like better a player from another period.

To rant a bit, we also have to understand that most of the characteristics from any period can be read both ways (as two sides of a coin), as a positive and as a negative and both be true at the same time.

That's why that leaving aside that humans from an athletic point of view tend to improve, the main thing from any period it's that it's just different, more than exponentially better or worse (same happens with Leagues on any period, even if some of them are noticeable more powerful and better). Specially since the 40's and forward.

From a very personal view, I rate fellas like Messi, Pele, Cryuff, Di Stefano, Puskas etc...genius alike, just a personal tag, more than just great ones. And a tad below fellas I consider phenom alike and in some cases the line gets blur.

I on contrair rate a lot Zizou, yet I still like and rate Platini better.
 
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He’stheleftbackremember said:
For me the greatest is Maradona. He did win the World Cup virtually on his own in 1986. His skill, acceleration, shooting and dribbling were better than Messi in my opinion, but he had a flawed character and Messi is the consummate professional. If I had to pick one in their prime for a game it would be Maradona.
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He had a more flamboyant approach, even acrobatic, yet not intrinsically better in many of those aspects.

Stylewise, we can say that Messi is more Zico, Best even Cryuff alike and Diego it's more Rivelino, Ronaldinho alike.
Both at many things very similar, both also coming from an old line of production since Sivori days and even before, they just became the whole package, with their respective styles.

Regarding the winning the WC alone? nah, I get the gist, but not even close, finally that year Diego had a real team around and a tad (barely) better officiating in comparison to his club carreer and WC82 over the top biased calls agianst him and more talemnted players form any team in general.

And yes I'm Argie and in fact my favorite player ever is Diego, but I always feel that certain narratives at times work better as hiperboles than actually be that close to the truth.

A genius alike felal that deserves way more praise is Puskas and in soem regards, peopel just don't grab the dimension of how inmense Di Stefano was and how off the charts fellas like Zico and Platini were.
 
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Houseman said:
He had a more flamboyant approach, even acrobatic, yet not intrinsically better in many of those aspects.

Stylewise, we can say that Messi is more Zico, Best even Cryuff alike and Diego it's more Rivelino, Ronaldinho alike.
Both at many things very similar, both also coming form an old line of production since Sivori days and even before, they just became the whole package, with their respective styles.

Regarding the winning the WC alone? nah, I get the gist, but not even close, finally that year Diego had a real team around and a tad (barely) better officiating in comparison to his club carreer and WC82 over the top biased calls agianst him and more talemnted players form any team in general.

And yes I'm Argie and in fact my favorite player ever is Diego, but I always feel that certain narratives at times work better as hiperboles than actually be that clsoe to the truth.

A genius alike felal that deserves way more praise is Puskas and in soem regards, peopel just don't grab the dimension of how inmense Di Stefano was and how off the charts fellas like Zico and Platini were.
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I watched the 1986 World Cup and he did. The only game he was quiet in was the final, but in the quarters against England and semi against Belgium he was on another level and the pitches were terrible.
 
He’stheleftbackremember said:
I watched the 1986 World Cup and he did. The only game he was quiet in was the final, but in the quarters against England and semi against Belgium he was on another level and the pitches were terrible.
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I didn't say he wasn't great, he was beyond that, it's perhaps the best tournament from anyone on any "short" KO competition.

Yet in order to do that, like ANY player he needed a team around and that team was more than a proper one. People tend to think always in terms of names and even in those days it was worse, because not everyone went rapidly to Europe.

But that team was fecking great and in constrast to the one from 82 with fellas like Kempes, Passarella, Ardiles and cia wasn't a team anymore (leaving aside that the officiating was beyond bad).

We can say the same thing with prior NTs Messi had with lots of names, yet at times very disfunctional.
 
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