In 55 years watching football the best player I have seen is Messi.
I can tell you that in your lifetime you may still see another Neymar or Cristiano, or another Zidane.
And if you are very lucky, you see another Maradona.
But don't ever expect to see another Messi.
#messi
Messi would feed Cristiano with loads of brilliant passes, would let him score penalties and freekicks, and everybody would wonder how Messi still succeeds to outscore him...
🤔
So Real Madrid rate 33 year old Ronaldo 100 million, while they rate 33 year old Modric 750 million.
They know who was the true architect of their last 3 Champions league titles.
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Most People still don't understand, what Messi really did in this WC 22.
Dragged his team out of deadly lethargy in Mexico game with a surprising banger from outside the box.
Gave courage to Fernandez who scored the second goal.
Told his team and ...
1/8
Surpassing Vardy Cristiano is now on a sensational rank 10 in the list of longest streaks! 🤔
Still much work to do, if he wants to reach Gerd Müller (16), let alone Lionel Messi (21).
This outlet celebrating as if their hero had just scored most WC goals in history. 😂
Mbappe will be next decade's Cristiano. He already has almost the same goal contribution per game, and he is only 21 years young.
If fit, he will easily surpass all of Cristiano's numbers proving they are nothing special.
I don't mention Messi, cause there won't be another.
Kylian Mbappé made his 200th first-team appearance for club & country in his first match as a 21-year-old, scoring twice.
He has been directly involved in 177 goals in total, one every 79 minutes on average. 💯
Never in history a player suffered all that pressure to win the biggest tournament in football.
He tried and tried again and again. Had he lost this last call, not only his nation, but the whole world would never forgive him. There‘d be a dark spot on his name.
Praise him!
In history of football there were about 3000 players who won an international trophy (WC or continental cup).
3000 players!!!
But only
10 players played
4 int. finals, incl. a WC final!
Messi is one of them!
Forget all the goal and assist comparisons between Messi and Cristiano.
Just watch some Messi games, and then search for Cristiano games, in which he delivers same quality.
You'll search for years and won't find.
Imagine Messi leaving to the dressing room after being subbed in minute 55.
Everyone would question his leadership, call him a fraud abandoning his teammates.
Cristiano does it and whole mother earth feels the pain he must feel in his knee. Poor Cristiano, couldn't even stay...
I just saw that Gerd Müller in 1 WC scored as many header goals as Cristiano delivered assists in all his 35 Euro qualifiers against Lithuania like teams.
Young Cristiano joined the club, which had won the EPL 8 times the decade before he came.
When things became difficult, he joined the club, which had won LaLiga twice the 3 years before he came.
When things became difficult, he joined a serial winner of Serie A.
Challenge!
They don‘t even know their own history 😂
Benfica Lisbon was 3 times in CL final beginning of 60s and won two of them.
Portugal was 3rd in WC 66, all that with Eusebio.
Cristiano never got that far in WC.
📍Imagine you are born in a country of 10 million people.
Zero football history. Zero trophies. Three World Cup participations in 75 years. Three EUROS participations all time. Never even reached a final in any competition.
Than you make your debut. You qualify your country for
Messi is worth 700 Million, but as he is Messi and has given infinitely more to the club than any other player, as he had so much patience with the club and believed their false projects every new season, I think he deserves an easy farewell by the club, if he wants so.
Lionel Messi is not for sale. Barça insist that he has a contract until 2021, and in addition, he's a crucial part to Koeman's project. If Messi formally asks to leave, Barça will refer to his 700 million euros release clause. Not to annoy him, but because it's Messi. [md]
Every goal scorer depends on his team.
Lukaku is a recent prove. A 'flop' with ManUtd and succesfully scoring with Inter.
Cristiano is another example. Succesfully scoring wit RM, but struggling in Italy.
Only Messi is able to regularly create his own goals.
#Messi
Maybe some day another player will win 4 best playmaker awards.
