sayso: what a legend in his own sport
Messi is the king of football

...and his wife, the queen.

Lionel Messi: Gerd Mueller praises
forward for goals record

Gerd Mueller has paid tribute to Lionel Messi for breaking his record of most goals in a calendar year.

Mueller scored 85 times for Bayern Munich and West Germany in 1972 but Messi has eclipsed that with 86 goals for Barcelona and Argentina in 2012.

"My record stood for 40 years - 85 goals in 60 games. Now the best player in the world has broken it," Mueller told German newspaper [url]Sport1.de[/url]

"I'm delighted for him. He is an incredible player, gigantic."

Former striker Mueller was 27 when he scored 72 for Bayern Munich and 13 for West Germany, setting the previous record.

Three-time World Player of the Year Messi, 25, has two league matches and one King's Cup tie to add to his total before the end of the year.

"He's such a nice and modest professional and I hope he gets one or two more goals in 2012 and that he can then hold on to the record for the next 40 years," added Mueller.

"He's fantastic. He only has one defect and that is that he doesn't play for Bayern Munich!"

Messi could be crowned World Player of the Year for a fourth time when the winner is announced in January,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20534947
with Barcelona team-mate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo also in the running for the award.

Messi said: "I'll try to score more goals to make it more difficult for the next player that tries to break it."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20667982

With what? A mallet?

Enoyoh: in 2010, Wesley Sneijder was robbed; thats why Messi got the award.
too much politics... yawn ooooooo

I am sorry to say this, it seems you have turned the FIFA World Footballer of the Year Award into Nigerian Electioneering Gimmicks, are you aware that some of the voters actually voted for your Schneider, are you aware that coaches and captains of national teams are eligible to vote and that it cannot be manipulated because it is an individual thing noyt a collective one!

jpworld: 50% of Messi's goals came through a very weak opposition, Remember, he scored 5 goals against a weak team in Champions league.

BEEF!!! DAT SAME "WEAK" TEAM DEFEATED THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS CHELSEA IN D CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.

PLS RESPECT THE GREAT [b]MESSI[/b]AH

Debroslink:

BEEF!!! DAT SAME "WEAK" TEAM DEFEATED THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS CHELSEA IN D CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.

PLS RESPECT THE GREAT [b]MESSI[/b]AH

Stop wasting your time trying to educate 'clowns who are disrespectful to the chosen one' my message to haters has always been, 'You never see anything' by the time Messi is 30 then come check his records whether you people no go run mad finish. Bloody haters!!! Nice one jare Debroslink!!!

coogar:
yet again, you focus on goals instead of the influence they both bring to the team. maradona did not become great because he could score 1000 goals in 20 games - this is why i said we are stat machines in the modern era. if we applied this same yardstick back in the days then platini, maradona, nedved, zidane, kaka, ronaldinho would never smell any award. in those days, influence to the team was more regarded than the sheer number of goals!

I completely agree with you that footballers should be judged on their influence more than mere goals except if the number of goals is sub-human.

But the issue there is that barcelona happens to have a team setting and a group of fantastic 3 (Messi, Iniesta and Xavi). Not one single player missing from these 3 can have too much impact on the team because it is all about team work and those are the best 3. Maradona played in a team where he was the central figure amongst good players just like Henry was in Arsenal. Messi will never get that chance because he is playing in the best team in the world, with some of the best players and in a team with an emphasis on total team work. When Maradona played in Barcelona he was not a God too. He was a star playing in a team.

As per national team, Messi somehow has not replicated that influence Maradona had. He just does not have that personality, even CR has more of that personality than him.

coogar:
how many participating countries in 58 had a 17 yr old striker leading them out? lets be honest, pele's achievements in 58 was peerless although he had a super creative force behind him to score those goals!

The more critical issue is: how many countries were participating?

It was a small sports event then with many part-time players playing in the WC.

coogar:
kaka, nedved, zidane, platini, rivaldo, shevchenko - none of these players is a goal machine!

