NorthernWisdom

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Apr 23, 2013
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So what’s the argument against Messi being the greatest of all time at this point? His career to date:

One World Cup
One Copa America
Ten La Ligas
Four Champions Leagues
One Olympic Gold

474 La Liga goals (all-time record)
98 goals for Argentina (all-time record)
Six European Golden Boots (all-time record)
Seven Ballon d’Ors (all-time record)
Two World Cup Golden Balls (all-time record)
It's still Maradona for me - football's a team game, and the teams Maradona played for would have won nothing without him, such was his influence. That doesn't, however, mean Messi isn't up there - up until now I'd always been able to hold it against him that he hadn't done it really for his country, but they've won two trophies now, and he's certainly been influential in the world cup win.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

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To be honest, while Maradona was clearly the most skilful player of his generation, and had a truly magnetic personality (something which Messi doesn't have at all), how do you explain his comparative lack of achievements? I'm not sure it can just be "people tackled more then"...


Maradona played in the toughest league at the time when it was by far the hardest league in the world and probably one of the most competitive ever, Messi won a lot of his titles in pretty much a two team league.

How lucky Argentina are to be able to produce the two best players ever.
 
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fernandopartridge

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So what’s the argument against Messi being the greatest of all time at this point? His career to date:

One World Cup
One Copa America
Ten La Ligas
Four Champions Leagues
One Olympic Gold

474 La Liga goals (all-time record)
98 goals for Argentina (all-time record)
Six European Golden Boots (all-time record)
Seven Ballon d’Ors (all-time record)
Two World Cup Golden Balls (all-time record)
I think it's probably more that he (until yesterday arguably) hadn't dragged two ordinary teams to great success (Napoli 87 and Argentina 86) unlike Maradona.

It's probably unfair to be honest as Messi has sustained himself as a top level player for longer and deserves credit for that.
 

Evo1883

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May 25, 2013
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I think it's probably more that he (until yesterday arguably) hadn't dragged two ordinary teams to great success (Napoli 87 and Argentina 86) unlike Maradona.

It's probably unfair to be honest as Messi has sustained himself as a top level player for longer and deserves credit for that.

This Argentina team have lost 1 match in the last 40 or so matches to be fair ..they are in relation to today's other sides , pretty good


I think they've lost 1 in 42 and won the copa America too in that run

Argentina in 85/86 had won 6 in 17 matches leading upto the world cup
 

Mcbean

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Jul 17, 2015
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About time it came here but of course we don’t have the brown envelope money
 

Brighton Sky Blue

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So what’s the argument against Messi being the greatest of all time at this point? His career to date:

One World Cup
One Copa America
Ten La Ligas
Four Champions Leagues
One Olympic Gold

474 La Liga goals (all-time record)
98 goals for Argentina (all-time record)
Six European Golden Boots (all-time record)
Seven Ballon d’Ors (all-time record)
Two World Cup Golden Balls (all-time record)
You judge players by the eras in which they played. Do we consider Magnus Carlsen the best chess player of all time because he's held the world title for ages and has the highest rating, or accept that his predecessors had no computer engines to help, and less opening knowledge?

Is Messi as far ahead of his contemporaries as the other contenders were? Is he in a league of his own I'm not sure, but if he isn't it's a league of very few.
 

ProfessorbyGrace

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Qatar 2022: enthralling group stages, big upsets, surprise underdog reaching the semifinals and France didn’t win it.

Call me crazy, but that made it pretty good in my book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

wingy

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Jul 9, 2011
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Southgate might need to listen to the Women's manager ."Let the player's be themselves", during interview.
Following an unbeaten 40 game run.
 

SBT

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May as well put this in here as it probably doesn’t merit a thread, but a truly batshit story about the US team - someone allegedly tried to blackmail the manager over a domestic violence incident when he was 18. Turns out that someone was Claudio Reyna, the dad of Gio Reyna who the manager had decided to bench…

 

Brighton Sky Blue

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May as well put this in here as it probably doesn’t merit a thread, but a truly batshit story about the US team - someone allegedly tried to blackmail the manager over a domestic violence incident when he was 18. Turns out that someone was Claudio Reyna, the dad of Gio Reyna who the manager had decided to bench…

If his wife can forgive him to the extent of having been happily married for 25 years, I think so can pretty much anyone else.
 
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