Messi

[mk05]

5 goals in premier? This guy is fake life. As wayne rooney said, the best ever

[gigabyte056]

I agree, Best Ever!

[Ken Gargett]

in champions.

debate on tv this morning about whether he is the best ever or not. undoubtedly one of, and at 23?, still time to improve.

i guess maradona and pele the other contenders. view this morning from some was maradona. must say that the little i saw of pele put him at a michael jordan level.

one interesting point was that both maradona and pele played at a time when videos and refs and suspensions etc were nowhere near the same. far far less scrutiny which allowed opposing players far more latitude in tackling those two. messi has never had to worry about that. also, messi plays in what is surely the greatest team of all time. that must also make it much easier for him. but on any level, a brilliant player.

[khomeinist]

Johan Cruyff any day. Best ever convos. Will they ever cease?

[mk05]

michael owen is still my personal favorite of all time

[mazolaman]

That was some whitewash of a good side...he is a brilliant player.

[Chaki]

Pelé is the best I've ever seen.

Maradona, I cannot get over his "hand of god" goal.

As a Frenchman I have a soft spot for Platini, the most intelligent football player, and for Zidane, the most complete player (vision, passing, scoring) IMHO

Messi could still beat them all. He must win a World Cup though!

[riazp]

He has something like 49 goals for Barca this year...and hes only 23, not even in his footballing prime yet...Thats scary. I will say that at the end of his career, he will be the best of all time. Imagine the World footballing scene if Messi had chosen to play for spain and not argentina...

[CaptainQuintero]

Great player but hasn't done anything which has taken my breath away yet, there is still plenty of time though.

Zidane for me is by far the best player who has ever played the game, utter footballing perfection. I've lost count of the number of times that I sat there and couldn't believe what I had just seen him do.

[asudevil08]

His speed is insane. I keep wondering why opposing teams dont put a body on him, and really make him work for his positions, but its hard to keep up with his breakaway speed. His vision and IQ for the game is second to none.

[Mr.T]

Agreed, on any level he is a brilliant player and fun to watch. But, I think it's too premature to talk about 'best ever', which in IMHO is very hard to define in any case. And when it comes to midfielders there have been many brilliant players over the years. Regardless, to assume that title will be very hard indeed when you're competing and up against the caliber of players like Pele, Maradonna, Cruyff, Bekenbauer, George Best, Puskas and one of my all time favs, the Brazilian Socrates. It wouldn't surprise me though down the road we add Messi to the list.

[mk05]

Pele, Maradonna, Cruyff, Bekenbauer, George Best, Puskas and one of my all time favs, the Brazilian Socrates. It wouldn't surprise me though down the road we add Messi to the list.

What, no mia hamm?

[Ken Gargett]

He has something like 49 goals for Barca this year...and hes only 23, not even in his footballing prime yet...Thats scary. I will say that at the end of his career, he will be the best of all time. Imagine the World footballing scene if Messi had chosen to play for spain and not argentina...

not sure you get to choose your nationality?

as for the hand of god goal, possibly my fave goal of all time. was living in the UK at the time and we had copped a thrashing in the ashes and i was reminded of it several times a day by a large number of gracious poms. so when that came along, i thought that payback could be so sweet. any pom that brought up the ashes - a brief mention of maradona and they'd be so distracted and apoplectic and it would never come up again.

and people forget that in the same game, he scored probably the most brilliant goal of all time.

i still like pele.

[CigarAsh]

not sure you get to choose your nationality?

Actually to a certain extent you do. Forget the exact qualifier rules but if you have recent ancestry in another country, you can claim them as your nation for international soccer. Once you play for them though, you can never change again. The US has benefited from this a few times but recently lost a great young striker who declared to play for Italy where his parents were born.

[El Presidente]

I did have a giggle when Man City striker Mario Balotelli conceded he might be the second best player in the world behind Messi. According to him...it is close.

[mazolaman]

not sure you get to choose your nationality?

as for the hand of god goal, possibly my fave goal of all time. was living in the UK at the time and we had copped a thrashing in the ashes and i was reminded of it several times a day by a large number of gracious poms. so when that came along, i thought that payback could be so sweet. any pom that brought up the ashes - a brief mention of maradona and they'd be so distracted and apoplectic and it would never come up again.

and people forget that in the same game, he scored probably the most brilliant goal of all time.

i still like pele.

sadly, for me, Maradona will always be cheating scum.....

[Vortigan]

sadly, for me, Maradona will always be cheating scum.....

Couldn't agree more! As good and talented as he undoubtedly was the guy was cheat,and I think he was even proud of it!

[Schumi5]

If you have dual citizenship you can choose to some degree. The Italian footballer mentioned is Giuseppe Rossi. Grew up in the US but chose to play for Italy.

As for Messi, he is only 24 and early in his career but he certainly has a chance to be the GOAT. He is a simply magical player. He truly is at a level so much higher than any of his current peers. Ronaldo, Rooney and yes even Balotelli simply do not even belong in the same conversation as Messi.