Those are mostly all recent players and apart from Nedved, those guys were goal machines when they got recognised.

The midfield ones usually scored more goals than most strikers when they got recognised.

coogar:
they told us about the moments of brilliance.
it was about the moments the goals were scored - a player could score 20 goals against zaragoza and it won't mean shyte but another striker chooses his moments. a match destined for draw and then in the 90th minute, cometh the hour - cometh the man! that was what made kanu an african legend in 96.



they were a quartet then according to radio commentary...
whenever you hear didi-vava-garrincha-pele, the next word is goalllllllllll!

When I talk about the past, I am talking about the Pele era when most cannot see football matches and only heard news reports. (pre-1980s)

Garri-who? Didi?

Most, bar brazilians, would not be able to recall some of these guys bar Pele because football was not in the spotlight like now.

At the moment, I can even list at least 7 players of both Man U and Bayern of the 1999 CL final or 11 players of the early 2000s Arsenal team.

Back in the day, all I would have heard, and appoint glory to, was "who scored the most goals" .....................Pele!!!

coogar:
but that was the era of 5 defenders - they had what they called "the last man" then or a number 5 whose mission is to break as many legs as possible. i actually think there were many quality players back then. you need to watch the 1970 world cup clips and see the quality of the goals scored - they are far better than the goal mouth scramble these days.

Yes, but I still think it was still easier for a striker to score back then as he can always stay close to the goal scoring area hence they worked less and had more chances while the defender is working hard to cover the large space to stop them.

coogar:
how many goals did sneijder score against barcelona in the semis? how many did messi score? how many goals did sneijder score @ the world cup as a support striker, how many did messi? sneijder was the heart and soul of the 2 teams he played for that year. he won the treble for inter milan and had robben not brainfarted - holland would have won the world cup!

I would not use one game to judge one player against the other.

I really think if Sneijder was the heart and soul of his teams, many would have noticed and he will be in the top 10. We are talking about Inter and Holland here, not West Ham and Croatia. They are big teams in the spotlight. If a player is a stand-out in them, he would be noticed just the way Drogba stands out in Chelsea or Gerrard in Liverpool or Pirlo in Italy.

coogar:
xaviesta had won the champions league in 06 and 09 before these names joined barcelona.

Nah! I was talking about how those players were from La Masia and play with Xaviesta in the national team hence why Xaviesta can play their barca football and win things. Messi does not have this benefit with Argentina.

coogar:
maybe maybe not - we would never know....
the only thing we know is maradona's team mates in 86 are not as good as what messi has had at his disposal. if maradona could drag argentina to 2 world cup finals back to back, why can't messi?

Personality, not lack of ability or contribution.

Messi is not a leader by any stretch of the word.

coogar:
but maradona never used this excuse - Italian style at napoli was different to the style argentina played between 1985 and 1990.

He was fulcrum at Napoli and Argentina. He could play his style at both and his team-mates knew the style.

Messi does not have that benefit, yet is performing in the Argentine team. Most people think because Argentina is not winning anything Messi has not done anything. He is the 4th highest goalscorer for Argentina of all time now and is only 3 goals away from Maradona's goals at the age of 25.

coogar:
he is a false 9 or 9 and a half. baggio is a 10!
messi played closer to the opponents goal than baggio. baggio had schillaci ahead of him to do the scoring. messi has no one @ barcelona ahead of him!

Baggio was a support striker most times. Messi shares the front with Pedro, that Chilean and Villa where it is all about movement (even helping with defending), not playing out and out striker.

coogar:
goals win matches - if messi was scoring at the vital moments, argentina would have won more. it's increasingly becoming evident that messi is crap for his country. look at fat ronaldo - he bossed everywhere he played(brazil, inter, madrid, psv). zidane, ronaldinho, xavi and iniesta too. why can't messi?

in the last copa in his home soil, argentina played against a 10-man uruguayan team for almost 80 mins(including extra time) and yet messi's team lost on their home soil!

