It seems like people try to claim stats don't matter just to convince people they are right. Just because several aspects of the game don't have stats, doesn't mean that the ones that have don't matter at all. If you score a lot of goals, does it really matter how you do it? Poaching, tap-ins and penalties are equally as valuable as scoring from outside the box or after dribbling past a defender, and they all require different skillsets. Yes, Messi does several things that can't be shown by stats, and he is obviously better than Ronaldo, when looking at their entire careers. And when people look back in the future, they will look at the stats and miss a lot of those things that made Messi special. But that doesn't make the stats that are there less important and telling of some of the aspects of the game these players excelled at.
