If Messi and Cristiano didn't exist, who would be the best player in the world?

[Messi983]

2008: Torres
2009: Xavi
2010: Sneijder/Xavi/Iniesta
2011: Xavi
2012: Xavi
2013: Ribery/Iniesta
2014: Suarez
2015: Suarez
2016: Suarez
2017: ... Suarez? Maybe Neymar takes over, lets see

Pretty much this.

I know they probably don't care too much about individual awards (and I don't either) but I would really love to see Xavi, Iniesta and Suarez to win Balon D'or.

If Zlatan would be aged 25, then Zlatan is my pick.

Without Messi, Barca wouldn't be built around Messi, and Barca's team could be built around Zlatan. So, Zlatan wouldn't fail here.
And teams built around younger Zlatan usually win all domestic championships.

About Champions league, Messi "messed up" a history in the last 10-15 years.
Without Messi and Cr7, if younger Zlatan played in Barca/Real for 5-8 years, he could win 2-3-4 CLs in that universe easily, imo.

On the other hand, Ney and Suarez would also be different players in that universe.

But my pick is Zlatan, since younger Zlatan is the only guy (except Messi and Cr7) who can turn matches into a one man show and decide them all by himself and who has a high leadership ability.

If someone will reply that Zlatan was poor in biggest matches, well he played for Juve, Inter and Psg for majority of his career.
What if he played for Barca for 10 years, and if we had, for example Neymar-Zlatan or Ronaldinho-Zlatan attack for 10 years (with Xavi-Iniesta behind them and a random expensive RW in our team)
I am quite sure that Zlatan wouldn't be a guy with poor stats in key CL matches in that universe.

Zlatan had problems with Pep (and vice-versa) and would most likely still leave after one season even without Messi. Yes, we could've built our team around him but it was just a clash of big egos and I don't think it would work longterm between them. And Barça would always keep Pep over Ibra. To be fair, I'd prefer us to keep Eto'o instead of bringing Zlatan, but we got rid of him because of Pep's "feeling" so there is no doubt he'd sell Zlatan too, when they couldn't work together anymore even if we were supposed to built a team around him.

I also don't think Zlatan is a type of person that can stay at one club for more than 3-4 years and you usually also say that non-homegrown players don't stay here for 10 years so I doubt that would happen with Zlatan. Of course he could made his impact in 5 years or so if we'd get him in his prime with Xaviesta, Alves and others around him.

Other than that, I agree with you that 8-10 years younger Ibra would be the best player right now without Messi and CR around.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

To be honest, in this universe we probably would have ended up with Luis Suarez much sooner. If anyone remembers back in his Ajax days, we were heavily linked to him, predominantly when Ronaldinho's LW role was opened. Henry, Villa and Pedro came up instead but it would have been fascinating to have seen him here with the type of pace he had at Liverpool. He isn't as quick now but he's arguably stronger on the ball for us which opens up other qualities in his game, mainly for me his passing and playmaking abilities which should not be slept on with Pistolero. But with Luis, he has moments of genius and he flicks it on unexpectedly when he sees something open up, he's very patient but at times you kinda see his influence wane on the game a bit. That's why I think Neymar is oh so close behind because he is just naturally so involved in the play. He loves the ball at his feet and the more touches he gets, the more dangerous he gets because its just so hard to keep up with him with the pace he has and his trickery can wear you out mentally over 90+ mins. So again, really surprised its such a landslide for Pistolero, even though I voted for him.

Also, instead of the team being built around Messi for so long, its probably Iniesta who gets even more of the emphasis in the team (AND OF COURSE THE BOSS ). Interesting to think about how that would have shaped our evolution, particularly with how Pep setup the team.

 

[footyfan]

Brilliant point made

Have you ever thought that maybe,just maybe, its ok if the other guy has an opinion different from you?

I'm sorry mate. I just thought that emoticon was funny.

I disagree with your post though. I don't think Neymar is really a one-man army, and if he is, then Suarez definitely is too. Not even 3 weeks ago, he had a performance like that with Uruguay (I've seen you write that Suarez lost that creative spark recently). The truth is he is still extremely creative, even at Barcelona where his position and role are constraining those dimensions to his game. I was really frustrated with Suarez initially because his touch was failing him so much and he was breaking down attacks by misplacing very simple passes, but over the past year he has improved vastly in that regard. Neymar, meanwhile, actually reverted a bit to his old ball-hogging style, though I think he's still much better off than in 2013/14 season.

Talking about needing a creative force to convert chances to goals, I'd reckon way way more of Neymar's goals are fed to him at 1v1s (mainly by Messi, who else) than Suarez's goals.

 

[te amo barca]

Iniesta and Suarez even if Ronaldo existed.

 

[Sepuldinho]

talent wise, Suarez. but the biting incident damage his rep. so i guess it will be Neymar

 

[DonAK]

We have a facepalm emoticon and no one told me?!

 

[Flavia]

We have a facepalm emoticon and no one told me?!

There's 2. Also this one:

 

[DonAK]

There's 2. Also this one:

Oh yeah. Forgot about that one

This one's better though

 

[Yannik]

Suarez. Iniesta prior to that and Robben deserved a shot between 2010-2014.

 

[dakt]

Luka Modric

 

[iniesta_8]