Liverpool FC midfield legend Graeme Souness believes that F.C. Barcelona's Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer in the history of the beautiful game.
In a quite staggering claim, Souness argued that Messi was an even better player than Diego Maradona:
"They [Barcelona] have got some great players but for me, Messi is the best player who’s ever played football – and I’ve played against Maradonna many times.
"He’s a scorer of great individual goals, he’s very much a team player, the provider of the killer pass. There’s nothing he can’t do".
Souness is clearly wrong: there is something Messi can't do, and that's inspire Argentina to a World Cup victory. Messi has performed at two World Cups now and had minimal impact both times.
Of course, Messi is only 24, and this might change in the future, but until he has a major impact on the world stage, I don't see how he can be considered a more influential player than the likes of Maradona and Zinedine Zidane.
Souness also backed Barcelona to win the European Cup this year.
“They [Barcelona] are miles ahead of anyone, but that doesn’t guarantee them. Certainly on a one-off game they could have a bad night.
"But are they going to have two bad nights? Are you going to beat them over two legs? That would be doubly difficult. Without Messi your chances of beating them increase greatly”.
Hopefully, next year, Liverpool will be mixing it with the likes of Barcelona and Messi in the Champions League.
Jaimie Kanwar
In a quite staggering claim, Souness argued that Messi was an even better player than Diego Maradona:
"They [Barcelona] have got some great players but for me, Messi is the best player who’s ever played football – and I’ve played against Maradonna many times.
"He’s a scorer of great individual goals, he’s very much a team player, the provider of the killer pass. There’s nothing he can’t do".
Souness is clearly wrong: there is something Messi can't do, and that's inspire Argentina to a World Cup victory. Messi has performed at two World Cups now and had minimal impact both times.
Of course, Messi is only 24, and this might change in the future, but until he has a major impact on the world stage, I don't see how he can be considered a more influential player than the likes of Maradona and Zinedine Zidane.
Souness also backed Barcelona to win the European Cup this year.
“They [Barcelona] are miles ahead of anyone, but that doesn’t guarantee them. Certainly on a one-off game they could have a bad night.
"But are they going to have two bad nights? Are you going to beat them over two legs? That would be doubly difficult. Without Messi your chances of beating them increase greatly”.
Hopefully, next year, Liverpool will be mixing it with the likes of Barcelona and Messi in the Champions League.
Jaimie Kanwar
to say that messi is not great because he cannot inspire argentina to a world title is naive. barcelona as it is presently constituted can beat argentina. messi is unfortunate to be playing in an era where his national squad doesn't have the talent in defense to stop leaking goals. but i do accept that conventional wisdom dictates that a player must be a world champion at the senior level to be considered best in anything.
ReplyDeleteIts a team game so it makes more sense to make the final judgement of a player based on international success - better by their overall performances week-in-week-out. I saw Maradonna play each week for Napoli, and I would put Messi's performaces this last year on a higher level. Regarding the national team - Messi played extremely well in the world cup - he just didnt get enough games to truly impress.
ReplyDeleteDont agree that a player has to be a trophy winner in team sports. He just has to be the best player.
Messi is going to be the greatest footballer ever, he does n't use blistering pace or strength everything he does is totally with the ball and his movement off the ball.
ReplyDeleteHe scores, his assists and his unselfishness.
I am a bit surprised you are using a drug cheat and a handball cheat as your comparrison to a player who is everything that Maradona was n't as a footballer that is a decent young man.
with the amount of players who retire early from international football you can argue that the champions league has overtaken the world cup as the pinnacle of modern football.i agree with souness on this,i think messi is better than maradonna,as good as maradonna was his legacy is tainted.
ReplyDeleteyou can also say that stevie g has never won the league for liverpool but does that mean he isn't arguably the best player to play for lfc because he hasn't inspired his team to win the title like messi hasn't inspired argentina to win a world cup?
This guy is an asshole. He is not even worth to clean king's shoes. Now he is cheer leading barcelona. He even praise manure but if it isn't for this sucker liverpool would be still ruling the world. Anyway the king is back and we are going to reclaim our throne.
ReplyDeleteGobshite motherfucker idiot you are.
ReplyDelete