Who is the greatest footballer (soccer player) of all time?

Messi and it's not even close

Futbal watcher wrote:

Messi and it's not even close

Despite historical bias, I would also vote Messi. But it is close.

Ronaldo fenomeno R9. No one can match his skillset or talent. A complete player who returned to football after 3 ruptured ACL injuries. Most athletes are finished after 1, he came back after 2 and won world player of the year. He was crazy to watch, dominated world football at 18, dominated the Italian league in a time when some of the all time greatest defenders played in an ultra defensive league.

On the eye test, no one comes close

Maradona good, Pele better, George Best.

Rain manV2 wrote:

Ronaldo fenomeno R9. No one can match his skillset or talent. A complete player who returned to football after 3 ruptured ACL injuries. Most athletes are finished after 1, he came back after 2 and won world player of the year. He was crazy to watch, dominated world football at 18, dominated the Italian league in a time when some of the all time greatest defenders played in an ultra defensive league.

On the eye test, no one comes close

I applaud the nomination as he is certainly underrated, but you don't get bonus points for being injured a bunch. Faced better defenses, but simply couldn't create as much with the ball at his feet as Messi.

Jaime Ivan Kaviedes - look him up on youtube.

the beautiful game wrote:

Kind of a dead weekend so let's rouse up some discussion. Who is the GOAT? Have any of the current generation been able to threaten the title of Pele or Maradonna?

Dead weekend??

TWO NFL PLAYOFF GAMES!!

Only memorable kickball player is that chick who took her shirt off down on her knees.

Great Messi-highlights video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYZXogw8AtA#t=394.128267255

Most people usually say Jerry Rice or like Joe Montana

GhostofTedKennedy wrote:

the beautiful game wrote:

Kind of a dead weekend so let's rouse up some discussion. Who is the GOAT? Have any of the current generation been able to threaten the title of Pele or Maradonna?

Dead weekend??

TWO NFL PLAYOFF GAMES!!

Only memorable kickball player is that chick who took her shirt off down on her knees.

Two snoozers, sorry.

Madonna and Tom brady.

St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote:

Great Messi-highlights video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYZXogw8AtA#t=394.128267255

Against the current best center back in the world too. That's no scrub.

For American Football, for me the best was Jerry Rice.

That guy had a vo2 Max and he was a Mountain Trail Ultra Runner, he would regularly run 10 milers in the mountain of california.

He was full of gas every 4th quarter. He was better than Irvin, Emmitt and Joe.

I think a second close to Rice was Dion Sanders, see people didn't even throw the ball Dion's way, he was that good for interceptions, what a waste that he was that good.

- - -- - -== _ _ ------

Soccer?

Messi is the best but people miss the point on him.

Let me explain.

People always say Messi has great balance.

1st, No, he is short, so he has a lower center of gravity. CR and ZLatan are too tall, for their own good.

2nd, Messi has a huge Vo2 MAx, but Soccer commentators don't even know what Vo2 max is to much less include it and inform the public.

3rd, Messi is cold as ice, he doesn't get flustered, he is a shark, a Killer Whale. When defenders and goalies are seizing up, when they are trembling quite literally - Messi is unimpeded in his nervous system. Whether this is through sheer volume of repetition or some crazy killer instinct - he has it and is cool in any tight space or situation.

4th, he knows where everyone else is on the field always

5th, he choreographs it like a dance, quite literally like a dance. He punches the ball into tight spaces to see what will happen, but only after growing his leg thick with power to punch the ball at 45 mph.

See other players just don't have as much time with the ball as Messi does. Messi literally wakes up each more with a couple of stretches and dribbling the ball around his home.

CR on instagram looks like an underwear model.

the beautiful game wrote:

Kind of a dead weekend so let's rouse up some discussion. Who is the GOAT? Have any of the current generation been able to threaten the title of Pele or Maradonna?

This guy.

Wonderful goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcxzk3h9EWo

They came with gold, myrrh and frankincense for the little child in a manger. They came from a land so far away that it would seem that they had come from an alien planet. They had seen his star at its rising and had come to pay homage to a child who they believed would rescue them and provide them with salvation. They were the Magi and they had come with gifts, blessings and hope for little Jesus Christ.

