Lionel "The Greatest of All Time" Messi V2

[MontenegrinCuler]

I think Messi is the GOAT by a fair distance, but if I had the choice to watch any player train for the day, it would be Diego all the way.

I think Pele is up there with Leo as well, although not better than him.

As for Maradona; speaking of talent, probably yeah. But Maradona had the wrong character with alcohol, drugs and stuff. Could've achieved much more on club level. For his country, he did the most important thing - which is to win the World Cup.

It is the reason I put Cristiano ahead of him. Not because Cristiano is the better player, which is not the case. But purely because of Cristiano's thrive for success and hunger for records, goals, trophies. I reckon he might be the person you'd want more in your team if you want some success. But if you want a display of beautiful football it'd be Maradona.

 

[Maradona37]

I think Pele is up there with Leo as well, although not better than him.

As for Maradona; speaking of talent, probably yeah. But Maradona had the wrong character with alcohol, drugs and stuff. Could've achieved much more on club level. For his country, he did the most important thing - which is to win the World Cup.

It is the reason I put Cristiano ahead of him. Not because Cristiano is the better player, which is not the case. But purely because of Cristiano's thrive for success and hunger for records, goals, trophies. I reckon he might be the person you'd want more in your team if you want some success. But if you want a display of beautiful football it'd be Maradona.

I am surprised you put Ronaldo above Maradona, but it's more to do with his professionalism and drive. Purely on talent Maradona takes it easily. I get that.

As per second paragraph - that's a fair point. I'd argue though that being as fucked up as he was and still a genius is a testament to his otherworldly ability. Imagine how good he'd have been with C Ronaldo's professionalism lol. Though you can make the argument his fiery, unpredictable nature fed into making him the unpredictable genius he was on the pitch.

He still won Serie A with Napoli in a strong era of Serie A, and he won the UEFA Cup in an era when only title winners made the European Cup, so the UEFA Cup was close to it in prestige.

I enjoy these convos and different opinions a lot.

 

[Maradona37]

I will never forget Lineker's story about Maradona when they met up for a World XI game. Lineker and Platini were watching Maradona doing keepy uppys. But he wasn't doing them like me, you and everyone else where you flick the ball inches off the boot.

He was booting the ball 30 metres in the air and keeping it up, one touch, that way !!!!! Platini turned to Lineker and said " This guy is not human".

Now imagine being so fucking good that you are doing training with the best players in the world and they are looking at you thinking " How the fuck did he do that? ". And we are taking about Platini, arguably the best European Footballer of all time and legitimately Top 10 footballer ever.

There is another video of Maradona where he lined 6 balls, 25 yards out from goal on a soggy mud ridden pitch. He was trying to hit the post with ever shot. He did not even know he was being filmed so it was a one take thing.


He managed to hit the post 5 times out of 6. Fucking incredible.

I think Messi is the GOAT by a fair distance, but if I had the choice to watch any player train for the day, it would be Diego all the way.

He was an otherworldly genius. He and Messi are the two most gifted players ever for me, with Pele just behind them. Then there's plenty of other absolute geniuse after that. But Messi and Maradona are aliens.

 

[Don Juan Laporta Estruch]

I will never forget Lineker's story about Maradona when they met up for a World XI game. Lineker and Platini were watching Maradona doing keepy uppys. But he wasn't doing them like me, you and everyone else where you flick the ball inches off the boot.

He was booting the ball 30 metres in the air and keeping it up, one touch, that way !!!!! Platini turned to Lineker and said " This guy is not human".

Now imagine being so fucking good that you are doing training with the best players in the world and they are looking at you thinking " How the fuck did he do that? ". And we are taking about Platini, arguably the best European Footballer of all time and legitimately Top 10 footballer ever.

There is another video of Maradona where he lined 6 balls, 25 yards out from goal on a soggy mud ridden pitch. He was trying to hit the post with ever shot. He did not even know he was being filmed so it was a one take thing.


He managed to hit the post 5 times out of 6. Fucking incredible.

I think Messi is the GOAT by a fair distance, but if I had the choice to watch any player train for the day, it would be Diego all the way.

And here is the video. It was even better than I explained as he didn't miss the 6th shot. He just decided to expertly lob the keeper with it. . Also hit both posts.

 

[MagIX]

I will never forget Lineker's story about Maradona when they met up for a World XI game. Lineker and Platini were watching Maradona doing keepy uppys. But he wasn't doing them like me, you and everyone else where you flick the ball inches off the boot.

He was booting the ball 30 metres in the air and keeping it up, one touch, that way !!!!! Platini turned to Lineker and said " This guy is not human".

Now imagine being so fucking good that you are doing training with the best players in the world and they are looking at you thinking " How the fuck did he do that? ". And we are taking about Platini, arguably the best European Footballer of all time and legitimately Top 10 footballer ever.

There is another video of Maradona where he lined 6 balls, 25 yards out from goal on a soggy mud ridden pitch. He was trying to hit the post with ever shot. He did not even know he was being filmed so it was a one take thing.


