Some of the biggest stars in soccer believe that Lionel Messi is incomparable and his name shouldn’t be taken in the same breath as of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The technically-adept Argentine and the Portuguese powerhouse have been virtually inseparable for more than a decade as they battled for supremacy, winning UEFA Champions League titles, league championships, and individual awards like the Ballon d’Or – an annual prize given to the best player in the world.
However, Messi’s form throughout the season, where he has scored 46 and created 16 goals in La Liga and European competitions, has placed him a notch above his historic rival Ronaldo, who has produced little more than half Messi’s haul with 26 goals and 10 assists in this season’s Serie A and Champions League tournaments. ‘
Even before Barcelona’s remarkable 3-0 victory over Liverpool on Wednesday (May 1), Messi had been hailed by the Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp as the greatest soccer player.
“I don’t want to talk about the others,” The Guardian columnist Sid Lowe quoted Klopp saying this week when he was asked who would feature in a top-five ranking of the best players in history. “Messi is the best,” he added. “I have seen a lot of good players. I’ve coached a lot … but the best is Messi.”
Talking about Messi’s flawless showing in the first leg of Liverpool’s Champions League semifinal at Camp Nou, where the 31-year-old wrote headlines around the world for an outrageous free kick struck in the 82nd minute, Klopp told the BBC that it was in these moments that Messi is “unstoppable.”
Apart from Klopp, the controversial Olympique Marseille striker Mario Balotelli has said that Messi can no longer be compared to Ronaldo and the Barca legend is now in a league of his own.
“For the love of football, please do not compare him to the no.7 of Juventus anymore,” Balotelli said, according to Goal.com.
And finally, the AS Monaco midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who used to play alongside Messi in the Barcelona team from 2011 to 2014, wrote on Twitter that it is “impossible for someone to tell me there’s someone better than him.”