No John McGinn? He won players’ and supporters’ POTY at the Villa club awards last night.
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I think Messi is almost a mixture of Ronaldo and Zidane.
Him and Zidane both possess the remarkable natural ability of awareness of what’s going on around them. They play a pass, not because it’s straightforward but because it opens up the opposition like no one would have thought possible from a single pass. Like Messi’s pull back for Dembele last night. All I remember is Messi getting the ball and the ball arriving back at Dembele’s feet with only Alisson to beat. If you watch it again the Liverpool players were completely fooled. It’s really the sign of a genius a work.
Ronaldo had all that natural ability also but was a striker so tended to play closer to goal. Messi has goals in his locker too, more than Zidane ever had. And an absolute heap of them.
The arugument against Messi has been Argentina based, and how he has been at the same club since he was a kid. But for me, taking all players at their best, he is the best I have ever seen. So many different facets to his play.
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Never did it in Serious A, never did it for Celtic.
Ergo, a mickey mouse player.
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It was a fairly poor World Cup in fairness. England were probably the best team they played. A joke that Germany team got to the final
Against Panama and Tunisia, went missing in the business end.
Never write off the Germans.
I recall seeing the original Ronaldo play for Brazil at a pre world cup tournament in 1997 in France, in Lyon. They played Italy. It finished 3 all, so great entertainment from a neutral point of view. It was the stuff they did off the ball (moving into spaces etc) that was as clever as what they did with the ball. Also managed to see Italy and Argentina in a friendly in early 00s in Rome, and I think it was 1 all or 0-0, but the passing and moving was entertainment enough.
He did take growth hormones from a young age mind you
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Kinkladzke has to be in there
You’d need to be an uucoam to even consider anyone other than Ronaldinho.
I would have Ronaldinho ahead of Zidane. He took a Barcelona side which was on its knees and made them a powerhouse again and completely upstaged Zidane during their time in Spain together. He was something else and a completely transcendent talent just like Messi and the Ronaldos but was done by 27/28 which counts against him. Ronaldo and Maradonna were able to produce for longer despite injury and lifestyle which counts against Ronaldinho when discussing the greats
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Zidane was never on an entirely different plane to everybody else playing the game like Ronaldinho was from 2003 to 2006.
His longevity was superior but he never matched the absolute heights Ronaldinho did. In terms of greatness, the ability to do consistently do those “wow” things that literally nobody else playing the game could do will always rate higher than a player who had total mastery of the basics but didn’t quite have that something extra that nobody else could do.
In my lifetime, only three players have had this something extra, this completely otherwordly ability, and they are Maradona, Ronaldinho and Messi.
The real Ronaldo was a truly great player but I never got quite the same feeling of otherworldliness that I got from the above three. Sure he had skill to burn and some of the things he did, particularly in his short spell at Barcelona in 96-97 were astonishing but his dribbling also relied a lot on power in a way that of Maradona, Ronaldinho and Messi didn’t.
I also apply the “wow” factor, that factor of unique mercurial genius, to other sports, which is why I rank Peter Canavan above Maurice Fitzgerald and DJ Carey above Henry Shefflin and why I rank David Campese as the best rugby player I’ve seen.
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I was relatively young when ronaldinho was going well but didn’t his form simply tailor off just before the champions league final in 06 and that ran into the World Cup in 06. A Few Brazilians once they win the World Cup and the champions league seem to lose interest or something. Very few are great for a long period of time.
Their bodies seem to break down earlier — A lot of these guys come from slums, were malnourished and their bodies/muscles etc. probably didnt develop properly ---- they are then built up rapidly once coming to Europe and are kicked around the place once they become established players.
That certainly adds to their lack of longevity - i’m sure there are plenty of other factors too - like the wealth that is suddenly heaped upon them.
Too many logic turds floating around in the Messi Ronaldo thread.
Logic has nothing to do with it.
I wonder why Messi’s body has held up so well. Hmmm.
Messi isn’t Brazilian mate
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He’s at Barca since he was 14
There’s that also