The Messi(ah!)

I don't really follow Spanish football, just a bit here and there but I think everyone should know who the best in the world is. The following is a snipet taken off from Phill Ball's Soccernet entry which describes it best.


'Barcelona, on the other hand, have used the period most fruitfully, stuffing everybody left, right and centre. Crisis what crisis? - whose subtext reads 'Who needs Ronaldinho?' Well, Grimsby Town for example, but let's not go down that road. Ronaldinho has at times in his Barça career appeared to be the Anointed One, particularly with all that gooey stuff glinting in his locks, but he has been supplanted by the new Messiah, as several Barça bloggers are now calling the little Argentine. It is also interesting, in this context, to see - in any given generation of footballers - how long it takes the world press to actually come out and state 'X is the best in the world'.

Several writers were on the point of saying it last season, after Messi's famous goal against Getafe enabled those easier comparisons with Maradona, but something held them back - maybe the presence of a relatively (though not entirely) untroubled Ronaldinho on the scene, and also the fact that up to then, Messi had flitted in and out of competition, gloriously at times but with that butterfly fragility that suggested that he might just not hack it physically - certainly not enough to attain the consistency that finally earns you 'the best' label.

The other 'problem' with Messi is that despite several attempts of late to make him more media-friendly, he's not exactly Mr Charisma. Nice enough guy, of course, and quite amusing when given the chance to talk, but hardly a source of witty and controversial sound-bites. And try as you might, you just can't see him emerging from the disco steps at 2.30 in the morning, nor shielding his face from the paparazzi flash-bulbs as he is caught in flagrante with some society floozie. It's just not going to happen, mainly because you know he's at home sipping his late night hot chocolate before saying good night to his mum.

Ronaldinho, of course, is/was no oil painting, but his looks are a source of comment and are a gift to in-house newspaper caricaturists far and wide. Maradona himself was hardly possessed of film-star looks, and was of similar stature to the tiny Messi, but at least with him you could depend on a decent repertoire of histrionics, illegal substances and ludicrous one-liners. Unless Messi uses his recent salary hike to employ a personal trainer cum spin-doctor, the press may continue to only consider him the best in the world if he actually plays good football. What a thing indeed!

Then again, there were times this week, against poor Zaragoza and Levante, when you were keenly aware of the fact that when Messi receives the ball in certain positions, with a certain lay-out of players, angle, distance and pitch before him, he is simply unstoppable. The proof of greatness is surely that. You just think - 'He's going to score soon', and he does.

At Levante, a side bottom of the league but not without spirit, he simply ran them ragged. Henry scored a hat-trick, but funnily enough did not play particularly well. The goals will do him good, but his first was courtesy of a shot from Messi that bounced back into his path, and the second was thanks to an excellent pass from the tiny genius. You could see the Levante players panic and lose concentration every time Messi got the ball. It's the prefect recipe for the other players in the team (Barça) to improve too, because no-one is taking any notice of them. Italian journalists said something similar when Maradona won Serie A with Napoli. Brilliant though Maradona was, it was the turbulence created in his wake that enabled the other players to shine, so preoccupied were opponents with attempting to nullify the Argentine's threat.

But in terms of individual threat, Messi's goal against Levante was particularly interesting. With the game already killed off at 0-3, Messi receives a long crossfield ball, out on the right wing. As he advances, Bruno Cirillo, Levante's Italian defender, reluctantly chooses to put up some token resistance. Knowing that he cannot jump in, because Messi will simply skip past him on either side, Cirillo jogs to goal-side of Messi, hoping to hold him on the edge of the area, until reinforcements arrive. To the left of the camera shot, they are riding in on tired horses, exhausted by the battle so far. But no-one is actually marking either Iniesta (running up in support) or Henry, peeling off again to the far post in the hope of a fourth goal for the evening. Messi, who not only has great skill but perfect vision too - makes his decision. It's almost apologetic, but he moves inside Cirillo, as if to run across him, then suddenly swivels and changes direction, so fast that the Italian, already with the weight on his wrong foot, simply stumbles. On his face you see the expression 'Damn! I knew you were going to do that, but I still couldn't stop you' (however you say that in Italian), upon which our hero skips into the penalty area, pivots on his right foot and sends the ball swerving low across the Levante keeper with his left - plop into the net - exactly as you had suspected he would.

That's the beauty of greatness. You can see what the anointed ones are probably going to do, and lo and behold they do it - but as Cirillo would no doubt remark - there's no solution to the problem. Kick him? Well you can try, but for most of the fifty-one minutes Messi was on the pitch, he was simply too fast for anyone to even foul him.

And as final proof of the pudding of greatness, the Levante supporters rose to applaud him as was taken off by Rijkaard, presumably to save his legs for the Champions League this week. That doesn't often happen in La Liga. So by the way, Messi is the best in the world.'


All hail The Messiah!