Regarding the tax thing, it snared up pretty much every high profile player from Real and Barca in the Pep-Jose era. There was clearly an attitude towards image rights that was the prevailing wisdom among high net worth tax experts (the sort these guys pay to look after their taxes) that their approach was legit but ultimately the Spanish tax authorities disagreed and rounded up the whole lot of them. Interestingly, Alonso fought the charges and ultimately was cleared of wrong doing, which suggests that all the rest of them were actually guilty of was agreeing to settle with the Spanish authorities.
2 Likes
And despite all that, Diego is still the best!
1 Like
Still ambassador for Saudi Arabia is a nice job.
We don’t know the ins and outs I assume some of them paid less tax than was due and at a time where Spain was being hit by quite severe austerity and then they played themselves as the people’s club.
Kind of sticks in the throat regardless after all we know what an expensive lawyer can do, just ask Man City.
1 Like
I think he is one of the best footballers we have ever or will likely ever see again.Someone advises him on his personnel finances so any legality should be on them as he probably hasn’t a clue there.But to me he seems an entitled little prick and for that reason i’ve never taken to him.
2 Likes
Not a big Messi fan but this was a masterclass.
4 Likes
Messi still has to sign off on his advisor’s recommendations for his finances, no way he gives carte blanche to someone to handle his money without approval. the guy rakes $30mil+ a year.
2 Likes
For me he’s the greatest ever player past or present, hard to look past his goal scoring ratio nevermind what’s he won and the things he’s done on that pitch (& that’s even excluding the goal scoring). The debate between him and Ronaldo will live on far beyond our time right and I just think it’s fantastic that we’ve been here to witness it in the flesh for the last 15-20 years. I know he’s had his tax problems, scuffles with managers who he would/wouldn’t play but are those really reasons to loathe someone? I’ll choose to remember him from all the magical moments he’s delivered to this sport and the dedication to carry on playing at the top for as long as he has.
People are quick to forget the good and let the bad take centre stage, well there’s good and bad in everyone.
Can’t compare players from different eras. Would have to throw Pele into that mix, and he played his entire career in Brazil. It’s amazing to have two players of Messi and Ronaldo’s skill. Hard to pick between them. Close in total goals. Messi has significantly more assists. Messi also has all those crazy pitch-long dribbles from back when he had all his legs.
Sure but Lionel is a bit of a dumb donkey (away from a football pitch). He also seems a bit of a savant and doesn’t seem to communicate well or socialise much with other players and I suspect he is a bit of a simpleton by football standards. Until fairly recently (maybe a response to the Robbo head push in the 4-0 at Anfield, hahha) I had thought he wasn’t much of a diver and on the pitch he mainly just let his brilliance shine. Definitely not a leader but I do think he is on par with Diego and does ‘deserve’ a WC if only to cement his place right alongside the very top of the tree.
Loved Zidane as a player, the standout of his generation and IMO on par with Cruyff, but Messi is a whole s.d above probably with only Maradona and Pele (and perhaps Puskas I just don’t know enough) for company.
1 Like
C.Ronaldo is just not in Messi’s league. Great player with a great goalscoring record but more on the level of Gerd Muller, Zico, Platini, Best, Di Stefano, Romario or the original Ronaldo. A tier below the Pele, Maradona, Messi class.
7 Likes
Football has changed a fair bit , footballers becoming more fitter etc etc. With all that , I definitely do think Messi is a better footballer than Maradona just as Maradona was a better footballer than Pele.
Who’s a greater footballer (as in the person having the greater impact on their country , that would still be Maradona.
These things are always interesting debates, but you can’t satisfactorily compare players from different eras. The best we can do is argue who is the best player of each generation. Even then, what position? And what are the defining marks? Goals and assists? Skill? Defending? Longevity? Etc.
Anyway, Messi, to my mind, is the best player of his generation, taking into account numerous facets. Goals, assists, longevity, trophies, impact, skill, speed, shooting, dribbling, ability to do things others cannot, x-factor, etc.
In the same generation C. Ronaldo is the other main one to compare, and while there are lots of goals, and other things to be impressed by, many of the other attributes of Messi are just not there. It’s a crude analogy, but you are comparing a machine with an artist. The machine is impressive, no doubt, but the artist is all that and then some.
3 Likes
Yeah, I think comparing eras is never going to work. Think of G. Best. In terms of foot-to-eye coordination, dribbling skill, ridiculous creative shot making, as good as any. What might he have been without the booze and with today’s training methods? But you can’t compare him to fitness freak Ronaldo.
Probably agree that Messi pips Ronaldo, but Ronaldo is also a special talent and ridiculous professional who, absent Messi, would be without question the greatest scoring talent of this generation. To have two in one era is a little crazy.
Goalscorers will always get the headlines, but I also love the midfield creators like Pirlo and Modric, guys who don’t score a lot of goals but create a lot of goals.
As I said I think he is one of the best of his generation and I will be able to brag that I saw the great Messi in the flesh (was a bit rubbish that day), but I don’t have to go for the full adulation of him being this great man.
You missed Archie Gemmill
lol … what a complete asshole he turned out to be. (What a way to completely destroy your career and legacy.)
I never did get , in the great rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo , how anyone could even think that Ronaldo was the better player. Forget the stats and just watch them play. Messi could do stuff that Ronaldo simply wasn’t capable of. It was like comparing an all round artist to a one trick pony.
5 Likes
For me it’s Maradona then Brazilian Ronaldo and then the rest, eg Messi, Zidane, Baggio.
2 Likes
I feel like the idea Lio is not a leader was perpetuated by comments Diego made after the 2010 World Cup. Maybe in his earlier days he wasn’t so much of a leader and it took him a long time with the national team (which was rotten to the core anyway), but he’s been a fantastic captain under Scaloni.
He is reserved, perhaps uncharacteristically so, but his speech before the Copa América last year received a lot of praise from his teammates and we saw during the post-match how loved he is by this group. Now he’s leading the team to a World Cup final.
Sad Diego isn’t around to see him now.
4 Likes
There are interesting mythologies that build and become conventional wisdom to bolster an argument but often don’t hold up when examined. So much of the argument to keep messi down is based on international success, especially when comapred to Diego and Ronaldo.
Ronaldo somehow got extra support for his claim from Portugal winning a major tournament, something Messi never had at that time, despite Ronaldo’s injury showing that the side he was playing on was good enough o win it without him. How is the difference between Portugal getting past France a better marker for his greateness than Argentina failing to get past Germany a positive mark for Ronnie when they did it without him?
Diego on the other hand is commonly referred to as having single handedly won Argentina a world cup. Yet Argentina’s talent was good enough that they got back o the final the next time around with Diego himself having had a mixed tournament with no goals and showing only intermittent flashes.
Messi has played in 5 world cups. In his first he was a child and only on the fringe of an already excellent side and so played only a cameo. Two of his world cups were undermined by terrible managers who set the up to fail. The remaining 2 he has made the final in both. In the first of those campaigns he was awarded the best player award after being third top scorer (4 goals), and in this one he is likely to do the same and be at worst second top scorer. He only failed to win the first because of profligate finishing from his team mates on chances he created for them. Would Diego have been a worse player had Burachaga Higuained his chance in the 86 final and allowed Germany to win the game?
6 Likes