Football legends talk about Messi 🐐

They had already told me from the football base that an incredible Argentinian was coming. And the first time he went up to the first team, you see it differently. You see a person who dribbles, who does it very easily, who sees the game, who has an ease for one-on-one, who has personality, who has shame, who has a good shot. Leo dominates all the facets of the game and dominates them to perfection. So we are talking about the best footballer in history. I just feel that in his own eyes and his own vision, the game just slows down for him. He plays in slow-mo because it comes to him so easy and so naturally. Everyone's fast, erratic when he comes into the box. But Messi just goes, right, the ball's come here, the goalkeeper's going to go that way, so I'll go that way. Puts it in and makes Courtois look silly, really, with a great finish. It is great to watch from on high to see how he does it because he's remarkable, isn't he? I always said that Messi has some talent that no one has. I mean, he has the ball and his speed, controlling the ball, and the ball doesn't go two metres far from his foot. It's always there. It's impossible to catch him. This talent, I didn't see to anyone. Messi was the favourite. What do you think of him as a player? Incredible, honestly, an absolute nightmare to play against, I must say. Thankfully, I don't have to play against him every week, but honestly, he's got some amazing ability. The things he can do with the ball, there's only one or two players in the world who can do it. Rightly so, he deserves it, and good luck to him. When Messi has the ball, 1-1-1, you are dead. When we play him, you notice what a player he is. There's not many situations where you come off the pitch and you go... We talk like children. I know, we're not in awe of him, but you've just got to be honest. You just see the guy wandering around, totally oblivious to the game sometimes, and then all of a sudden, bang, just... And he's creating something, or he's scoring. You know the usual, OK, I do a foul on you. The bosses sometimes don't call the fouls in training. And you'll usually turn and go, that's not a foul. Now it's not a foul. And you're like, how come it's not a foul? Now it's not a foul, play on. I mean, I've never seen that before. He will go like, what, it's not a foul? We're playing like a 7v7. It's not that short, like kind of an alpha line to the goal line. He will run. From that discussion, he will run. Go to the goalkeeper and say, give me the ball. Like in school. Give me the ball. Meanwhile, this is Barcelona's training. So if he has to go all the way, he has to pass Javier Turre, eventually, or Busquets, or Puyol, or Rafa Marquez, whoever is playing. For the team. This is a 1-0. I don't know a lot of people that can do that. He's doing things which, in my eyes anyway, Messi is the best ever. Who's the best player in the world? You mean Messi? Who's the best player of all time? Lionel Messi. I think Leo is a fantastic player. I mean, everybody that looks football, or even though don't understand nothing about football, he will say Messi is a fantastic player. Everyone has his opinion, but nobody can doubt that he is there with the greatest all the time. For me, I said many times, I've been the... He's the best. The best is Messi. Messi is number 9, number 10, number 11, number 7, number 6, number 5, number 4. I'll tell you, a long time ago, Barcelona came to Los Angeles. Ronaldinho was a friend of mine. I was there talking to Ronaldinho, and Ronaldinho said, Kobe, look, I'm going to introduce you. Introduce. The best player of all time. You? You're the best? He said, no, no, no. I'm here, I'm going to be the best. I was Lionel Messi. I was only 17 years old. A little boy. What do you think about Messi? Do you think he's possibly the best player of all time? Yes, in the last couple of years. He's a phenomenon with quality. Apart from all his goals, and even for a striker who isn't the primary striker, you can even call him a very offensive attacking midfielder. But what impresses me is how he dribbles the ball, so close to his feet, in a way that the ball never seems to leave his feet, and never gives the defenders a chance to take the ball away from him. He's a genius. He's a magician on that pitch. He can do special things with the football, and he certainly deserves his award. I'm really pleased for him. The first training session we had with Leo, I was playing a bit more of a defensive midfielder, and we were doing this exercise of one against one. In my head, I'm thinking that I'm going to get the ball easy from him, because I like to go on the floor, and I like to tackle. But then I was seeing that he was coming with... The speed was not normal. He was coming very, very fast at me. And I was already shocked, because I remember falling on the floor. I lost stability, and he scored the goal. So from that moment, I said, hold on a second, we need to take this boy very, very seriously. When he was allowed that freedom to be able to move the pop-up anywhere and surprise you, it was unplayable. Like, ridiculous. They took our soul. And Messi was the main ingredient. He was the player that I was meant to be able to get up against. He just played away from you, and then all of a sudden he'd turn up, bang, he's there. Primetime Lionel Messi. Unplayable. Just