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#3 Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Lionel Messi is the greatest club footballer of all time, without any doubt. In 14 years with the Barcelona senior team, he has won 9 La Liga and 4 UEFA Champions League titles. His 552 goals in 636 games and numerous assists for Barcelona have won him the Ballon d’Or 5 times.
Messi has all the necessary attacking skills in abundance. His dribbling, passing, and shooting are exceptionally good. He can score and set up goals almost at will and like all genuine greats performs in the big matches. His record 26 goals against Real Madrid and performances against Manchester United in 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals are a testimony to those facts.
Messi was discovered as a kid by Barcelona scouts and his talent was honed at La Masia, Barcelona’s academy. As a result, a lot of people allege that Messi saves his best for Barcelona and not for the Argentine national team. However, such complaints are baseless as they tend to ignore his 61 goals and numerous assists in 123 matches for his country.
Moreover, Messi usually plays in a more withdrawn position for Argentina and concentrates more on creating. Otherwise, he would have been able to score more goals for his national side.
He dragged Argentina to the final of the World Cup in 2014 and also to 2 Copa America finals in 2015 and 2016. However, Argentina lost each of those 3 final matches and subsequently, Messi retired from international football in 2016.
His retirement caused uproar in Argentina and Messi was forced to give in to the growing public demand. He made a comeback for the national side in 2016 itself. He also scored a hat-trick in a must-win match to help Argentina qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018.
The World Cup remains an elusive dream for the Argentine genius and he would try to win amends in Russia. His position among the football immortals, however, is assured irrespective of the outcome of the World Cup.