He has scored almost the same amount of goals as Maradona at 25. He has a better scoring ratio, so whether he is scoring at vital moments is not the issue. The issue is the defending.

coogar:
messi has aguero and tevez to pass to him too - what has he done with the passes?

They don't play for Barca, they are not from La Masia, I don't think they would understand the passing game that much. Man city does not play that.

coogar:
messi has not outscored ronaldo if you take the goals in spain into consideration.

Which Ronaldo? Fat or prettyboy?

coogar:
we are splitting hair here - that's not the same thing!

I agree it is not the same thing but it is really the same thing.

Per 0.02 matches? Come on! That ratio can change next weekend.

At least let it be per 0.2 matches.

coogar:
he has - at least in south american competitions if winning the world cup is a huge task

Don't underestimate South American football. There is always 4 strong teams there that can beat each other:

Brazil, Argentina and any 2 current teams. The first 2 are virtually permanent but from time to time other nations there build strong teams that can beat them.

You would be surprised Maradona did not win the Copa America in his lifetime. Not even when it was on home soil one year after winning the WC.

It is football, shyt happens.

coogar:
the advantage he has is huge.
cristiano is the only non-barcelona player that is in the top 5 players in the world today. others would be messi, xavi, iniesta and villa!

But Ozil and Alonso dey enter top 10 na.

coogar:
messi is not better than ronaldo - the 2 of them have equal greatness overall! if you see any slight difference it's because of the difference in quality in the teams they play for. i asked a question you smartly dodged. if messi and yakubu swap teams, whose team would win?

I no see you question before?

Obviously Barcelona.

coogar:
but these players are the reason their respective countries outperformed messi's argentina!

Or you could say, the team mates of Messi are the reason these countries outperformed Argentina.

femliany: John Terry. Sleeping with another man's wife

hahahahahaahha. And asley cole always in d strip club

Donalð Genes:
objection plss,messi can n'ver be the 'GOAT'when he is yet to smell that elusive world cup or european cup,all the best players have carried but why is messi own difft,let him leave barca and qo test himself with other clubs just like Ronaldo,zidane,pele,figo,Ronaldinho did,his sojourn with barca is lonq over due,am not saying he is not good but let him at least try other climes lets see how good he still will be,Ronaldo has done that,from Man utd to real and still doing what he knows best,#just facts#

Ronaldo joined madrid wit playrs like kaka, alonso, benzema,aberloa, di maria, ozil, khedira, calvaho,sahin,contrao,too many tae mention. Buy messi n oda stars away n c wsup

So many embarrasing comments from football fans so called. Well iam very pleased that we are comparing messi,maradona,pele,muller. At least its a testament to the fact that ronaldo does not belong into messi's sentence and that messi has put a nail in his coffin. As usual the bl00dy haters would compare messi with c ronaldo, maradona,pele, the real ronaldo all at the same fvcking time. Haters can bring all sorts of petty arguments like xavi and iniesta sh1t,argentina sh1t, among others but the fact remains that whenever there is a debate about the greatest footballer of all time, pele will be mentioned, maradona will be mentioned,lionel messi will be mentioned like pie equals 3.142.meSsi aint leaving barca,messi aint winning no fvcking world cup.but his name would always be one of the first 3 to pop up when we argue about the greatest footballer in history. Haters keep hating.

