Pep era Messi was something else, the pace and quickness while having the ball at this feet is out of this world.
One thing with Messi is this video doesn't really look that impressive.
When you usually watch shorter 10 minute videos on yt 99% of players are made looking better than they really are. Which is fine as highlights are meant to show player's strengths not his weaknessess.
But with Messi one could make a 5-hour long video with his goals, assists, driblings,... and you would still miss out on tens of plays that made most of us say "wow" the first time we saw them.
And then you see him doing stuff like that consistently every 3-4 days and you're not even "wow-ing" anymore but rather think - well, it's just another day at the office for Leo.
Yt videos just don't do justice to how good Messi really was (and still is) imo. If someone who has never watched him play will see highlights in 20-30 years he'll probably say "eh, he's not really all that much better than this or that player" (whoever will be the best player in the world in 2040 or 2050).
Maybe older people who have seen likes of Pele, Maradona and Cruyff playing live throughout their careers are saying the same about them. And tbh there really isn't that much footage on them compared to what we we have nowadays on Messi and I'm sure many of their brilliant moves are already lost forever (not caught on the video) and memories on them will also die together with people who have witnessed them.
So I feel extremely priviliged being able to watch Messi's whole career at my favorite club. I've probably missed only around 10 Barca games in total in last 17-18 years, most of them in the begginings when watching games was harder than nowadays. It was great to see his development from a young explosive skillfull winger through a false 9 capable of scoring 80+ goals per season to a player who is more than happy to just create chances for his team mates but can still score a lot as well. He could've become by far the best scorer in history if he'd want that. He could've been be the best creator/assistent if that's what he would concentrate on (and well, if his team mates would be more capable of scoring chances he put on a silver platter for them). He could be the best dribbler. And it's not far fetched to say he actually was/is the best in all of these categories. I know there is a certain player who has scored more goals, there is probably someone who has more assists and well, we can't really meassure dribbling skills as they're pretty subjective. But there is no other player who had all of those qualities together and who has done it consistently on a top level for 15+ years.
Gracies, Leo.
