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Undoubtedly, the emergence of Lionel Messi at Barcelona almost two decades ago wholly altered the history of football forever. The diminutive Argentine playmaker-cum-forward has had quite a career in Europe, winning a record number of Ballon d'Or awards and claiming the European Golden Shoe six times.
Lionel Messi has struck up quite a rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo, with both men dominating the Ballon d'Or discourse since 2009. Messi's talent has been praised several times by his coaches and opposition coaches, as well as other football experts around the world.
Here is a list of five opposition managers who have at one time or another praised Lionel Messi in his career:
#5 Diego Simeone
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is one who knows all about facing Lionel Messi. Despite being from the same country, Messi showed no mercy whenever he faced Atletico Madrid.
Messi scored 32 goals in 43 appearances against Atleti during his time in Spain, with Simeone in charge for 31 of those games. Simeone once said he could not celebrate after his side opened the scoring against Barcelona during the 2015-16 season because he saw Lionel Messi warm up on the sidelines. Messi came on and scored the winner within minutes of his introduction.
Simeone has praised his countryman several times and was quoted on one such occasion in 2015. The former Argentina international told TyC Sports:
"Messi is the number one. In recent years there has not been any player who has come close to Messi. Messi has played in four Champions League finals and won them all. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think anyone else has."
#4 Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is another opposition manager who has praised Messi when given the opportunity.
Lionel Messi and Klopp have locked horns only twice in the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League season. Notably, Messi scored twice in a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou. However, Liverpool famously went through after they won the second leg 4-0.
The German coach clearly rates the Argentine legend very highly and speaks about him with great respect and admiration. When asked to pick between the Argentine and Cristiano Ronaldo, this was Klopp's response:
"Messi has much lower physical requirements from birth on. If you could paint yourself a perfect player, it would have Ronaldo's height, he could jump and run as high or quick as Ronaldo can do. And what is then even added to that is his total attitude, it is absolutely perfect and professional, it couldn't be any better.
"And on the other side there is the small Messi who makes everything look so simple. And therefore I like him maybe a little bit more as a player on the pitch. But Cristiano is also an absolutely incredible player."
Clearly, Klopp is a big fan!
#3 Arsene Wenger
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is one who came agonizingly close to signing Lionel Messi as an up-and-coming youngster at FC Barcelona.
The Frenchman was made to face Messi once the Argentinean came of age, and the forward had a couple of terrific performances against Wenger's Gunners. Messi faced Arsenal six times for Barcelona and scored nine goals in those matches, including a four-goal haul in a 4-1 win at the Nou Camp back in 2010.
Despite having managed a host of legendary footballers, Wenger was of the opinion that Lionel Messi was the greatest football player ever to grace a pitch, and he made his opinion known clearly:
"The best player I have ever seen. You always expect something special, and I must say he never disappoints you!"
" He's not an athlete he's an artist!"
#2 Jose Mourinho
Current AS Roma manager Jose Mourinho has faced Lionel Messi on many occasions in his spells as manager of different clubs in Europe. Mourinho faced Messi as coach of Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan in the league and UEFA Champions League.
The Portuguese manager credits Messi with making him a better manager because he had to dedicate special tactics to nullify the threat of the diminutive Argentine player.
Mourinho extolled the virtues of Lionel Messi when he acted as a pundit for BeIN Sports during the Barcelona vs Liverpool match in the 2018-19 season. The Portuguese referred to him as a "genius" and spoke glowingly of Messi for almost four minutes:
"What I can analyse is what I see, and what I see is a player that, during his career, went through a process and that process was always based on according to his qualities, how can he give the most to the team."
"I played against him when I was in Chelsea, I played against him when I was at Inter and then I (went to) Madrid and I (was) in Madrid for three years so I played against him many times when he was coached by different managers in different positions on the pitch, and the only thing I can say is that progressively he was always better and better."
#1 Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson is arguably the greatest football manager of all time, and the former Manchester United boss was someone who did not hide his admiration for Lionel Messi.
Sir Alex led Manchester United to four UEFA Champions League finals and won two of them. The other two were against FC Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, and Messi scored both times as Barcelona defeated Manchester United.
He said that Messi could be mentioned in the same breath as the greats of the 20th century such as Pele and Diego Maradona for his ability to influence games:
“Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff because they are all great players. Lionel Messi without question fits into that category.”
That's some compliment!