a wonderful footballer, man. You can't put it into words how good he is. If, let's just say, Messi makes a mistake, are you telling Messi that's a mistake, bro? First of all, he doesn't make a mistake. We used to shoot after practice, shooting from the outside box, you know? So we used to shoot, bro, 100 shots, 98 goals. But I'm telling you, it's not normal. Top bins, bang, against Ter Stegen. And I told him in Germany, come on, man, what's wrong? He said, I can't. The perfect pace, right in the corner, next to the post, every time, when he missed, we thought he's sick, like he has fever. We said, everything okay? He never missed. It's unbelievable. And normally, out of three, you score one, and then the story can be a different one. But that, that God of football made it, made it completely different. And, of course, they have a good team. Of course, they have phenomenal players. But that player is absolutely incredible. Toughest player you've played against anywhere, anytime? Messi. Arguably the best player in the history of football, in my opinion. Who's your, like, the football player that you enjoy most watching nowadays? It has to be Messi. I love Leo, for many different reasons. I love him because he's a great father. I love him because he's a great personality, a character. He's a great person. But I think what everybody loves about him is the way he plays the game. You know, he plays the game with passion. He plays the game just free, you know, the way he plays. And I think this past World Cup again, you know, I think the way he played for his team, for his country, and to win that World Cup was an incredible moment for him. And I love watching players like him. Okay. And is he the best player of all history? I don't know. You know, I think that, obviously, you look back at the great players of the game over the years, from Pelé to Maradona to, obviously, Leo and Cristiano over the years, you know, what I would say is, you know, what Leo has achieved has been amazing. And to finish his glittering career off with a World Cup, which, by the way, his career's not finished yet, so he'll continue to play for quite a few years on from now. But, you know, he's definitely one of the greatest players of all time. The position of number 10, anyway, what he has to have is a bit of magic, like you, like you, you know? Because he's the team leader, and the team leader has to create, has to... It's what you had, and what you have, different from the others, is what you see before the others. Number 10 has to do that. I was a second. Or you were three, before. Three seconds before the others. I was one. As players, you want to play against the best players in the world, and Messi is certainly that. So, yeah, he's a fantastic player, and I'm sure we'll do our best to stop him from adding to that record in England. Leo is an extraordinary player, in every aspect. He has an extraordinary quality, that, let's say, I have the chance to play, or I had the chance to play with the other four, but Leo is different from all of them. For me, Leo is the best in the world, honestly. Messi, every time he speaks, he always says, Neymar, come back here, come back to Barcelona. I'd like to know how you face that. It's hard. To be honest, it's very hard. Because... Leo was a... a very special guy for me in Barcelona. I tell this story to everyone. The moment I needed the most support, the man of the team, the best in the world, came to me and gave me a hand. He said, it has to be you. You're happy. You're in my heart. My father always said it's Pelé. I didn't see Pelé live, I'm too young for that. But, yeah, there are a lot of good players around. That's my ranking. Leo is, for me, the best. We are talking about the best player in the world, and Messi has the capacity to solve the situation and to create a chance when you are not seeing the chance to score. Messi is very good, but he's good because he's accompanied by extraordinary players. If I had to choose between Messi and Ronaldo, I would choose Messi, for sure. I have no doubt. Yes, I said it in the video. The explanation was... a message I sent to Germán Burgos. We were talking about football, like anyone talks to anyone. And when he was talking about Messi and Ronaldo, he wasn't talking about who is the best in the world. If you had money to buy a footballer in a normal team, Ronaldo would probably fit better. Now, in a very important team, Messi is probably better than Ronaldo. I think Messi is one of a kind. What he's doing... I don't know if we will see another player do the things that he does, because he has his way of playing, the style, and to become that player... I don't think it's possible. That's why I say he's one of a kind. I had the luck that I saw him every day, and I saw what he was doing every day. I mean, I said it before, it's like playing PlayStation. You give the ball to the guy and you start to go through every player. That's who Messi is. And I think we should be appreciating, especially Argentina should appreciate that they have a player like that, and they should enjoy him while he's playing. Do you know why Messi is the best player I've ever seen in my life? Because he's a competitor, he's an animal. And now, we pass the ball and we take a look. When you pass the ball, attack them. You have to score the goals, guys. Messi passes the ball