Coogar u 2 dey lie.Lie and ignorance full ur post.Messi is just one goal short of maradona's goal record at international record and he's still 25.Maradona's total goals at club level was just 186 i think but messi has close to 300 at age 25.How dare you compare Napoli with R.zaragoza;Napoli were as strong as the current Man u and they had stars apart from maradona.
What pple don't understand is that messi is responsible for xavi and iniesta's stardom: only when a striker shines at a club dat's when midfielders receive praises.Xavi and iniesta has been playing with the samd pattern 4 yrs before messi came into d team but when messi rose to stardom,thus leading barca to sucess,pple started praising xavi at the latter stage of his career.Take a luk at Cr7's man u,when he was there pple praised scholes carrick and co because of d amt of goals their attackers scored,but whe cr7 left and d goals dried up,so did their careers but if u still luk at their(scholes and carrick) style of play,it's still the same

nipeks001: [b]Coogar u 2 dey lie.Lie and ignorance full ur post.Messi is just one goal short of maradona's goal record at international record and he's still 25.Maradona's total goals at club level was just 186 i think but messi has close to 300 at age 25.How dare you compare Napoli with R.zaragoza;Napoli were as strong as the current Man u and they had stars apart from maradona.
What pple don't understand is that messi is responsible for xavi and iniesta's stardom: only when a striker shines at a club dat's when midfielders receive praises.Xavi and iniesta has been playing with the samd pattern 4 yrs before messi came into d team but when messi rose to stardom,thus leading barca to sucess,pple started praising xavi at the latter stage of his career.Take a luk at Cr7's man u,when he was there pple praised scholes carrick and co because of d amt of goals their attackers scored,but whe cr7 left and d goals dried up,so did their careers but if u still luk at their(scholes and carrick) style of play,it's still the same[/b]

Gbam!!!

@coogar eto neva played on the flank at barca o and messi neva got the chance to play as CF while eto was at barca.
Eto played at barca with xavi and iniesta in midfield but could not score 73 goals and 26 assist per season.
Ibrahimovic played at barca with with xavi and iniesta in midfield but was only able to score 20 something goals in a season.
THIS TELLS YOU THAT MESSI'S SUCESS IS MORE THAN XAVI AND INIESTA ON THE PITCH.

nipeks001: @coogar eto neva played on the flank at barca o and messi neva got the chance to play as CF while eto was at barca.
Eto played at barca with xavi and iniesta in midfield but could not score 73 goals and 26 assist per season.
Ibrahimovic played at barca with with xavi and iniesta in midfield but was only able to score 20 something goals in a season.
THIS TELLS YOU THAT MESSI'S SUCESS IS MORE THAN XAVI AND INIESTA ON THE PITCH.

You have time in educating haterz.. Nothin you'd say would convince them.. Crynaldo fan boiz

nipeks001: @coogar eto neva played on the flank at barca o and messi neva got the chance to play as CF while eto was at barca.
Eto played at barca with xavi and iniesta in midfield but could not score 73 goals and 26 assist per season.
Ibrahimovic played at barca with with xavi and iniesta in midfield but was only able to score 20 something goals in a season.
THIS TELLS YOU THAT MESSI'S SUCESS IS MORE THAN XAVI AND INIESTA ON THE PITCH.

How many seasons did eto play with xavi and iniesta? Not more than two seasons!

J12:

How many seasons did eto play with xavi and iniesta? Not more than two seasons!

2004 to 2009 is 2 seasons? Where were you when Math classes were being held?

Anyway to the Xavi/Iniesta "debate". It's a none-starter really. Spain won WC 2010 by single goal margins right from the 2nd round to the final. In fact, the only game they won by more than a goal margin in the entire tournament was against Honduras (2-0). No other team in history had won a WC with these tiny margins: scoring just one goal at just the right time and holding on to the lead. Even WC winning Italian squads in recent history - 1982 and 2006 scored more goals. Do you think a team with a weak defense can chalk off a series of 1-0 wins (totaling 4 or more)? Spain knew they were missing a Messi, and had to dig deep. So the defensive line of Spain deserved as much, if not more commendation than even the mid-field. Check what happened to Barca last season simply because Puyol and Pique were not fit for long stretches. All the Messi goals could neither win La Liga nor the Champions League.

So once again; teams win trophies, not individuals.

