Messi looks finished

The biggest myth/exaggeration in football is that Maradona won a world cup and 2 Seria A titles with poor teams.

With Napoli especially its really interesting reading when you look at who he played with, he had some really good players around him and quite a few of them went on to have top careers.

Maradona was always been the greatest for me but he didn't single handedly win the title for Napoli, he was their best player by a long way but had some decent players around him. Its a great story that he won the title with a team the size of the Boro but its not true.

Messi has surpassed him now though, he has played at such a high level now for so long that its almost superhuman. I've watched him live and he played a different game to everyone else he was so good, his career has already been good enough to put him in the same bracket as Maradona and Pele and that's without a world cup.

If I had to put one of them in my team for one game though it would be peak Maradona, I think him at his best has the edge on all the others.
 
Without looking at the stats, Mbappe who is a similar age will surely have scored far more and won significantly more?

Mbappe hasn't won anything with a club yet has he? Surely domestic trophies in France don't count. We'd be a regular champions league team there.
 
Was that the third goal. Turned it off when they went two up. Game was done then. Could not see Croatia have two shots never mind pulling two goals back.
 
Mbappe hasn't won anything with a club yet has he? Surely domestic trophies in France don't count. We'd be a regular champions league team there.
5 league titles and a World Cup (likely 2) by 23 isn’t bad going
 
Kante won the league with unfashionable Leicester, then the league again with Chelsea, the champions league and a world cup. Great player but not the best ever because team achievements don't define an individual.

The World Cup is knockout football. You don't have to be the best to win.

Maradona was before my time so I'm relying on video. He was clearly incredibly talented but he was lucky to be playing in an era where footballers weren't always professional. His lifestyle could cope playing against drunks. He wouldn't last long at the top three days with his lifestyle against the athletes of today. Tactics have changed and everyone is much more disciplined. Messi has been the best player, playing against tougher opponents for longer.

1 knockout cup final will not define his career. He is the best player of all time whether his team wins or loses. Would be nice to see him score the winner just to remove the argument but it really is irrelevant. This is his 2nd final and will probably his 2nd World Cup Golden Ball. That's impressive even if he doesn't actually get his hands on the trophy.
 
Just a point to note, both Mbappe and Haaland rely on significant degree of athletcisim. Neither are anywhere near as skillful as a footballer as Messi and their effectiveness will almost certainly diminish as they age. These types of players mostly aren't as good when they start to lose some of their pace.

The other factor is that Mbappe and Haaland are both strikers. Messi has never been a striker as such, more of a playmaker who plays higher up the pitch. That's why judging him on purely goals would be silly. But it just happens that his goal stats are unbelievable for the type of player he is.
 
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Maradona was before my time so I'm relying on video. He was clearly incredibly talented but he was lucky to be playing in an era where footballers weren't always professional. His lifestyle could cope playing against drunks. He wouldn't last long at the top three days with his lifestyle against the athletes of today. Tactics have changed and everyone is much more disciplined. Messi has been the best player, playing against tougher opponents for longer

Go and look at the teams and players who were playing in Seria A during Maradona's Napoli era. The standard was ridiculously high, it was literally a who's who of the best players in the world. Calling them a bunch of drunks is totally ignorant.
 
Just a point to note, both Mbappe and Haaland rely on significant degree of athletcisim. Neither are anywhere near as skillful as a footballer as Messi and their effectiveness will almost certainly diminish as they age. These types of players mostly aren't as good when they start to lose some of their pace.

The other factor is that Mbappe and Haaland are both strikers. Messi has never been a striker as such, more of a playmaker who plays higher up the pitch. That's why judging him on purely goals would be silly. But it just happens that his goal stats are unbelievable for the type of player he is.
Yup If Haaland doesn't score he doesn't do much else. If he surpasses Messi's goalscoring records it doesn't prove anything. I'm almost certain he's not going to surpass Messi's goals and assists.

It's why, in my opinion (of course), there's no contest between Messi and Ronaldo. Obviously in his younger days Ronaldo had more to his game, but he's always been more of the guy that finishes off the move. Messi does both he starts and finishes attacks, he creates for others and still has a better goal to game ratio.
 
Go and look at the teams and players who were playing in Seria A during Maradona's Napoli era. The standard was ridiculously high, it was literally a who's who of the best players in the world. Calling them a bunch of drunks is totally ignorant.
I know it was a high standard and they were great players. They weren't athletes like they are now and there was a drinking culture in football. I'm not saying everyone was hungover when playing but the players drank heavily multiple times a week and training was nothing like it is today. Probably wasn't as bad in Italy as it was in England but Maradona we know was doing a lot of drugs as well, I presume he wasn't the only one. That meant Maradona (and George Best as another good example) could be the best because the opposition was leading a similar lifestyle. These days it is a science, they have nutrionists and spend so much time in the gym that makes the two eras so different. Anyone with Maradona's lifestyle now wouldn't have a chance of being the best in the world on a regular basis like Messi has. Ronaldinho was the best for a few years but then he started partying too much and he couldn't stay there.
 
The thing about the goal is he’s aware that his ability/pace is in decline therefore the stop start of his run keeps the defender second guessing. Magician
Love that angle. Incredible technique and balance.

Must be noted that he's up against one of the best young centre halves in the world in that clip too, makes him look like a Sunday league player.
 
Love that angle. Incredible technique and balance.

Must be noted that he's up against one of the best young centre halves in the world in that clip too, makes him look like a Sunday league player.
Does him like a kipper.

He thinks (as did probably most people watching) that once Messi turns away from him he's going to try and cut across him and get a shot away on that left foot. It's that direction switch from Messi to go back down the line on the outside that does for him. Just doesn't read it at all.
 
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