It’s a broken record and a massive circlejerk, but I just can’t help myself.

Messi is by far the greatest ever. Not just because of his record breaking amount of goals and assists. Also not just because of his overall longevity. Neither do all of his record amount of trophies matter.

It mostly comes down to what he’s showcased on the pitch during his long prime.

Prime Messi:

A mix of the best ball control, passing, dribbling, vision, agility, feints, positioning, balance, his acceleration, pressing and tracking back were also great during his prime.

Even if he didn’t score a goal or assist, there would still be a lot of greatness to witness on the pitch. He would still be my favorite player ever if he didn’t have a lot of goals and assists and was mostly known for outdribbling entire defenses. There’s literally nobody that’s done it like prime Messi.

Here’s also the most important aspect about prime Messi: he didn’t just do these things every now and then. It happened constantly, consistently in every single match, multiple times in those matches. Most top players maybe have an incredible pass every other match, once per match. Or they would have an incredible dribble once in their careers. While Messi did it non-stop.

‘‘Spursy’’

- Roy Keane

This is the new ‘‘Lads, its Tottenham.’’

The Spurs supporters just laughed at him 5 mins ago when he fell over when he tried to control the ball.

Shouldn’t have done that.

*slaps hands* Poch is at the wheel!

10 more years! Chelsea is back baby!

OMG a football player that pushes and shoves other players. Never done that myself during a match when things got heated! That surely never happens!

We all act like gentlemen and say please and thank you.

Big difference: the others did it in better leagues.

Hard to compare this.

Big difference: the others did it in better leagues.

Hard to compare this.

Germany losing is always a good time, even if its just a friendly.

It would make for a good story and joke, if Shakira and Sergio Ramos ended up dating.

This is what happens when 2 teams actually go forward instead of hanging around in a ‘‘low block’’

It’s what’s killing football these days. 1 side plays dominant football and the other side just parks the bus.

Ball rolling into the goal

Goal scorer’s arm is on the floor sliding into goal

Contact with his arm would mean him actually stopping the ball from going into the goal

VAR checks for a possible hand ball

Makes no sense lmao

‘‘But the stats show he’s better than Ramsdale!!!’’

I guess people watch stats instead of football matches

People stare themselves so blind on stats its unreal. While they also don’t consider the context of those stats. People will just throw stats around like ‘‘passing accuracy’’ but won’t take into account against which opponents it was and how those opponents played (like did they pressure the passer a lot or not?).

Player X gets room to pass the ball around. The opponents don’t bother to pressure him much because they are worrying more about another player for example. Their managers gave them the task to stop that other player in this scenario.

Meanwhile player Y doesn’t get that same wiggle room to pass the ball around. In his case the opposing players do get the assignment to pressure him more.

Player X had a passing accuracy of 90%! wow so good

Player Y had a passing accuracy of 85%! see player X HAS to be better

Meanwhile Player Y did amazingly well with tremendous pressure put on him. He kept turning and twisting his opponents and still finding his teammates perfectly 85% of all the passes he gave. Only made a couple slight errors while under pressure. While Player X had free room to pass around at his hearts desire while he made 1 big error while there was no pressure on him whatsoever.

Stat junkies will tell you Player X is the superior player. His stats show that! While people that actually watch the matches know that Player Y is the better player and can do much more when there’s pressure put on him.

Because he’s barely been used since last year and only played whenever Varane/Martinez were injured or needed rest. Just 15 matches. Which most likely also have been against lesser sides, after Varane/Martinez needed rest against playing the more important matches.

Just fall and hold your leg, the ref will be fooled

Watch Nketiah fail to hit a 100% chance in front of an open goal in the 98th minute

Shitty Zinchenko out. Maybe they stand a chance now.

How wasn’t that a red for Palmer. No intention to play the ball, deliberate kick from behind on Jesus’s ankle.

Premier League follows different rules from other leagues I suppose.

So when will the heir to Josep Guardiola, Vincent Kompany, finally get sacked for the horrendous performances so far with Burnley in the PL?

I just discovered that Argentina is playing atm. Thought let me check r/soccer if there’s maybe a Messi goal and there’s 2. Classic.

After my favorite player, Zidane, retired I thought I was going to enjoy football less. I remember thinking that there wouldn’t ever be a player anymore on the level of Maradona or even Zidane in my lifetime.

Then Messi started making everything I wished to see a reality.

I can vividly remember the early days of Messi and him proving himself to me. I was hoping he’d dribble through defences of top teams. When he started doing that I was just fully blown away that he was actually doing it. He was doing things I always wished would happen, but seemed impossible.

A player that could take an entire team on by himself. Spreading beautiful passes around with ease. Seeing things other players couldn’t. Stunning dribbles with immense composure. The amount of goals were just the cherry on top of already incredible performances. I never expected him to be known for scoring a lot of goals. It’s truly mindblowing what he’s done.

Even if he had 0 Balon d’Ors he’d still be my favorite player of all-time. I judge him with what he’s shown on the pitch and not what he has on his stats page. The amount of entertainment and pure footballing magic he’s given me over all these years is tremendous.

I know I made the mistake thinking there wouldn’t ever be someone on Maradona or even Zidane level ever again. In Messi’s case however, that’s even more improbable. He’s not just a playmaker, he’s not just a goalscorer. He does so many things on such a high level. The incredible thing with Messi as well is the AMOUNT of the things he does. He isn’t like a ‘‘regular top player’’ that maybe has an assist every other match and maybe has 2/3 great passes in those matches. He easily has much more of those passes in literally every match. It’s mindblowing. He’s exceeded my expectations so much.

Back around 2009 we used to say ‘‘if he can continue doing this for 4 years he’ll be the best ever.’’ He went above and beyond.