Is Messi Really The Greatest Ever? Are Barcelona The Best Team Ever? Pele Dosen’t Think So…

You may or may not have heard but, the Brazilian footballing legend Pele has recently cast doubt over Lionel Messi’s apparent faults. To your average football fan you can watch 10 minutes of Barcelona playing and two things will probably spring to mind; One, ‘this has got to be the best team ever!’, Two, ‘Messi has got to be the best player ever!’.

Okay maybe that’s not what springs to mind for everyone, in fact, it definitely isn’t. There seems to be a growing fad amongst Football fans around the world who are seemingly turning on Barcelona’s wonderful passing game, and instead searching for faults in both the club and the players. Most noticeably Lionel Messi. I often fall into an argument where people will try and dig up dirt on the Barcelona players. “Busquets dives! Alves dives!” etc… I’d be lying if I was to say they don’t. They Do. But let’s face it, in the modern game, who dosen’t? Players have to adapt to football. Tactics, formations, techniques, they all change season after season.

The debate on Messi will change as well, and will for as long as he plays the game. At the moment there is no one in the world who can match up to the little Argentine. Not even Ronaldo, Neymar or Rooney. His technique and vision is by far the best of his generation. Take the most recent El Clasico for example. Barca’s first was set up wonderfully from Messi’s chipped pass to Pedro, however it wasn’t just the vision from Messi that is the key factor of the goal. The fact that both centre back’s were drawn into Messi’s run and he alone created all the space for Pedro to slot home, obviously Arbeloa not being anywhere to be seen would have helped….

Anyway, His magnificent team play is just one factor of his game. The team work he displays is rare for many footballing greats, and really one of the main reasons Ronaldo isn’t seen as the greatest in the world. However, the main argument isn’t, “Is Messi Better Than Ronaldo?”, Even the most ardent Madrid or Ronaldo fan would be a fool to argue that he is. The questions is, who can genuinely be seen as better than Lionel Messi?

For many football fans, there are players who are seen as the truly magical players of all time. Pele, Diego Maradona, George Best, Johann Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane…. Truly great players. But how long will it be until Messi can shake up the list and get the worldwide adoration he truly deserves from fans and professionals alike?