The title says it all,

who do u think is the best football player from these two,

big argument with my friend that thinks messi is so amazing and i disagree due to the fact that he only scores as many goals as he does as he has the likes of iniesta and xavi and all these other decent players around him,

i think that if messi moved to the premier league he wouldnt be half the player he is now, or even if u threw him into the mix with the real madrid squad he wouldnt score as many goals as he does,

dont get me wrong i do think he is a really good player and has some great talents but i dont think he is the greatest in my eyes.

please post opinions

I agree Tyler..

However he is still better than Ronaldo

Put him in a team like City.. and he wouldnt score half that many.. but chances of him moving from Barca ?

zilch.

Messi is class ronaldo is just quick and skill full so i think messi

First of all, I think your thought that the Premier League is somehow more difficult to score in is flawed...

Neither of them have shown any level of excellence when they are not surrounded by brilliant players or teams. Ronaldo has accomplished virtually nothing with Portugal and Messi has been poor with Argentina. Messi has been brilliant with Barcelona, Ronaldo has been brilliant with Man Utd. and Real. So no difference in my eyes there.

Either way, I think both are prolific goalscorers and both have skills that the other doesn't. Messi is a better creator, Ronaldo is much better in the air. etc, etc....

I would take either one in my team, preferably both.

i do think it is a lot more harder to score in the premier league tbh, i mean the spanish league is like mickey mouse football tbh, look at real and barca there roughly 30 points ahead of everyone else in the league!

Micky mouse football? Their 7th place team completely did our 1st placed team twice!

That's because real and barca are that good.

As alex said, look at the lower spanish teams' results in Europe this season...

I'm not sure. I'm guna say out of those 2, Alan Smith is the best.

The argument is now mute really. Messi is superior to any player to have ever played the game.

Ronaldo has good attributes, if you could throw in LIonels brain he'd be unplayable.

As it is he still thinks himself as the main part of the team. If he ever develops a footballing brain he'd be a lot better off.

Only so many times you can shoot from 25 yards and hit the defender and fail to think of an alternative.

Basically he is an amazing Ballotelli.

This makes me laugh.

Such a poor attitude to have. Oh Sky told me the Premier League was the best, so it must be!

I've said this for years but no, is it heck!

The Spanish league despite being dominated by Barca and Real is a much better standard than the Prem.

The only people that think La Liga is "mickey mouse" are those who don't watch it!

The clue to it all lies in who is winning all the honours. Champions Leagues, World Cups, Euro Cups, Europa Leagues, U21 European Cups.

It's Spain footballers.

The 4 best players in the world? Playing in Spain.

I disagree that Messi is the best ever, but like the rest of all that.

Until Messi can do it in World Cups, he won't be the best for me, regardless of what he can do with Barcelona. It's not as if Argentina are a terrible side that he has no chance of succeeding with...

Messi.

Messi! Give Ronaldo another 5 year's atleast...then he will be comparable

lol too bad Ronaldo is 2 years older than Messi.....

Their goal-scoring abilities are equal in my opinion, but it's the other things that set them apart at the moment.

On the other hand, a lot of the anti-Ronaldo sentiment simply stems from the fact that he made a few enemies in England and looks and talks like an arrogant douchebag. So people (especially in England) are naturally inclined to be anti-Ronaldo rather than anti-Messi.

Ahh my facebook row.

Fillipo Inzaghi... Wikipedia the guy.

His statistics are incredible. He is the second highest European scorer (only recently taken over by Raul).

He has an incredible goal/game ratio.

He has Serie A top scorer

Won Champions leagues galore, Serie A titles, Copa Italia.

Pound for pound he can match anyone.

So lets compare Inzaghi to Messi.

Very similar on paper, infact Inzaghi actually betters Messi. Even if you argued it... People like Seb who mention Messi done nothing internationally... Inzaghi won the world cup in 2006. Regularly placed in the Euros and lets face it Italy's team was weak.

So... I guess Inzaghi is better than Messi right?

Nope wrong.

Haha! Thats basically what people are saying, that people like Gilardinho and the rest of Italys 2006 team who have a world cup winner medal are better than Messi because they perfromed at Internationals?

I mean come on, doesnt this sound ridiculos?

So George Best cannot posssibly be mentioned in the mix up for best player ever. Northern Ireland? Lol.