and you go to the machine, smell the goal. He's one of, if not the best player in the world, ever. He'll be in the conversation when you're talking about the best players to ever play football, so... He's someone, I think, there's no individual that can deal with him. It's a team effort. You've got to have two and three players around to stop him. Stop him getting the ball. Put people around him, stop the ball coming into him. And then when he gets the ball, then you've got to have people that are on him. When I was in Chelsea, I played against him when I was in Inter. Then I go to Madrid, and I am 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 and better. For me, genius, I think is the word that you choose. And I think the word is correct. Genius. Inevitably, Messi, every time you turn the TV on, he scores two goals standard at the moment. It's good that he hasn't scored against us. We pride ourselves on being a strong team. And when we played Barcelona before, I think we've caused them difficulties. But with Messi, I think statistics and history go out the window, the way he's playing. In his moments, he's unstoppable, obviously. We couldn't defend the free kick. What a strike. And he's a world-class player. He's outstanding. I think Messi is the best player in the world. I think he deserves it, as long as he plays. So the Ballon d'Or is not something I'm definitely thinking of. But if it happens by any chance, then obviously I will take it. But I don't think there's any case. I think he's still the best player in the world. It doesn't matter if he's not in the Champions League final. I remember watching Messi training. Everybody was talking about him, the new kid, back then. He showed that he was going to have a great future. For me, it was a joy to have played with him and to see the history that he's making. It's easy to play with Lionel Messi. He's the best player in the world. He won the Ballon d'Or a few days ago. He scored two goals today. He's happy. I hope he will help us in the future. I would be happy if he would play. Of course, everyone knows that he and Lionel Messi are even stronger, because he's the best player in the world. He has skills that hardly anyone else has. When you're playing football, you want to play against the best team in the world, against the best player in the world. Messi is the best player in the world. Messi. Lionel Messi. Why? Because I think he has very special skills. His talent, but also how he manages to do it every time, to do it on the pitch, to have the feeling to always make the right decisions, the pace with which he plays his opponents, the finish. I think everything is paired in one. No one has a quality like Lionel Messi. For my time now, for my generation, he's the greatest footballer of all time. I didn't play against Messi, because he was injured. Thanks God he was injured. You were lucky. No, no. I was lucky. Messi. Not much needs to be said about him. Best player ever. It's a pleasure to watch him, watch him play all the time. So yeah, I have to see him. See that goal the other night. Yeah. It's just magical watching him. Even as he's getting older, it's still magic to watch him. It's something that I don't think I'll ever see again. So I'm just trying to enjoy every minute watching him, to be honest. How do you view him as a defender if you're going to have to go up against him? There's no real way of playing against him, really. There's no set way of defending against a player like that, because he can do anything he wants with the football. So whatever you do, he'll do the opposite. I guess you've just got to get lucky at the end of the day. You've just got to try and do your best and hope that he doesn't do something magical. But more time, more time than not, he will do something special. For Leo, things are simply natural since he was a child. That is the reason why he's the best in the world and will continue to be this way for a long time. He's a phenomenon. In fact, now I want to run outside because I want to see his ship when it leaves. He's got a lot of strength. He's got a very sharp head. He's got vision. He's got a sense of direction. When he wants to do something, he does it. When he wants to do something, he makes you win. He makes you win. In fact, he put you on a zero and said... No, no, no. When you feel that you're going to win today, go and win. What we do with John, or any of these great players who know when you want to win, that's what they do. Diego Maradona was my favourite player, always. But I think, for me, Lionel Messi is the best. Not just of this era, but of every era. The best player. I love watching him play. I love his personality, his humility. As an individual, what he gives to the team, at Barcelona, for his country, as I say, he's the best. What can I tell you about Lionel Messi that I've not said a million times before? It's difficult to think of fresh things. I think everyone knows what a huge fan of Messi I am. I always have been. I think he's the best player that's ever donned a pair of football boots. He's also the best dribbler I've ever seen. He's the most imaginative footballer I've ever seen. He's the most skilful footballer I've ever seen. And he's one of the best passers the game has ever seen. So if you put all those things together, you have someone who, frankly, is clearly not a human being.