Maybe some day another player will win 6 golden boots.
Maybe some day another player will score 91 goals in one calendar year.
But will there ever be again one player who does all that in one career?
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"Maradona won WC 86 singlehandedly against allmighty Germany, and he had only bums in teame".
"Messi lost WC final although he had worldclass players helping him".
That's the narrative Maradona apologists and Messi haters repeat and repeat.
The truth:
1/
Anybody who watches both players knows why Messi doesn't score more hattricks than Cristiano regarding their goal/game ratio.
Messi constantly tries to set up his teammates.
Last night several times he could have gone for the shot, but preferred to do playmaking.
He loves it.
For the first time in 5 years Real Madrid reached the Copa del Rey semi-final.
For the first time in 5 years Juventus Turin didn't make it into the Coppa semi-final.
#Ronaldoeffect
@MarkOgden_
In 10 years, looking back without those marketing interests, Ronaldo will be grouped in line with Puskas, Gerd Müller, Van Basten, Ronaldo Nazario, Romario.
Messi ahead of Maradona or Pele.
That's it.
IFFHS best playmaker
Messi
2006 not in top3
2007 3rd
2008 3rd
2009 2nd
2010 not in top3
2011 2nd
2012 3rd
2013 -
2014 2nd
2016 1st
2017 1st
2017 1st
2018 2nd
2019 1st
2008 Cristiano made it to 2nd.
Most of the time he's not on the list.
'Messi finished' shouts getting louder every year, after every lost game or during goal draught.
And yet, then he always shut his doubters' and haters' mouth with great performances.
I see him getting involved in PSG game every week more. Wait and see, he's far from finished.
Actually football lovers do not need science to know that. But maybe some day science will tell us that it always made more sense to compare Cristiano with several other players, who also are half as good as Messi.
Cristiano the better international player than Messi?
Let's have a look to their individual contribution, where it most matters, WC and Euro/CA.
Here their direct goal contributions:
Just muted this guy. He appears on my tl every day with brainless aggressive anti-Messi tweeds, but I didn't follow him.
Note: this guy only wants your attention, he works for clics and satifies the ego of Messi haters. Everyone who replies to him, spreads his nonsense. Mute!
Maradona's personality
WC 82 red card after karate kick
WC 94 disqualified for drug abuse
CdR 84 Barça vs Bilbao, Maradona transforms a lost Cup final into a Kung Fu fight, has to be sold
92 his club sells him due to bad attitude and sportive underperforming.
@francefootball
What a pity, the first year a player succeeded to score 25 goals and assist 21 goals in a top5 league season, a record never been achieved by anybody else since assist recording, and now they don't want to give him the award.
Always knew that the time would come, when Cristiano becomes irrelevant and his fanboys desperately hype another player, because they don't stand to see Messi in full glory, while their idol is nowhere to be seen anymore. It seems that this time has come.
Topscorer/Greatest legend:
Ajax: van Reenen/Cruyff
Bayern: G. Müller/Beckenbauer
AC Milano: Nordahl/Maldini
ManUtd: Rooney/Giggs
Napoli: Hamsik/Maradona
Real Madrid: C. Ronaldo/Di Stefano
Barça: Messi/Messi
Santos: Pelé/Pelé
If you still rate players by titles, rewatch CL 2007/08 semifinal Barça vs ManUtd, both legs.
Messi was so much better than Cristiano, but title counters will always fail to see those important details.
Messi has a 'bad' season, while a certain Serie A conquerer has a 'phantastic' season.
Messi is 5 goals and 5 assists clear to the rest, while Mr Wannabe is 6 goals and 9 assists running after the show.
You can easily see how dangerous and genious a player is by counting the number of opponents who surround him in which area.
Distance to opponent's goal:
Cristiano Messi
45m 0-1 2-3
30m 1 3-4
20m 2 4-7
10m 2-3 5-7
UCL MotM 2009 - 2019
Messi 54
Cristiano 36
Many people nowadays take goals to rate a player. Many include assists, and some include keypasses, dribbles, throughballs...
