The fact he’s played in an era where we’re saturated with football makes it even more certain that he’s the best to ever play the game for me.
The only two possible challengers are Pelé and Maradona.
Both are remembered most fondly for brilliant World Cup performances. Pelé in 3 or 4 tournaments, Maradona in 3 or 4, only one of which he was brilliant in.
But who remembers Maradona’s seasons at Sevilla, or even Barcelona, or the later ones at Napoli when he was on the sniff? No one. He’s remembered for the one tournament that was televised worldwide.
Every game Messi plays is televised worldwide. And he’s been the best player in every season for the last decade, even more. Every week, every season, he’s doing it consistently and putting up goal and assists numbers that are just completely unprecedented.
And talking about weak leagues, Pelé played most of his career in regional leagues and the standard would have been nowhere near as high as European leagues now.
I really struggle to see any legitimate argument that he’s not the greatest of all time.