Lionel Messi was at his brilliant best against Manchester City and the knee-jerkers have been out in full force proclaiming him as the greatest footballer of all time.
Steady on, boys and girls.
Barcelona’s little maestro was just having fun with one of our pot-holed Premier League defences.
It was a delight to watch Messi enjoying himself and it was hard to keep a straight face when he made a laughing stock of a player described by City’s manager as the complete English footballer.
If James Milner really is that, it begins to tell us something of what’s wrong with the England team.
But sublime performances like this from Messi merely perpetuate the riddle of why he has failed to fully deliver on the greatest stage of all. The tango he danced around poor old City does not erase the memory of how he fell short — not for the first time at a World Cup — in Brazil last summer.
Russia 2018 represents his last chance to gatecrash this list of the top five players in the history of the beautiful game — and by the way, I saw them all:
Pele — There can be no arguing with the three World Cup glories, the thousand goals, the rare art of making the impossible look simple, nor that extraordinary ability in the air for a comparatively short man. And by the way, the great Brazilian was also as hard as nails.
Diego Maradona — Not only as mind-boggling to watch on the ball as Messi but capable of winning the glittering prizes single-handed — as he did in lifting Argentina to one World Cup triumph and, when virtually crippled, to the final of another. Forget our English angst about the Hand of God. Remember the genius.
Garrincha — Revered as greater than Pele in Brazil, where they worship pure, incredible magic on the ball. He was the divine inspiration for two of his country’s World Cup triumphs, perhaps most notably in 1962 when he assumed the mantle of leadership from the injured Pele.
Alfredo di Stefano — One of only three who played in all of Real Madrid’s first five European Cup wins. He ran things from midfield, inspiring dazzling moves which he then turned into goals as he arrived in the box. At his greatest when Ferenc Puskas joined him at the Bernabeu. Don’t just take my word for it. Pele and Eusebio described him as ‘the most complete footballer of all time’.
Cristiano Ronaldo — Exempt from our World Cup statute by virtue of playing for second-tier Portugal, yet still did more for his country in Brazil than Messi. He, too, is blessed with little Leo’s dexterity on the ball but also brings physical power and serious pace to the argument as to which of them should be the representative of the modern era occupying the final place in this list. – Daily Mail