The X-factor, the Legend, out of words for this guy, 14 goals with his weak-foot just this season, headers, solo runs, vision, assists, dribbles, tactical adaptation, fast thinking-fast execution, vision, accuracy, holding Barça on his shoulders since 2009...

Individual prizes, records and goals aside...

I have lost of all my praises for this genius... How many chances, and key passes he has made? incredible.

The only player now is out of this world next to Messi is CR7, Ronaldo is among the very best in history but he just can't be compared to Messi... even in this best day. The only thing he can compare is his insane scoring ability (literrally all parts), and dominant physical condition.

Hazard's dribble is really awesome too... but dribbling in the middle is entirely different story. I would love to see Hazard tries that, he might succeed though.

messi is just the best football player ever.

Ronaldo as a goal scorer is top 5 in History, Messi competes with Ronaldo for goals, compete with Hazard for dribbles, competes with the best midlefielders in the world in assists and pass completion, competes with creators and 10s for chances created...

Competing with Goal keepers soon and CB's for interceptions and saves LMAO... He doesnt need to score to proove himself even if he does.

Of course Ronaldo is up there with him and Robben 3rd imo.

Messi is ONE of the best just like Ronaldo. But not the best player ever. Ive seen players better than him tbh.

Lets see at the end of his career... He still has a chance to win WC, if he does there will be no one to equal him.

You can't deny that Messi is awesome.

Iraqi_Madridista - Just curious. What players are better?

I would say players like Maldini, Zidane, Van Basten, Batistuta or Riquelme are way above Leo Messi.

Messi is undoubtedly the greatest ever for me. Ahead of all your Pele's, Maradona's, Cruyff's, Beckenbauer's, Zidane's, and O Fenomeno's. CR7 is also one of the greatest players ever, but he is more unique in the way he plays and isn't comparable with Messi. Even so, Messi's ability to create, score, and dominate is unmatchable. He is undoubtedly the best ever, and he doesn't need a World Cup trophy to prove it. Just ask Maradona and O Fenomeno how many Champions League medals they have... :)

Zidane :)

messi and ronaldo are just really good.. for me the only player who can somewhat compete with them is robben

I don't really want to start this debate, but I really dislike people comparing him to players some of you guys never watched. I'm pretty sure the majority of you were never old enough to watch Pele, Maradona or Cruyff (neither did I for any) and it seems unfair you guys keep comparing them to Messi.

I know some people are going to say, "I watched videos of this player on youtube, documentary, etc..." but that never shows everything about the player. Any player can look good on youtube... It's really how effective the player is in 90 minutes, and shows that consistency week in and week out. And I'm sure you guys never watched 1000 matches of pele playing, maradona playing, etc....

It's also unfair if you judge those players using today's standards, because football tactics and football game were different back then. For an example, I remember some people (not in this forum) said that Lev Yashin is not a tall keeper because he was only 189 cm tall. Currently, he is not the regarded as a tall goal keeper, but during his time, he was one of the tallest goal keeper.

I have no problem with saying Messi is the best player in his time, but plz stop saying he's the best player ever, or something like that if you didn't even watch those players like you did with Messi.
(I'm sure some people watched Zidance, O Fenomeno, etc... and they can be comparable, but plz stop comparing players from long time ago if you never watched them properly)

I have a feeling I'll say the same rant when some other player shines 10 years later, and some fan will say "player name" is better than Messi, ronaldo, etc.... and some of you guys will say the same rant that I have lol

I think this reddit post highlights a bit of stuff I was talking about here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/2hvkw0/why_i\_believe_that_maradona_was_better_than_messi/

I don't agree with everything he says, but I thought some of his points were valid.

/rant out lol

Im out of words for this guy....

@heavenduel

I dont agree with everything this guy said, Messi and Ronaldo tops CL charts every year, not even regular basis, but every fu**ng year, so its not a league problem...
And yeah i shoud have put ever ( modern football ) because its very hard to compare, for example Pelé and Maradona fans had many arguments, Pellé fans claiming WCs (3) without even mentioning that Garrincha was vital for at least 2.
While Maradona fans and iam one of them claim that Europe isnt South America and Maradona was the first star of Fooftball, not Legend but star, Footballers werent glorified or had their life exposed before him, he is the one to get exposed to media crualty, hype, fame, hate and he wasnt protected at all so it was quite experimental life for him that made him know wrong persons and try some drugs and bad behaviours...

But non-theless, what im saying here is that some footballers, have the records, the bomber for example ( gert muller ) or telmo zarra or Di stephano, and some has the beauty and the beautiful goals and driblles...

