After the recent Ballon d\u2019Or rumblings, the topic of the best player to have ever played the beautiful game has risen again, with understandably Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the conversation. And this time the conversation includes two other football immortals, Diego Maradona and Pele.<\/p>\n
Although all four can stake their claim to being considered as the GOAT, former Liverpool defender and stalwart, Jamie Carragher, believes that Messi is in a class of his own, clearly head and shoulders above his contemporaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always throw Pele and Maradona into the best-ever argument, but I think what Messi has done year-in and year-out in the Champions League trumps that,\u201d he said in Messi – The King of Camp Nou.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, people will always say things like \u2018he never did this, won that.\u2019 It\u2019s the same for Liverpool in some seasons. Whatever we achieved, we got opposition fans saying \u2018well, you didn\u2019t win the league.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that it can be to do with the manager at the time, the squad of players, the opposition, whatever\u2026 Messi could even legitimately argue that he wasn\u2019t even playing in the best international team in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did well getting to a final, in which he was player of the tournament. What more can he do?!\u201d<\/p>\n
In Carragher\u2019s professional opinion, the competition isn\u2019t even close given how relentless the Argentinian has been throughout his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cRonaldo\u2019s quite clever. I think a lot of his moves have been on the back of \u2018what can I do that\u2019s different?\u2019 He can say he\u2019s won the league in all these countries, been the top scorer in all these countries and these are more strings to his bow. He probably does the opposite to what Messi does to try and paint himself as being slightly different and better,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut listen, I don\u2019t think of Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini being any less of a defender because they never left AC Milan. So that\u2019s not going to change my opinion with Lionel Messi not leaving Barcelona. I mean, why would you leave Barcelona?!<\/p>\n
\u201cThat also gets thrown at Pep Guardiola as a manager. \u2018Oh he only takes the big jobs, what would he be like with a team at the bottom or a team in the middle?\u2019 But why the hell would he do that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like saying to Messi \u2018go and sign for Southampton.\u2019 It\u2019s just stupid, absolutely daft.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s at the top club, he\u2019s the best player there, he\u2019s the best player in Europe and has been for more than a decade. The best show up against the best on the biggest occasions and that\u2019s what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s a tad odd though that the SkySports pundit and former Liverpool stalwart is suddenly, and unashamedly, lauding praises again on the Argentine maestro, after having recently publicly tagging him as a lame ‘passenger’ just going along for the ride with the PSG entourage and pinned him down as the cog in the machinery that will disrupt the Parisian club’s Champions League trophy dreams. And the sudden turnaround just because Messi stunned his detractors with his magnificent brace against Club Brugge recently, besides turning in a splendid performance all around at the Champions League encounter? It’s truly lamentable how fickle the minds of some of these so-called pundits with their narrow-minded game-to-game analysis and logistics.<\/p>\n
Argentine Messi has already resettled in Paris Saint Germain and \u2013 despite a slightly worrying slow start in form \u2013 has finally shown signs that his engine is beginning to fire on all cylinders as evidenced in the\u00a0 brace he scored against the Belgians at the Parc des Princes in their recent clash.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s owners, and his legions of fans, are optimistically hopeful that he will be the catalyst to ensure the Ligue Un giant win their maiden Champions League title although there is also no shortage of detractors who believe otherwise.<\/p>\n
The rainbow in the skies for Messi diehards is that with a World Cup just a year away, there\u2019s the opportunity for their hero to finally put the argument to bed once and for all.<\/p>\n
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