Why Lionel Messi is the best club footballer of all time

Lionel Messi has probably done enough to be called the best club footballer of all time

When we talk about the best football players of all time, the discussion invariably ends up centering around the usual suspects. The names of Di Stefano, Maradona, Pele, Cruyff, Best and Zidane will always be bandied around and for most of them, with good reason.

At various stages of their career, there would have been a moment or two that defined the very greatness of their being on a football pitch. For example, we always think of the first goal scored against England when reminiscing about Maradona. That sweetly struck volley at Hampden Park is when Zidane enters the conversation, just like the infamous Cruyff turn.

There has been a signature that underscores their tenure at the top of the footballing tree. Yet one man stands alone. Although not a World Cup winner as yet, at club level certainly there has been no finer player in the game than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.

Success at young age and ability to reinvent himself crucial to Lionel Messi’s greatness

At just 27 years of age, Messi has already amassed an incredible seven La Ligas, three Copas del Rey, six Supercopas de Espana, four UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups for Barcelona. Not to mention four Ballon d’Ors and three European Golden shoes. The accolades can be considered a reward for the wizardry that Messi routinely performs on a football pitch week in and week out.

Taking the names mentioned previously, each had a defining position on the pitch and that is precisely where Messi differs. Out wide, centrally behind a main striker, as the main striker, or as a playmaker – Messi can play them all. And most importantly, he can do the job better than anyone else.

Nominally not a centre-forward, he has still scored the most goals in Barcelona’s history and broken the La Liga all-time record for goals. He also holds the record for goals scored in El Clasico matches against Real Madrid and is level with Cristiano Ronaldo with the most goals scored in European competition.

Given that he remains one of the smallest players on the pitch in most games, that’s actually quite the feat, and we must remember that Messi has at least three years left at the very top level, if not double that.

Messi can also lay claim to being the player with the most ever assists in La Liga too. So not only a scorer of goals, but a creator supreme as well.

Much of the focus has remained on the amount of goals he scores as being the overriding factor that determines his place at the top table, without paying appropriate homage to the other facets of his game including the amount of goals he has actually set up.

In the last five years alone for Barca, Messi has created a century of goals as well as scoring just the 294 himself. So almost 400 goals in five years have either come courtesy of his golden boots or he has had a large part to play. Those sort of numbers are insane in the modern era.

Although it has been said that Messi-dependance has largely disappeared thanks to the emergence of Neymar and Luis Suarez, it’s absolutely right to note that Messi is still the fulcrum of this particular Blaugrana variant.

Messi hungry to stay at the top, and for long

Perhaps it won’t be until he hangs up his boots that we will come to fully appreciate just exactly what it is he brings to Barcelona.

If someone had told you when Messi traded places with Deco just over a decade ago to make his debut, that by 2015, he would be a player who could dribble better than everyone else, pass better than everyone else, score and assist more than everyone else, well...you’d have paid no attention. It’s simply beyond anyone’s comprehension that one man can possess so much skill, as to render almost any defender superfluous to proceedings.

Take Athletic Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey final.

A club that has been devastated by Messi’s genius in the past put three players on him to dilute his influence on the game. What did Messi do? Tip-toe his way past all three and evade another challenge before firing home. One of the best goals of his career, but as others will have pointed out – similar in many respects to the handful of similar other “golazos” that he has scored throughout his career.

If anything, the hunger and desire now burn brighter than ever before. With longevity in the game in mind, Messi is now more studious when deciding whether to play the killer pass or to go for goal himself. He has that rare knack of always picking the right option, to the point where there is a hint of surprise if he even so much as misplaces a pass. Yes. He is that good.

No matter whether a set of defenders know exactly what Messi is going to try, he still manages to pull it off. That, ladies and gentleman, is god-given talent.

In summary, there just isn’t anyone like Lionel Messi in the game. And frankly there never has been. Not anywhere close to it either.

Go on, rack your brains. Justify to yourself that anyone of the other contenders has a legitimate claim as being better than Messi. You can’t, can you. What a shame then, that this man will only be around for a few more years before hanging up his boots.

As Martin Tyler once said....”I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again....so watch it, drink it in...”

Quite.