Lionel Messi might have been born some 22 years ago but every time he gets on to the pitch it seems that he has been reborn, that he is new, that he is pure. You feel like going to him, dressing him in protective clothes, giving him the gifts you have carried from the Far East, the Far West, the Far North or the Far South. The Blue Fairy watches over him, the angels create a fortress around his bed and the Bright Star lights up his innocent face. There was only one Jesus Christ and there is only one Lionel Messi. The Lionel Messi. The Messiah. The Savior of Barcelona and to some respect football itself.

On Wednesday evening, Messi was so good that even ITV were forced to admit that he is the best player in the world, by which they implied that he is better than Wayne Rooney - which he certainly is. Which is quite a progress for the mainstream English media, notorious for not accepting that football outside the British Isles exists, but for once they were right. It may have been only Stuttgart but it was a huge Champions League fixture and with Xavi out of the match and Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the bench, Messi was the central thread in the Barcelona web.

Is There Anyone Better Than Messi?

In the end Messi turned out to be the central thread in the web of football. He was, to put it simply, everywhere and anywhere a footballer could possibly be on the football pitch and did everything and anything a footballer could possibly do on the football pitch (except get sent off, that is). The former Newell's Old Boys youngster ran half the length of the pitch, hoodwinked a cluster of bemused Stuttgart defenders and rifled a sweet shot that seared into the Jens Lehmann's net. He set up Yaya Toure to provide the assist for Barca's second with a pass that only Xavi could manufacture, himself shot home another very soon and could have scored his second hat-trick in a week. So much so that a commentator exclaimed, "He seems to do it all on his own."

But by saying that "he seems to do it all on his own", the commentator meant just that - he seems to do it all on his own but doesn't actually do it all on his own. Jesus wouldn't have been able to do what He did without his apostles and Messi wouldn't be as effective without his Barcelona teammates. Daniel Alves was so sensational that a fellow Goal.com journalist marked him as "the most talented player on the planet", Pedro was again brilliant, Toure filled in for Xavi perfectly, Maxwell enjoyed going on the attacks and Thierry Henry looked mobile and enthusiastic.

Yet it was Messi who stunted them all.

At the weekend the world's finest footballer did exceptionally well too as he scored a scintillating hat-trick against Valencia. Curiously, all the three goals were quite similar and came from the same side, but the first one was a gem - not one of those 200-yard blinders that nine times out of ten end outside the stadium but a marvelous blend of vision, technique, skill and pace: a perfect amalgamation of poetry and prose. At the moment it did look like Messi will succeed in everything. Anything.

Which is why his 'failure' with Argentina so far has been so stark. Detractors suggest that Messi looks good at Barca only because he is surrounded by world class players especially Xavi and Andres Iniesta, and indicate that for Argentina, a weirdly dysfunctional squad under Diego Maradona, he looks redundant. Which is true but it is more complicated than that. At Barcelona Messi is part of a well-functioning, well-theorised and well-thought system but for los Albicelestes, Maradona fails to create that same environment. And until Messi learns how to turn water into wine and turn a battered Argentina side into world champions, there will always be fingers pointed at him.

Messi's greatest skill was avoiding jail for tax evasion. He would have been banged up in most other countries.

Agree, totally agree!

George played in an era when defenders were allowed by referees to tackle hard, to hurt opponents even. Messi and his Barcelona team are very very good - but they would simply not have been allowed to play like that in the 1960s and 70s. Today, defenders are scared even to attempt a tackle because if it is even slightly mistimed the ref awards a free kick and quite possibly issues a yellow card. Tackling "with excessive force" is a red card offence! Whwn Best played every team had at least one player, possibly two or three, whose role was to tackle the opposing team's most skillful player with all possible force in an attempt either to injure him or intimidate him out of the game.

GhostofTedKennedy wrote:

the beautiful game wrote:

Kind of a dead weekend so let's rouse up some discussion. Who is the GOAT? Have any of the current generation been able to threaten the title of Pele or Maradonna?

Dead weekend??

TWO NFL PLAYOFF GAMES!!

Only memorable kickball player is that chick who took her shirt off down on her knees.

Brenda Chastain, days da chick, gotta answer!