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#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.
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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!
