Is Messi the best ever ?

[Leeds Fox]

52 minutes ago, Wymeswold fox said:

John Terry as one of the best-ever defenders?

 

One of possibly, but probably not.

 

Was he better than Beckenbauer, Maldini, Nesta, Hierro, Ramos or Puyol? 

Edited 7 October 2018 by Leeds Fox

[Dan LCFC]

1 hour ago, lildave3 said:

One thing I’ve always wondered about people who still consider Pele and Maradona the goats, how much was actually possible to watch back then? Just World Cup? Can’t imagine many Santos games being shown. Not like today where we can watch every single game Messi plays in, or anyone else for that matter. 

 

This isn’t me saying those two aren’t the best ever btw, just genuinely curious. 

There is far more mystery behind those two. There's nowhere to hide for Messi or Ronaldo.

[Stadt]

In purely statistical terms it's Messi, just from watching any of them play, it's still Messi. The opposite of recency bias occurs, it feels like over 150 years of football history the best ever shouldn't be around now but he is.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

5 hours ago, Stadt said:

In purely statistical terms it's Messi, just from watching any of them play, it's still Messi. The opposite of recency bias occurs, it feels like over 150 years of football history the best ever shouldn't be around now but he is.

Exactly . Watched a lot of the likes of Zidane, Van Basten , Maradona and while they could be amazing … they were not consistently brilliant like Messi.

Maradona's goal scoring record was nothing exceptional …. case of rose tinted specs.

[Richard]

The Argentinians generally say Maradona>Messi

[Guest MattP]

1 hour ago, Richard said:

The Argentinians generally say Maradona>Messi

Yep. Lot of Brazilians say Zico > Pele as well.

 

Personally I still think Maradona is the greatest I've seen, he did things you had never seen anyone do with a football before, he would be untouchable now with the protection he would get.

 

I still think the highest level of football I've seen for a short time would be fat Ronaldo at Barcelona under Bobby Robson - he was absolutely incredible for a couple of seasons.

[The Horse's Mouth]

Maradona is the GOAT, if he played today when football protects attackers his stats would be mad 

[Col city fan]

I’m assuming that all the stats will say Messi is the best ever footballer (or Ronaldo?)

But for me the best player I’ve ever seen playing is Maradona. A World Cup winner and the season he lifted Napoli to Serie A title was astounding. He literally almost did it single-handedly.

[ARTY_FOX]

Ronaldo for me 

[Stadt]

The season "Maradona single handedly won the league' for Napoli he scored 10 goals in 30 games, goals aren't the be all and end all but still hardly an amazing total, not as if you could have watched him on tv either. In regards to 1986 he had a cracking tournament but Argentina had a strong defence as well as other good internationals including Real Madrid's Valdano.

[ScouseFox]

On 08/10/2018 at 09:10, Richard said:

The Argentinians generally say Maradona>Messi

not much of that is to do with how talented either player was though, is it? isn’t it just because they all bum off maradona and they all hate messi. 

[Bert]

At the end of the day it’s all down to opinion. How do you decide what makes the best? Individual honours? Domestic honours? International honours? I know some people say you can’t be the best if you’ve never lead your team to winning the World Cup. “The best ever” will never ever be determined. 

[don_danbury]

if he had won the world cup then yes. not as if he had a bad team to work with either

[Wymsey]

Achieved his 50th career hat-trick against Sevilla earlier today..

Not sure why there's still some who don't agree he's the best footballer to have ever graced the game (although some do make a point in that he hasn't achieved much for his national team).

[Otis]

Ronaldo has 51 does that make him the best?

[the fox]

1 hour ago, Otis said:

Ronaldo has 51 does that make him the best?

Lol 1 extra hat-trick but with (iirc) 150+ games over Messi.

 

How about that, Messi and Ronaldo are comparable even at the thing that people say Rinaldo have over Messi

 

Messi is the GOAT, There is no debate. The best playmaker in the world, him and Rinaldo are 1a and 1b in scoring, best football touch ever. Best dribbler ever. Apart from physicality, he is elite at everything.

Edited 23 February 2019 by the fox

[the fox]

On 17/10/2018 at 13:05, don_danbury said:

not as if he had a bad team to work with either

Oh the worst take people have is that Argentina are a very good team. They have a bunch of talented players but they are not a unit.

[Fox92]

6 minutes ago, the fox said:

Lol 1 extra hat-trick but with (iirc) 150+ games over Messi.

 

How about that, Messi and Ronaldo are comparable even at the thing that people say Rinaldo have over Messi

 

Messi is the GOAT, There is no debate. The best playmaker in the world, him and Rinaldo are 1a and 1b in scoring, best football touch ever. Best dribbler ever. Apart from physicality, he is elite at everything.

Well, yes there is.

 

Zidane and Ronaldo (Brazilian Ronaldo). Both scored goals in a World Cup final too.

Edited 23 February 2019 by Fox92

[the fox]

And to clarify, Ronaldo is top-3 in history and is a great player. His numbers say that, and so does his achievements.

[the fox]

15 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Well, yes there is.

 

Zidane and Ronaldo (Brazilian Ronaldo). Both scored goals in a World Cup final too.

Ronaldo's knee gave up. They both don't have the longevity of Ronaldo (who I think is a better player than both). 

 

To be the greatest, you have to show longevity. Ronaldo Nazario played about half the games Messi did and about 1/3 of Ronaldo's. Didn't crack 100 goals with any team. And let us not talk about the amount of ballon d'ors Messi and Ronaldo have over him. Yes, he's a world cup winner and it's not all about numbers but, he's not as good as them.

 

 

Zidane should be compared to Iniesta, not Ronaldo and Messi.

 

Edited 23 February 2019 by the fox

[Samilktray]

It was a lovely day when I realised I could just enjoy watching Ronaldo & Messi without having to bore myself and others to death arguing over the fine margins between who’s better. 

[Otis]

11 hours ago, the fox said:

Lol 1 extra hat-trick but with (iirc) 150+ games over Messi.

 

How about that, Messi and Ronaldo are comparable even at the thing that people say Rinaldo have over Messi

 

Messi is the GOAT, There is no debate. The best playmaker in the world, him and Rinaldo are 1a and 1b in scoring, best football touch ever. Best dribbler ever. Apart from physicality, he is elite at everything.

That was my point.  WF posted implying Messi scored his 50th hat trick so is the GOAT. I was just stating Ronaldo has 51. You can't measure who is the best footballer on hat tricks alone.