Another bit of ignorance to clear up. The Argentina of 1986 WC played a classic Italian counter-attacking style. In fact, the only difference between that team and the Italian team of 1982 was the creative genius in the middle - Maradona. So basically, Argentina played a style Maradona was familiar with in Italy and in Napoli. This was no coincidence. The team was built around Maradona and they had to play a style he was familiar with.

Luckily all the ingredients were in place - 2 World class, pacy wingers - Valdano and Burruchaga, as well as mostly home-based players who were easy to mold. The only game I remember in which this team was ever a goal down was against Italy in the group stages (which ended 1-1). In all other games, they were always ahead - one of the traits of a counter-attacking side (which also explains why El Clasicos these days have Real Madrid usually scoring the first goal if you catch my drift). A bit of side-talk, but this was the only team I remember in which the wearer of the No 1 shirt was not a goalkeeper as was customary (rather he was a forwarder/striker by the name of Sergio Almiron). I remember back in the day I had an argument that any player could wear any number he liked and somebody said only goalkeepers can wear the number 1 shirt. Well, there is no football rule to that effect.

1990 was not much different but with a slight change in personnel. And remember what I said about always being ahead in games. They lost to Cameroon simply because Cameroon scored first; as well as in the final against Germany. Once again (as was in 1986) the only team they fell behind to and still equalized was Italy. Apparently they had Italy's number.

SUMMARY: It is false to say Maradona played a different style in Napoli and Argentina. And now there is a reason the Argentine squad is being built around Messi in a style he's familiar with.

One thing though I remember most about the 1986 WC Squad of Argentina was their determination. Their will to win. I remember the Argentine defender and scorer of the first goal in the 1986 WC Final (Jose Brown) dislocating his shoulder and yet finished the game with his arm in a sling; and he prevented a goal with a scissors kick on the goal line with an arm in a sling! That's a team with character and determination. It is mostly unfair to the team to say Maradona single-handedly won the 1986 WC. He almost did, but it was still a team effort. Once again, teams win trophies, not individuals.

EDIT: Jose Brown actually tore a hole in his shirt and stuck his thumb in it. My foggy memory made me believe he had his arm in a sling. It was worse than that apparently.

jpworld: 50% of Messi's goals came through a very weak opposition, Remember, he scored 5 goals against a weak team in Champions league.

It shows u dnt know much about football.for u to play in champions league u must be a champion.dont forget that every club in champions league are the champion of the various leagues..

Actually I think too much emphasis is being placed on Xaviesta contributing to Messi's goals.

Here are all Messi's 91 goals of 2012.

I looked at it and counted the number of goals that his team mates (not only Xaviesta) had exceptional influence in making and I could not count up to 20.

When I say exceptional influence, I meant:

- where his team gave an exceptional pass that led him to be 1-on-1 with the keeper or completely free to shoot at goal in such a way any Sunday league or FGC Portharcourt player would rationally be expected to score 90% of the time.

- I included passes from club and country.

- I included passes that still had Messi doing something exceptional before scoring, like scoring with incredible lobs, dribbling the keeper or scoring from extremely tight angles.

This guy created most of his 91 goals with his own ability.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXrltgfrrqw

Sagamite: Actually I think too much emphasis is being placed on Xaviesta contributing to Messi's goals.

Here are all Messi's 91 goals of 2012.

I looked at it and counted the number of goals that his team mates (not only Xaviesta) had exceptional influence in making and I could not count up to 20.

When I say exceptional influence, I meant:

- where his team gave an exceptional pass that lead him to be 1-on-1 with the keeper or completely free to shoot at goal in such a way any Sunday league or FGC Portharcourt player would rationally be expected to score 90% of the time.

- I included passes from club and country.

- I included passes that still had Messi doing something exceptional before scoring, like scoring with incredible lobs, dribbling the keeper or scoring from extremely tight angles.

This guy created most of his 91 goals with his own ability.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXrltgfrrqw

nice 1.