Translated material
Messi plays against Pele
Comparing masters of different times in team sports, including football, is possible only with a large degree of convention. The level, speed and style of play changes. New roles appear and old ones die off. It is incorrect to compare a goalkeeper with a center forward or full-back. Nevertheless, journalists and the fans themselves still make such comparisons. Moreover, it is clear that due to the very nature of football, goalkeepers and defenders in this correspondence competition have no chance of defeating scorers: goals are remembered more than saves or tackles.
For more than four decades, the Brazilian striker Pele has been secretly considered the “king of football”. At various times after Pele left the Brazilian national team, and then from big football, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Diego Maradona, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo encroached on the “royal title” with their outstanding play. But only Maradona could really be compared with Pele, and for the majority of fans, the Brazilian still defeated the Argentine in this correspondence dispute. Pele has three world champion titles against Maradona's one, more goals scored and even, perhaps, his much more sympathetic human qualities than the current coach of the Argentina national team.
Lionel Messi has managed to become a very special footballer in an outstanding team, which Barcelona undoubtedly is. Moreover, he did this in an era when the formula “one man in the field is no warrior” is perhaps more relevant for football than ever before. Making two hat-tricks in a row and scoring nine goals in a row for your team in the Spanish Championship, hitting the goal of a top-level club (London Arsenal) four times in the quarter-final match of the Champions League are incredible achievements. In his style of play and dribbling, baby Messi is very similar to the legendary Brazilian forward Garrincha. Only, unlike the Brazilian, Messi, in an incomprehensible way for the opposing defenders, changes the direction of movement with the ball not in one direction (Garrincha was a player of one feint), but in all directions. In addition, Messi is good not only as a scorer, but also as an organizer of the game - with Barcelona having an outstanding playmaker Xavi and a host of other players capable of providing assists, Lionel remains one of the key designers of attacks.
To topple Pele, Messi is still missing two things: a world title, as Argentina has the potential to win it, and current stability for at least another three or four seasons. After all, before our eyes is a fresh example of Ronaldinho, who five years ago as part of Barcelona also showed cosmic football, but, having won all possible club titles with the team, clearly lost the motivation to continue the concert. And it hasn’t been able to return to its previous level for three seasons now. And given his age (Ronnie is already 30), most likely he will never return.
Messi, of course, is still very young, but so far he has not been able to realize even a tenth of his potential in matches for the Argentina national team. Moreover, in the final match of the last Copa America with the Brazilians, Messi’s main match for the national team so far, he was not visible on the field at all, and Brazil then won 3:0. In this sense, the World Cup in South Africa may become decisive for Lionel’s “royal” status. In terms of club titles and personal abilities, he has clearly become for the Argentina national team what Maradona once was. But now there is a special demand from him: the failure of the Argentines in South Africa will be, first of all, the failure of Messi, no matter how he plays.
In any case, from the outside it is incredibly interesting to watch an athlete who has a real chance to be the best in the history of his sport. So Lionel Messi is now becoming something like Michael Phelps in swimming or Usain Bolt in sprinting. A man whose skill practically deprives himself of the chance of defeat. If Lionel copes with this burden in the next couple of years, the invincible force of popular rumor and memory will elevate him to the football throne. If not, he will remain “just” one of the greatest football players in the world. Lionel Andres Messi, who will only turn 23 on June 24, has already played enough to be included in some of the top 10 football players of all time.