Now you can see xG and so on.
The more features you take, the more complete the picture gets.
He'll score lots of goals in all competitions. His game will be compared to Cristiano's. He'll show to the world that all Cristiano did, can be done by someone else in a short time after him.
I can't see anybody on the horizon who could be compared to Lionel Messi.
Cristiano fanboys never accept the quality argument talking about NT goals.
When it comes to CL goals they suddenly turn into die hard quality controllers. Now they bring up knockout goals. And not all knockout goals, as Messi has loads of r16 goals.
No, it has to be after r16 😂
This season in whoscored (not in popularity MotM)
minutes MotM rating
League
Messi 1441 9 8.59
Cristiano 1675 8 7.91
CL
Messi 391 3 9.15
Cristiano 532 1 7.32
btw Immobile has as many MotM in Serie A as Cr.
This for me is the most important award of football. It shows who is really the boss on the pitch.
List of winners:
Zidane, Kaka, Xavi 4x, Iniesta 2x, Kroos, Modric, and Messi 4x.
Messi and Xavi, the greatest since 2006!
So you agree that Messi is so great that continental federations plan their biggest tournament according to Messi's schedule?
Messi, the first player on earth to move a continent!
I wrote that about 30 months ago, Messi had not won a big international trophy yet, and now, after all he has achieved since, there's nothing else left to say.
In 55 years watching football the best player I have seen is Messi.
I can tell you that in your lifetime you may still see another Neymar or Cristiano, or another Zidane.
And if you are very lucky, you see another Maradona.
But don't ever expect to see another Messi.
#messi
The best player of the last 16 years has always been Lionel Messi.
There were single seasons, in which another player won a more important trophy or scored some more goals, but tell me that any player was better than him, and I laugh at your face.
#Messi
𓃵
"But, but my goat is 34 years old!"
And there comes 36 years old Quagliarella to outscore him.
"But but my goat has only been here for a one season, it's a great challenge!"
And there comes EPL reject Lukaku and outscores him in his first season.
"You are a bloody hater!"
Messi got a 10 rating by whoscored for his Lyon game. He has now 8 times the 10 in this season in Liga and UCL. Here's a list of top leagues players with more than one 10 rating.
Messi 8
Neymar 3
Mbappe 2
Sterling 2
Hazard 2
Cristiano? He got it once this season.
Messi's loyalty shows in the offers he constantly rejects.
He could have earned better in EPL or even at PSG.
Everybody knows he wants to play at Barca. He is a settled man and a family man, wants his kids and wife to have same surrounding. And he seems to feel well in his club.
After this Messi masterclass in Wembley I don't want to read anymore that
1. Messi wouldn't succeed in PL
2. Messi is finished
3. Messi has no passion anymore
4. Messi declined after 2012
5. Messi hides in CL games
6. Messi hides in away games
7. Anybody else than Messi is GOAT
Pelé and Zidane, both helped their nations to win their first worldcup.
And both did it in their first attempt.
Cristiano tried 5 times. No shame, it's really hard to win that cup.
Messi is proof.
Pele Born in Brazil
Maradona Born in Argentina
Ronaldinho Born in Brazil
Zidane Born in France
If Ronaldo was Brazilian or French he d have 2 or 3 Euros with WC title as well
Messi was the only player in WC to get a special anti-plan. Most of his opponents put him into a 4 men cage so his teammates wouldn't even try to pass the ball to him. Yet he managed to score one of the most beautiful goals we've ever seen and gave 2 assists against a finalist.
Most goals in cup finals in history:
1. 🇦🇷Messi - 29 goals, 34 games
2. 🇦🇷Di Stefano - 19 goals, 28 games
3. 🇵🇹Ronaldo - 19 goals, 30 games
4. 🇩🇪Gerd Muller - 16 goals, 21 games
5. 🇭🇺Ferenc Luskas - 15 goals, 24 games
6. 🇧🇷Pele - 13 goals, 19 games
Big game player🐐🔥
Can't decide right now who's my no. 10, so my personal top 9 oat, as I see it today. Might change tomorrow.
