English football great and ex-Barca striker Gary Lineker’s tweet has sparked a fresh ‘Mirror mirror on the ball, who’s the greatest of them all’ debate among claimants to football’s crown. On the eve of the Champions League final (Barcelona vs Juventus on Saturday night), t2 lines up its five-a-side teams and leaves it to you to pick the right one for the throne of games!

5 REASONS WHY MESSI IS THE GREATEST…  (EVER)

1. Quantity+Quality = Complete Footballer
Lionel Messi has been doing what Lionel Messi does best for a good decade now — enthral football fans. And how does he do that? With a sublime combo of skill and speed. He fools defenders for fun, dodges past them, feints past them, nutmegs them, races past them, and... scores.

Goal after goal after goal after.... Week in, week out. Season in, season out. A staggering 412 goals in all competitions for Barcelona in 11 seasons. And that after scoring only 26 in his first three years. What also sets the number 10 apart is his contribution to the team and the game. His assists, passing accuracy, pace and creativity have combined to elevate him to the status of not just a goal machine but also a complete attacking footballer. 

2. The sheer weight of numbers
There are two kinds of human beings on this planet. Those who think Lionel Messi is the greatest and those who do not. There is a third kind now, those who think Messi is an alien from another planet.

Those who swear by the little Argentine’s genius have a library full of statistics to back their claim. Each stat more lethal than the other.  To sample a few of his world records, Messi has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or four consecutive times (2009-12), has recorded the highest number of goals in a single calendar year at 96 (2012), and is the all-time leading goal scorer in La Liga with 286 strikes. 

3. Scores wonder goals for fun
Scoring an obscene number of goals may make Messi a great player but scoring them the way he does makes Messi the greatest. Take his latest wonder goal against Athletic Bilbao — going on a mazy run at full speed past defenders like they aren’t there, before shooting past the goalie. And then there was the Champions League semis when Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng ended up on his backside as Messi swerved and sped past him to, what else, score. 

4. He is still improving
Lionel Messi is 27. Now that is a number that should add perspective to Messi’s claim to the footballing ‘game of thrones’. By 25, the little master had already won four consecutive Ballon d’Ors, the highest individual honour in football. This season he’s looked sharper and hungrier than last season. Here’s hoping that his best years are still ahead of him. Can you imagine what that would mean?!

 

5. He’s just a boy having a ball 
Messi is just a boy who loves having the ball on his left foot in a game with his friends in the park. Match after match, he is out there having fun. Passing, trapping, dribbling, running, shooting, scoring... and then smiling that smile, and enjoying the moment with his mates. If football is the beautiful game, Messi is the beautiful footballer.

5 REASONS WHY MESSI ISN’T THE GREATEST… (YET)

1. One trophy missing: The World Cup

Purists would argue that Messi, unlike his idol Diego Maradona, has never touched the trophy that matters the most, the FIFA World Cup. While Maradona became a superhero — and the all-time greatest for many, including our Dada (Sourav Ganguly) — by scoring the greatest solo goal ever on his way to taking Argentina to the Cup in 1986, Messi stumbled at the final hurdle in 2014. 

The Argentine ace may have 22 shining pieces of silverware and a gazillion individual honours including seven La Liga titles and three Champions League trophies (till today) but he still has that one empty spot in his cabinet. And a man called Edson Arantes do Nascimento had three of them...

2. Pele the Great

... And that brings us to Pele. Try telling anyone who played with or against the Brazilian that M or M — Maradona or Messi — is better, and be ready for a sliding tackle. For a generation and more, Pele is football’s Don Bradman. The Greatest. Period. End of argument.

3. Senor Cristiano Ronaldo 

The CR7 fan club will simply say how can Messi be the best ever when he’s not even the best now. Officially, that is. The Ballon d’Or crown, after all, rests on the Real Madrid man’s head (which is six inches above Messi’s and so is used regularly to power the ball into the net). He is the leading Champions League goal scorer with 78 (one more than Messi) and has worked his swag in both the Premier League (the biggest in terms of competition and commerce) as well as the La Liga. So, for fans of the two biggest clubs in the world — Real Madrid and Manchester United — CR7 scores over LM10.

4. The best midfielders behind him

Move Xavi and Andres Iniesta out of the equation and what have you got? A feeding line to Messi gone dry. Just look what happens to him when he plays for Argentina. That’s the other potshot at the little big man. So many goals scored by Messi have had the touch of Xavi or Iniesta or both. And on some of their best days, Xavi or Iniesta have been bigger match-influencers than even Messi.

5. The best attackers with him

Well, the Tiki-Taka era at Barcelona is history but Messi, obviously, is not. The new Barcelona code of conduct in attack is the MSN –– Messi, Suarez, Neymar. The trio have been ruthless this season and bulldozed their way to the La Liga and Copa del Rey titles with a cool 120 goals combined in all competitions. Messi sits at the top of the triangle with 56, but the fact is that he has two of the world’s best forwards in Neymar and Suarez with him. 

Sushovan Sircar
Is Messi the greatest ever? 
Tell t2@abp.in