Messi, pound for pound is the best footballer in the world and to ever exist. He is twice as good as Ronaldo who is 10x better than 3rd place in the hirachy.

If anyone really thinks Messi isnt the best player in the world then its fake and delusion. They just want to appear different to the majority.

It does, and it's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying that to be considered the best ever, you have to perform at the international stage as well, assuming you're from a country that has a chance (this excludes George Best, who is nowhere near best ever anyway).

When all is said and done, Messi might be the best ever. Nobody knows. He's done it for what- 4 or 5 years now? That's not enough to evaluate an entire career. I heard this same talk about Ronaldinho when he was at his pinnacle and the Bernabeu applauded him.

He is playing for what might be the one of the best teams to ever play the game.
The World Cup is the pinnacle of football. It may not be like this in England where you're all in love with your league (which is reflected at international level...), but everywhere else, the World Cup is quite simply the greatest event there is.
What would Pele and Maradona be without their World Cup performances? They'd be great players, but not nearly as highly rated.
Messi has shown it for his club for a few years. He needs to carry this on and then show it for his country. He has lots of time left

However -

As it showed last night, if Barcelona played a Norwich/Stoke type of English team, they would struggle.

The reason Messi can score so many is for a few simple reasons - Spanish teams dont park the bus.

Getafe, Granada, Zaragoza, Mallorca.... all the teams in Spanish football play an attractive style of OPEN play.

English prem - 7th placed onwards park the bus weak in weak out. They dont try and win games ha, they try to hold for a draw as long as possible and maybe steal a goal, which they then defend.

Athletico Bilbao were destroyed 3-0 at Home to Valencia just after they beat United.

Valencia who were no match for a really out of sorts Chelsea side. Managed a draw to a last minute penalty and lost the other meeting.

Take Barcelona, Real Madrid & possibly Athletico Madrid/Valencia out of the league, stick Spurs, Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool... in that league... The 4 English clubs would finish top 4 spots.


I will say though, Messi wouldnt outscore Ronaldo in the Premiership. Ronaldo is bigger, stronger, more physical. Aerially, defensively.

Ronnie can play lone striker, wide right, target man, along the floor, to feet...

Messi comes deep from ST to a Rooney typed CAM. You cant long ball to Messi, he is very direct.

If you take Messi out the game like Milan did, Barca are very much beatable.

Chelsea v Barca. You watch Sturridge/Ramieres batter Puyol the fill in left back. If we score, we can park up.

I know exactly what you mean.

But technically, Messi is gifted like no other player.

He is the best dribbling player ever. Shooting accuracy, turn of foot, awareness, vision, touch, control, passing...

There isnt any single player past or present who can nearly come close to his ability when considering all these things.

I do think Iniesta and Xavi are the key tool though. They all have the same vision, passing ability.

I dont think Maradona or Pele could compete at this (much more advanced) level of football.

Yes the balls are better, the ground is better... but the defending and the tactics of managers have become so much more advanced.

It use to be kick it long and 10 players run after the ball. You cant tell me otherwise.

I watched the world cup 66' 70' 78' 86'... and even in 86 the players were all over the place in a really vunerable way.

Messi would have the ball in the net before the oppositions defensive players even crossed back into their own half.

Im only 21 and watched videos of the world cups.. but there are people who have watched football progress so much and yet are so blind to see how much better Messi is. I really cannot believe it.

He has scored 8 hat tricks this season! He has outscored ENTIRE teams lol. He has achieved so much.

You can't judge a player to be the greatest ever before he completes his career, especially when he's at a young age and hasn't made the difference in any World Cup so far. For me this thread is pointless, because Messi is without doubt the best football player in the world and Ronaldo is an awesome player, but cannot even compare with him.

Messi has the potential to become one of the best players ever to play football, but for the time being I can think of a lot of players who are higher than him on the list, Maradona, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Garrincha, Zidane to name a few. All these legends might be struggling today, because football has changed a lot, but so would today's players in old style matches.

For best dribbling player ever my vote goes to Johann Cruyff, the second vote might go to Messi.

We have to wait few more years before we dub a player the best ever imo.

When talking about Messi however you do have to pay homage to 2 of the greatest midfielders of all time.

Xavi and Iniesta.

Maestros.