Messi have them both, Ronaldo is Pellé style, a player above anyone else in term of athletism, goal hunger, motivation, skills, his goal tally and palmares is unique...

Maradona doesnt have as much goals or records, but had the gifted talent to shine when he must shine (like Zidane) and to be the player ( the achiever ) the one to decide a game, by a touch, by pass, by a great vision or by a dribbleor goal...

Messi have many of those things, he broke many records he is only 28, and he is a joy to watch and has an incredible hunger and motivation...

I dont see any player who has all of these, Garrincha, Ronaldinho, georges best have many things in common, gifted talent, genious vision and dribbling but short careers, because life matters for them.

Pelle, Romario,Ronaldo, Di Stephano have the long term achievements, the huge palmares, the stats powerness, of course the talent, but they were hard worker type of players, getting into greatness foot by foot, step by step.

I may be biased here, but this guy has something exceptional that take all this things into consideration, he may not be the most gifted ( Maradona ) or the International palmares ( Pelé ) or the Athletism supremacy ( Ronaldo ), but he is a perfect mix of what we can call the modern footballer...

So yes saying he is the best ever is subjective, but he is a hall of famer for sure, he forced it, by stats, by records, by palmares, by consistency, by unique dribbles week in week out, by everything and World cup would definitely put him into a dimension no one reached it before despite modern Football being as competitive as ever...

I don't agree. Cristiano Ronaldo is easily the greatest in history for me.

@tiki_taka

Sorry, I may not have been clear with what I said. I wasn't necessarily directing that argument to you, I was directing this argument to football fans in general. Messi is an amazing player no doubt, his goals and assists speaks for itself.

You have a good point about Garrincha, he was an amazing player no doubt and carried the team for the WC when Pele was injured.

My point was don't say 'player 1' > 'player 2', or he is the best player ever if we never really watched 'player 2' nor watched great players in the past. I feel like people are disrespecting 'player 2' because they never really watched him.

Imagine 20 years later, theres a star and there's obviously going to be kids in that era who says 'new player' > Messi and we all know those people didn't really watch Messi. Maybe that 'new player' is better than Messi but chances are people are saying that because he is miles apart from other players in his generation without considering what Messi did in his generation.

At least some of you guys can fight against that argument because there are a lot of videos you can grab online... not so much for players in the 1900s.... They aren't easily accessible for people to watch and if it exists, the quality of the video is quite poor.

Messi is a hall of fame legend no doubt (best in this generation), but my point is that these "new generation player" > "old generation player" argument is disrespectful to those older generation players because we never really watched them, other than few world cup matches, and few matches shown in the documentaries. I think the only people who can say this argument is people that grew up in both generations.

@Heavenduel

You have a very valid point. However, I am still inclined to believe that someone with the skills and technique of Messi has been unmatched in history. Maradona was of a different build and stock, even if the style was similar.

He is a great striker and a very decent midfielder but not the best. Midfielders are the most complete football players and Messi would still need to improve his defending skills in order to be considered among the best.

Assisting often doesn't make you the best midfielder, you cant say he is better than Iniesta or Xavi in their prime, or would you rather play with 3 Messis in midfield instead?

To those who says don't compare players, I will say Human only see the difference by comparing like hot and hoter etc. There will be always comparision Messi and Other great players. It is needed to set up comparision criteria like consistancy in goals, consistancy in assists, dribling quality (how many legioners being passed through etc), dribling consistancy etc. Personally I didn't see players like Messi, he represents beauty of football game itself. What does it mean? I will try to explain, it is when player that can get through players in completely new situations, makes up new solution in the blink of the eye=creativity, when players can give insainly ingineous passes=vision and right legs, when players accurately and fast pass in tight situations with confidence=team work and of course beautifull goals and better a banch of them! Above everything else is consistancy in every aspect above and that is Messi.

@Heavenduel you may be right about judging players like pele, cruyff and other greats, but comparison is what makes the sport so competitive and thats what we need in football, if we dont compare the classico wont even be half as many as now, or even the london derby or any tense games.

Heavenduel the only argument i can say about comparing players is that aside from your average knowledge football fan comparing messi to the greatest players ever, there is also fans who are much older and much wiser such as ex players, commentators and people that analyze games also compare messi to the greatest.
But yes, you are right its hard to compare Messi to Muller or Pele when many never saw them play. But, its fair to compare based on recorded statistics and achievements. Also, the game was way slower back then (perhaps because the ball was heavy and cleats were stiff) and it had a lack of tactics. Many of the former great players wouldn't survive in todays game, and many players today wouldn't last a half time back then. So a true 100% comparison is impossible to achieve, thus we rely on stats.