Lionel Messi is without question the player of his era.
Anyone who has scored as many goals as he has in the past year would in any generation be a phenomenon, and the Spanish League (La Primera) where he plies his trade remains one of the two strongest competitions in Europe.
Is he as good as Pele - the best player there has been in my lifetime?
IMHO not yet.
With Barcelona he has won everything a club can win. The point often forgotten with Barca (and the headline writers seem to ignore this fact a lot), is that they are not simply Lionel Messi and 10 others.
2 of those others are called Xavi and Andres Iniesta. They are also to be rated among the greatest players of all time. Xavi remains at 33 still one of the greatest creative forces the game has seen. A lot of the goals that Messi scores (with aplomb and often brilliance) stem from superb defence splitting balls from Xavi. the ultimate pass master in the game.
A lot was made about how Messi turned around the Champions League game against Milan last week. Two brilliant goals from Messi. In that 4-0 win though, were also two assists from Xavi.
Andres Iniesta is also an exceptional passer of the ball and brings energy and no little danger in front of goal to the game.
It is notable that the great Spanish national team of the past few years with their extraordinary record in international competition did not have Messi, an Argentinian, available to them, but the driving force of Xavi and Andres Iniesta in the midfield still produced quality passing that was a joy to behold and a team that thrived on the impact that this had.
The only question with Lionel Messi remains as to whether he can help turn Argentina into a World Cup winning team. There is enough talent in Argentina to make them a formidable team, although they seem overloaded with front players (Higuain, Tevez usw) and are notoriously short of international class midfielders. Strikers can only do so much. Without good quality ball it is more difficult to make an impact.
Pele it must be remembered won 2 World Cups (but for injury in 1962 that would have been 3). Admittedly the support cast was exceptional, but nonetheless he was the greatest player in 2 great teams. A World Cup win on Lionel Messi's resume and I think that you might be able to put him in the same class. He is certainly not far short as it is.
That Francesco Totti has never quite achieved the international recognition that he possibly deserves is rather sad. True he never achieved a great deal with the Italian international team, and his loyalty to AS Roma has meant that he has never really had the opportunity to make that great an impact in European club competitions - Roma have in recent years never really quite manage to challenge the Milan giants or Juventus for any sustained period.
I noted though that yesterday Totti became the second highest goalscorer in the history of Serie A. 226 goals in that competition in the modern era is, by any stretch of the imagination, phenomenal. That he is still a first-team regular at the age of 36, and he is still knocking in goals as if he were 10 years younger .... enough said.
He is one of those players who has always been fun to watch (although I have really not seen enough of him over the years). I will offer my congratulations upon his performance. Not sure how much longer he intends playing, but if it is not much longer then thanks for the memories.
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