Why Lionel Messi is(n't) the best footballer ever

Lionel Messi

Like all good speeches, this article has to start off with the story that inspired me to spend five hours to write an article about a gentleman from Argentina, wrecking havoc in Spain. Of course, it wasn’t Cristiano Ronaldo‘s tale of woeful poverty in childhood, or Messi’s supposed tax evasion conspiracy, I speak to you in purely sporting terms. This tale begins with another sportsman’s exploits in Moscow, in a sport he himself is considered the best ever, namely, Usain Bolt.

While watching Bolt run generally makes the mind go numb, mine went into overdrive. Why is it that he could better the former World Records so convincingly and with such remarkable consistency? And not just him, but indeed, everyone running along him would seem like a super human to the athletes in the 1960s (more super than they are now that is). These feats got me researching and co-relating my findings to other sports (which obviously included Football).

If my research is accurate as I would like to believe it is, the World Record for running a 10^th of a Kilometer never went below the 10 second mark 5 decades ago. Yet, very rarely do we see a top- level athlete getting a 10+ second timing in the modern scene. A very obvious answer to this question is: Better training, more awareness of human physiology, equipment to help performance, better nutritional awareness and a very interesting concept of the human gene evolving to make our bodies more physically enhanced than its current state.

And that brings me back to my original argument regarding the same Argentine embarrassing goalkeepers (heck, entire teams) in sunny Spain. If the theory I just put forward holds any juice, Messi ought to be better, and not just by a tiny margin, but by a significant amount, than any his fellow legends who happened to live in previous eras.

If we were to somehow simulate a match between a computerized version of Messi and say, Maradona (given their similar playing styles), a very obvious winner would be Messi. He would move faster, react faster, shoot harder, jump higher and do everything better than Maradona did back in his prime.

Most people who like to draw comparisons between Messi and Maradona have often noted that Messi has significantly more pace in his game than Maradona did. This simply because they didn’t have the time, leisure, equipment or desire to measure the other traits both these extremely talented gentlemen possessed.

Messi jumps higher than Maradona did (on an average), Messi shoots harder than Maradona did (on an average), Messi plays better than Maradona did (Oh, do I really need to repeat myself?).

And with that, I present to you the first part of my argument, Messi is simply the best ever to have graced the game. And now, for the second (this is purely for the Ronaldo fans and the ones who are planning to write to the Sportskeeda Editorial team for placing Messi on Rank. 13 on our list of ‘Top 20 Footballers of all time).

Diego Maradona

This part refers to the rather cheeky “[n't]” added to the title of the article, so if you are Messi fan who doesn’t want a reason to believe that Messi isn’t the best ever footballer, please go sip on a nice hot cup of shut the hell up while I present a logical reason to contradict (or should I just say ‘add a dimension’?) to my previous argument.

Why would Messi be placed on a comparatively lowly 13th rank while other people who just weren’t as good as him placed significantly higher? The reason is as simple as they get: competition.

While Cristiano Ronaldo may not have even featured in our top 20 list, he alone is the reason why Messi can never become #1. Players can very rarely be compared with the figures who had graced the game in the past, since all the ratings ever made were based on their peers in that era, and not a marking system based on the players to come in the future.

Maradona was head, shoulders and knees beyond any player who had the misfortune of playing in the same era. Messi, while being significantly more talented than Maradona, can’t be placed in the same echelons of football due to his stellar compatriots and opponents, can never be considered ‘the best ever’.

He might be better than anyone who had put on football boots, but his ‘better-ness’ (new concept, new phrase!) as compared to the people in his era is nothing special. Messi might be the best player in the world right now, but he won’t be for long. The human gene is evolving.

The person who will break Messi’s record is born already. It’s the people like Maradona who find their way to the numero uno spot. Not because they were better than Messi, but because they were better at the game in their situation, with their opponents, with their equipment, in their time.

And therefore, till Messi does something that will place him apart, something that will prove that he isn’t just the best footballer in the planet, but one from a different universe altogether, he will have to be content with the 13th rank. All the best to him.