1. Messi
2. Pelé
...
3. Maradona
4. Di Stefano
5. Cruyff
6. Beckenbauer
7. Puskas
8. R9
9. Ronaldinho
So good to have gentlemen like Lionel Messi and Virgil van Dijk up there on world's biggest football stage.
Two role members for our youth.
Respect and dignity.
@Ronaldo7esque
Most charismatic player?
For me, there is nobody as charismatic as Messi. When he enters the pitch, magic happens, game changes and all the stadium looks at him all the time.
He even gets a 90 min guard of honour by at least 2 or 3 opponents every single game he plays.
UCL 2017/18
Man of the Match
Player MotM/Games
Messi 6/8
Neymar 4/7
Mane 4/11
Ronaldo 4/13
Salah 1/12
Modric 0/11
Nominees UEFA player of the year 😉:
Ronaldo
Salah
Modric (nr. 121 in overall rating 7.02)
Messi nr. 6 (8.03) and golden boot is not
Source: whoscored
@joram_arita
@MessiLob
Noone gets close to Messi.
VVD lost 4 CL games as defender.
Messi lost 1 game. Don't need to talk about Messi. He was huge, a giant. Outplayed VVD's defense several times at Camp Nou and at Anfield.
When Cristiano creates big chances, which don't result in goal, there's nothing he can do.
Messi creating big chances without resulting in goal, the same people say he bottled.
21st century schizoid men...
That's why people say that he played sh*t, when in reality he still was better than most others on the pitch.
He is constantly compared to himself instead of others.
I never say he played sh*t, because he never does. Such a disrespect.
I've waited over 50 years to see a player do what Messi does, dominating the opponents' half in each and every aspect.
To those 'fans' who start slandering him, you still don't know what you have seen these 15 years.
You will only know, when years go by and nobody gets close...
...takes responsibility for the first shot in penalty shootout.
Argentina wins!
Messi had direct and indirect participation in 9 out of 10 knockout goals!
It's one of the most influential WC performances I have ever seen by a player. I don't remember any as influential...
7/8
Suarez would be such a great sub. Bring him in, when the opponent is tired. He will do the final killing.
Let Griezmann do the hard work before. He'll most probably score the opener and assist Messi's goals in the first 60 minutes.
Balon d'or is a marketing award and it's not about the player who really was the best, but who was hyped most by media due to few 'iconic' moments. But who was truely the best in all competitions throughout the whole year?
To find out, see some stats from whoscored:
24 - Since 2013 only Leo Messi (45) has scored more goals from outside the box in the Top 5 European leagues than
@Phil_Coutinho
(24). Spectacle.
@FCBayernEN
Nothing special in UCL knockout.
Puskas scored 12 goals
G. Müller scored 11 goals.
Cristiano's is only 3rd best in history.
Come back, when he does sth outstanding like scoring 91 goals in a calendar year.
This is Laporta's heritage, boy. Now have a look into near future.
First team captains will be from Mönchengladbach, Ajax, Gremio...
That will show how you 'prioritized' La Masia.
With due respect to VVD:
FIFA XI defenders:
VVD
2019
Pique
2010
2011
2012
2016
I call that recency bias.
Pundits...
See their intl trophies in this decade:
People panic because Messi in recent games 'only' assisted. They still want him to break goal records.
If he stopped playing in 2015, he would still be considered the best player in history. All he did since and all he still does is making us enjoy his magic.
Relax and watch.
...to the world that he believes in them, and that they can do great.
Showed a great performance against Poland in last group game, incentivating his team to a 2:0 victory, while creating several chances.
In r16 vs Australia Messi opens the door with a goal and...
2/8