All Leagues, Europe, Features, Ian John, La Liga, Leagues, Regions POSTS
Something Special Going On…
Published by Ian John on March 24, 2010
Are you a soccer fanatic? Do you have strong opinions about the game? Think you have the chops to write about it? Contact Us then...
I know my remit is to comment upon the Premier League in England for the vast majority of my postings on Decipher Soccer, but today I am going to divert my attention away from the hurly burly of the Premier League to focus on the Primera Liga in Spain, where we are in the midsts of something very special indeed.
I refer, of course, to Barcelona’s incredible Lionel Messi.
It isn’t enough that he scored an incredible hattrick last weekend against Valencia and then followed that up with an inspired double against VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League. Not content with being the scorer of Barcelona’s previous six goals, he then took to the field against Real Zaragoza and put in a performance that has moved the Argentinean star on another plane to other players in the world today.
His hat-trick was an example of footballing perfection. A cleverly judged header past a wrong footed keeper, an incredible solo effort which left defenders in his wake before a drilled left foot shot gave the keeper no chance and, finally, a curling shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner that put Barcelona 3-0 up. Not content with that, Messi would have grabbed a fourth after another piece of breathtaking skill led to a beleaguered Real Zaragoza defender forced to bring him down to stop the inevitable.
One can only assume it was an act of generosity towards Zlatan Ibrahimovic that saw Messi hand the Swede the ball to score the fourth. Either that or he genuinely felt sorry for teasing Zaragoza for the best ninety minutes of football ever witnessed in the Primera Liga.
Or the best 90 minutes an individual player has played ever.
“”Tonight, I saw Diego Maradona,” said the Real Zaragoza coach José Aurelio Gay following the end of the game “but at more revs per minute. There are no words left to describe him – he is interplanetary. We could have beaten Barcelona but we could never have beaten Leo Messi. If we had scored four, he would have scored 12.”
His own manager, Pep Guardiola, was equally magnanimous, stating;
“Put in the superlatives yourselves, I’m running out, It’s already been a while now that he has been outstanding. That he’s capable of doing everything that he does at his age is something impressive, that doesn’t make any sense.”
Whilst his chairman Juan Laporta was predictably forthright;
“Messi has once again shown that he is a wonderful player and that he is, without doubt, the leader of Barcelona. He is the best player in the world and the best in the history of football. Along with [Johan] Cruyff and [Diego] Maradona, he is the best player we have seen at Barça.”
While Messi is magnificent, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Johan Cruyff inspired his Dutch team to the World Cup final, Pele, Maradona and Zidane all inspired their teams to win it all while enjoying superlative club careers. Messi hasn’t yet set the international scene alight. Not yet, but we have the World Cup coming up in the Summer…
And it is worth remembering that Messi is just 22 and he played the game against Zaragoza with a dental abscess. One wonders what he might have been able to do if he was fully fit…
What Messi has shown over the past two years and demonstrated unequivocally in his past few games for Barcelona, is that any discussion over who is the best player in the world, is meaningless. It’s Messi. Not Rooney, Kaka, Gerrard, Torres or Ronaldo. Why?
Well, quite simply, the others are incredible players, the cream of the crop. The best in the world at the moment.
Messi is touched by genius. In such circumstances, meaningful debate is impossible. Messi can do other things that other players can only dream about. He does them regularly and he does them, for Barcelona at least, with success time and time again.
The best of all time? Not just yet. However come July and if Messi inspires his homeland to World Cup victory as he has Barcelona in the Spanish League and European competition, then I don’t think comparisons with Pele or Maradona will be odious.
Image Courtesy of ***Prismatico*** on Flickr.com
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...560 views
None
