ITT: LEO 'KING' MESSI

would quite like to see ramos try to break messi's leg and break his own leg in the attempt

I'm still amused by the idea of Messi coming to the Prem and having to play against Stoke, Notlob and Birmingham. Hoping Chelski or Citeh dig deep and make the dream come alive.

But he's not, I believe, a singularity.

This is what gets me I think. Of an age where every game is televised, who else has performed so expertly in every match? Baggio? Zidane? Fat Ronaldo for a couple years? I can't really talk about these players but I dunno, for all the talk (much done by lol over enthusiastic me) of henry and dinho etc. even they had off days. Whereas Messi... well he looked like he was having an off day in the first half against Valencia earlier this year and scored a hatrick the second half...

didn't he have a day off recently at the emirates though?

He was still pretty good in that game. Ok not 4 goals good but he alone took Song, Clichy and Denilson out of the game just by lol good positioning and playmaking.

lionel messi is the undisputed best player in the world, an opinion that's pretty much unanimous within the game at the moment. that's pretty rare.

tbh last year i didn't think anyone would challenge c ronaldo for sheer effectiveness for years to come (while admitting that i have always preferred purely technical players like messi/berbatov/modric), let alone surpass him.

next year it could be someone else, so i do get a little of what lj's saying. but i still don't think that his level of talent is anything to get blasé about.

this is going to seem paranoid but w/e the times have two articles about messi today

Could this be as good as it gets for Lionel Messi?
What a shame if Diego Maradona wastes the genius of Lionel Messi at 2010 World Cup

neither are rly bad articles but it's like they want to hope/pretend this is some ephemeral spark of brilliance which will shortly fizzle out so they can ignore it and go back to fussing over steven gerrard again

well even when cr7 was undoubtably the best, messi was only 2nd best because of injuries. only players that look like they are gonna be in touching distance in the next five years, unless some absolute gem comes out the woodwork, are cesc, rooney and cr9? i mean for as great as pato and kun are, this is a whole diff level- a level messi has been on since he was 16.

iniesta, kaka

i got love for wes sneijder too tbh, even if he doesn't quite hit that list yet.

oh and obviously i dispute rooney wholeheartedly. kevin gallagher scored 30 goals in 1997 iirc.

these names are all good but w/e

c ronaldo got close when messi had injuries/barca were in their late-rijkaard slump

that's it

forgetting bentdner, obviously

only players that look like they are gonna be in touching distance in the next five years, unless some absolute gem comes out the woodwork, are cesc, rooney and cr9?

I'd place Ribery and possibly Robben (despite his advancing years) in the list at touching distance. Maybe they don't stand out as much in a team full of effective team players.

Worth noting that apart from Cesc, anyone else on the list is around four years (i.e. a round of international tournaments) older than Messi.

didn't think rooney/c ronaldo were that old?

25 to Messi's 22. 3 is around 4 :)

Wait Rooney's only 24, though he was 40.

thought*

ah this is depressing. dumb fat dude 5 years younger than me is a billionaire

Could this be as good as it gets for Messi?

Times article pointing out that the top players are ever-younger nowadays. LJ will be delighted. Though the top players were supposed to be ever-taller and ever-stronger too, and Messi's seen those chumps off.

it's only a matter of time before the world's best player is running through behemoth defender's legs.

tsk people getting paid for this pap ok

so players only peak under 25 like... henry? nope. dinho? nope. stoichkov and romario? nope. zidane? again, nope. the likes of gourcuff, torres, ribery and etc. etc. etc. all look like they are going to disprove this stupid fucking article wrong and really peak out as terrific players between 25-30.

should have become a football journalist considering how good at talking shit without the knowledge to back it up.

no it's shit, has far more to do with generation of players involved, also zidane wd have got ballon d'or at 34 if it weren't for trezemiss

when did dinho peak? surely under the age of 25?

stoichkov/romario far back enough to not be relevant imo, if we're talking about a trend.

peak ages different for different positions, isn't that the considered opinion?

goalies - 30+, quick strikers prob < 27, etc

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/07/article-1264310-0909B9D8000005DC-682_468x286.jpg
top left

AWWWW

why is he hanging out with a bunch of kids?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/07/article-1264310-090A7E42000005DC-966_468x318.jpg

Looks like guy in bottom right hand corner has just stolen Messi's head from the Barcelona branch of Madame Tussauds

damn he's really lost a lot of weight since the pic with the kids was taken

lol at piqué there on the top left.

fabregas had a period of not being weird looking for a few years but that pic just proves that the past year has been a stunning return to form for the dude

rip the weird mullet thing 04/05 never forget

love this picture

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2010/4/7/1270677208016/Diego-Maradona-Lionel-Mes-001.jpg

always liked http://images.dailyradar.com/media/uploads/ballhype/story_preview/2010/02/17/maradona_argentina.jpg

maradona is going to have messi killed, isn't he?

No, he loves him

77% of murderers are lovers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3NTmEKQP4

messi kind of looks like dustin hoffman

― fuck in rainbows, ☔ (dyao), Saturday, April 10, 2010 10:27 PM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark

Brazilian legend Pele, often considered the best player in football history, has offered a retort to those hailing Barcelona forward Lionel Messi as the greatest star to have played the game. The three-time World Cup winner says people should only start drawing comparisons when Messi has equalled his goal tally of over 1,000 career goals. The Argentine took his senior career tally to 133 goals, which includes 42 this season for club and country, with a goal against Real Madrid on Saturday.

Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1956–1974 Santos 438 (474 [1][2][3][4])
1975–1977 New York Cosmos 64 (37[5])
Total 666 (626)
National team
1957–1971 Brazil 92 (77)

hi dere mr. plz try and score 40+ against modern shawcross defences instead of the lame old amerikkkan shit and then shut the hell up.

No matter how I try, I can't get that to add up to 1,000

well yes the 1000 supposedly also adds in like youth football and exhibition matches. now considering bojan supposedly "played for Barcelona's youth teams or cantera from 1999 to 2006, scoring over 500 goals.[2]" and Cesc and Pique left that yut team w/ Messi cos they were bored winning 8-0 each game and wanted to challange themselves...

Not sure what I think of this new, arrogant Pele - any other time I hear from the dude he's making nice and predicting Slovakia or Honduras to win the world cup

If there's such a thing as a 'footballing genius' then Pele was it but he should stfu with this 1000 goals shit when something like 400 of them were in friendlies. His official total is 643 - which is impressive enough!

Always taken it on trust that Pele was as good as the footage I've seen of Cruyff, Maradona, Best, but is there much more out there than the world cup videos I've got? Because on the evidecne of my 'MOTD 1960's, 70's & 80's' he was no Peter Osgood.

He could dribble at speed, pass well, demon shot, a few tricks and exceptional heading. Amazing scoring record for Brazil (77 goals in 92 games inc a World Cup hat trick at the age of 17). He probably started all this boring athletic yada yada stuff that Messi is supposedly the antithesis of.

You're right though, he's no Peter Osgood.

never played in the premiership iirc

It's probably my own fault that you guys don't even read my posts anymore, isn't it?

jol out?

lol I missed the motd bit Darragh :)