He general no, with a few obvious exceptions like the Germans and Italians.
Maradona was amazing, and to be honest was probably more brilliant than Messi, liable to pull off some jaw dropping piece of skill at the drop of a hat.
I wonāt get drawn into a who is better argument, as they are two of the greatest players to ever play the game. Once you get into the top fiveā¦ Pele, Pukas, Best, Messi, Diegoā¦ itās basically comes down to a matter of taste. .
Nembo is just acting the cunt with this Messi hatred, Iād say he doesnāt believe half the shit himself, just a good internet wind up.
Messi would want to worry about being the best player on his club and national team (in an average era of football) before lads start talking of him in those terms.
Thereās nothing to do with hatred here, Messi canāt do it for Argentina. The guy who breaks all the scoring records in club football for Barcelona has gone 8 years without a goal from open play in full knockout cup competition football.
Messi should never ever be put up there with guys like Maradona and the Real Ronaldo. He couldnāt hold a matchstick to them.
Messi 2) Maradonna 3) Pele after that there is a big step off. Lads get ability and what said player actually accomplished mixed up particularly with Best.
A good attack that scored 2 goals in 450 minutes of knockout football in the 2014 World Cup?
A good attack which if you take the Paraguay game out of the equation last night, scored 4 goals in 4 games against Jamaica, Uruguay and Colombia and Paraguay?
Hard to know who I disagree with most here, a litany of ridiculous and then even more ridiculous posts. Has anyone mentioned Giggs or Scholes yet?
Messi is quite clearly the best player in the world today. Heās phenomenal.
Maradona was quite clearly the best player of his generation. He would be a superstar today. Messi would probably not have survived the tackling and treatment that Maradona put up with. The rules today absolutely favour Messi and his ilk. Thatās one advantage for Diego. The other is his incredible influence over Argentina which nobody has replicated before or since.
And then you have lads putting Pele third. Iād say only a handful of people have seen enough of Pele to judge. Best of his era but very hard to make a comparison based on how many full games of his anyone in Ireland has ever seen.
George Best was every bit as good as Messi and possibly better than him. Different eras so always difficult to compare, but Bestās dribbling skills, ball control, acceleration and shooting, which are Messiās greatest attributes, were just as good. He was also two footed, unlike Messi and Maradona, faster over distance than either of them, and better in the air than either. Pele would be the only one who would rival Best in terms of overall footballing ability, and of course Ronaldo today who is a better all round footballer then Messi but a self absorbed prick. People forget or donāt know that Best was already mentally finished by the 1971/72 season when he was still only 25. If he had been born in England then not alone would England have won the 1966 WC, but also won in 1970 and even possibly in 1974 when Best would have been 28 and in his prime. Another thing few know about Best is what destroyed him initially was not alcohol, it was Unitedās decline from 1968 to 1972 which drove him to drink, he couldnāt handle not playing for the best team in England and by 1971/72 United due to mismanagement were 3rd or 4th. If Pele called him the greatest player in the world, Iāll take that over lads who never saw him play. As his biographer David Hamilton said, if Gareth Bale is worth 85M, then George Bestās left leg was worth 85M, his right leg another 85M, and another bit on top of that.
Why does he fail at international level though? Heās devastating for Barca but a one trick pony. I can guarantee you that he would never reach his Barca level with another team. Heās the luckiest player on earth in this regard.