He managed to hit the post 5 times out of 6. Fucking incredible.

I think Messi is the GOAT by a fair distance, but if I had the choice to watch any player train for the day, it would be Diego all the way.

+ add what Zidane saw Maradona do... they were right, this guy is not human !

from 0.37...

If we are talking about pure talent, Maradona is unparalleled.

 

[jamrock]

When it comes to pure talent mixed with achievements.

It's maradona and dinho as the best ever for me.

Those two are even more naturally talented that Messi IMO.

 

[KingLeo10]

Good post dude, Pele used his training goals when he pushed to 1300 🤣 time for Siunaldo to become the first player who reaches 1000 goals and finish the GOAT-discussion...⚽️⚽️⚽️

Keep twerking

 

[Maradona37]

Special shout-out to Don who generally gets criminally underrated.

He's one of them whose life after football causes him to take a hit from his playing days i.e. he's been generally an average coach, so people think of him as a clown, rather than the world-class defender and FK taker he was.

It's like Platini - one of the greatest players of all time but now people know him for being the corrupt President of UEFA and overlook his playing days.

There must be more examples of these too. Hoeness? Zico?

 

[Maradona37]

When it comes to pure talent mixed with achievements.

It's maradona and dinho as the best ever for me.

Those two are even more naturally talented that Messi IMO.

Messi is less flashy and more economical, I don't know if that makes him 'less naturally talented', it's a hard call. But respect your picks.

I'd probably add him in with those two as the most naturally talented ever.

 

[Grande]

1. Messi
2. Pele
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Maradona

It's not talent-related list, it's overall list, that's why CR7 is higher than Maradona.

 

[Haraldinho]

Before CR7 you have R9 R10 and Gerd Muller.

 

[vegitot]

Top 3 now.

Some wrong stats here. Pele did not have 70 free kick goals. He had around 40. Did he count goals he score in his dream too?

Beckham also didn't have 65 FK goals.

 

[vegitot]

Because the difficulty of the shots are increased. To beat GK you need power, not only placement. And to beat wall you need height. Too much power + height leads to missed target. The sweet spot is a lot more narrow now.

Like CRs freekicks. A successful shot is incredibly hard to save but the difficulty to manage that is so high so he misses a lot. That plus he sux at FKs.

CR is the best at hitting the wall. I've never seen anyone hitting the wall as much as him. Either : the wall or too high.

He only scores that much because he takes all of his team freekicks, from every position and always shoots.

 

[Andresito]

Ronaldo defence post below

I think CR might be getting a bit too much shit on here, as you'd expect on a Barca forum of course.

I agree he's not as talented as the others but he's had an incredible longevity being a terrific goalscorer. And it's not a longevity like say Scholes, Milner och Joaquin who just keeps playing at a good level, but CR was always at the top in his prime years scoring goals and winning titles. Also compare it to Mbappe who has been one of the worlds best for many years now and scored a lot of goals but his legacy is still just winning that WC, otherwise his career is mostly irrelevant, so it's not only about scoring goals either.

There are possibly even more players ahead of CR when comparing prime to prime than the holy trinity, but that would only be for a couple of seasons, then they are overtaken by CR.

CR was a limited player but he did the absolute most of it and reached his maximum level and kept it for a loong time (compare it to likes of Dinho and Neymar). CR absolutely milked his talent dry so there are no questions about what he could or couldn't do, it's all on paper.

That's why I think CR is definitely top 4 and maybe top 3 depending on what you want to compare. Maradona played like a third of the amount of minutes Messi and Ronaldo played, so you could even consider coked up Maradona one of those 'what could've been'. But at the same time you don't hear peers describing CR the way they do Maradona, Pele or Messi.

 

[KingLeo10]

Ronaldo defence post below

I think CR might be getting a bit too much shit on here, as you'd expect on a Barca forum of course.

I agree he's not as talented as the others but he's had an incredible longevity being a terrific goalscorer. And it's not a longevity like say Scholes, Milner och Joaquin who just keeps playing at a good level, but CR was always at the top in his prime years scoring goals and winning titles. Also compare it to Mbappe who has been one of the worlds best for many years now and scored a lot of goals but his legacy is still just winning that WC, otherwise his career is mostly irrelevant, so it's not only about scoring goals either.

There are possibly even more players ahead of CR when comparing prime to prime than the holy trinity, but that would only be for a couple of seasons, then they are overtaken by CR.

CR was a limited player but he did the absolute most of it and reached his maximum level and kept it for a loong time (compare it to likes of Dinho and Neymar). CR absolutely milked his talent dry so there are no questions about what he could or couldn't do, it's all on paper.

That's why I think CR is definitely top 4 and maybe top 3 depending on what you want to compare. Maradona played like a third of the amount of minutes Messi and Ronaldo played, so you could even consider coked up Maradona one of those 'what could've been'. But at the same time you don't hear peers describing CR the way they do Maradona, Pele or Messi.

Welcome back to the forum @Temptation