Has anyone been better than Messi aged 19-24?

jiopsi wrote:Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - "Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona."

Carlos Bianchi - Barcelona's Lionel Messi is better than Diego Maradona and Pele

"A few days ago I did a talk for a business and a Brazilian asked me in the middle of the conference who I considered the best footballer in history, Maradona or Pele. I answered that, with all due respect to those two, right now I see Messi as superior to everyone,"

"There have been excellent footballers that weren't able to play in great national teams to prove their class. Moving on from everything that has happened or will happen when he puts on the Argentina jersey, Messi confirms every week that he is capable of doing things that nobody else has managed in the history of football."

jiopsi wrote:

jiopsi wrote:Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - "Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona."

Carlos Bianchi - Barcelona's Lionel Messi is better than Diego Maradona and Pele

"A few days ago I did a talk for a business and a Brazilian asked me in the middle of the conference who I considered the best footballer in history, Maradona or Pele. I answered that, with all due respect to those two, right now I see Messi as superior to everyone,"

"There have been excellent footballers that weren't able to play in great national teams to prove their class. Moving on from everything that has happened or will happen when he puts on the Argentina jersey, Messi confirms every week that he is capable of doing things that nobody else has managed in the history of football."

Fcks sake why can't this man be coach of the NT and not sabella

jiopsi wrote:

jiopsi wrote:Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - "Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona."

Carlos Bianchi - Barcelona's Lionel Messi is better than Diego Maradona and Pele

"A few days ago I did a talk for a business and a Brazilian asked me in the middle of the conference who I considered the best footballer in history, Maradona or Pele. I answered that, with all due respect to those two, right now I see Messi as superior to everyone,"

"There have been excellent footballers that weren't able to play in great national teams to prove their class. Moving on from everything that has happened or will happen when he puts on the Argentina jersey, Messi confirms every week that he is capable of doing things that nobody else has managed in the history of football."

Where does this beggars belief that Pele only performed for Brazil come from?

By the age of 24 Pele had scored more than 400 official goals for Santos........I would think consistent weekly performances would be necessary to achieve something like that.

wilshere @ 19

Ronaldo @ 19

Pele was running the show @ 17

aleumdance wrote: wilshere @ 19

Ronaldo @ 19

Pele was running the show @ 17

Wilshere? Rofl

That almost killed me.

Its not possible to top Messi, and I think he is pretty much as good as it is humanly possible to become as an attacker. Passing, speed, shooting, body balance, stamina, mentality. What more can you ask for?

It could be argued that Pele was, considering he was the best player for a Brazil World Cup winning side in 1957, when he was only 17 years of age.

Wilshire did boss Xaviesta at 19

ragbirjosh wrote:Wilshire did boss Xaviesta at 19

Just stop it. Wilshere was and will never be in messis league.


Ronaldinho
[On receiving the Ballon d’Or in 2006] “This award says I’m the best player in the world, but I’m not even the best player at Barcelona.”
“Leo Messi reminds me more of Maradona, both left-footed and short, Messi is the best player in the world, along with Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. For us it is not a surprise. Since he began to come and train with us and we knew we would go down this path. Someday I will explain that I was at the birth of one of the footballing greats: Leo Messi."

Guess how old Messi was?

^Lol I'm kidding man.

cheesy wrote:It could be argued that Pele was, considering he was the best player for a Brazil World Cup winning side in 1957, when he was only 17 years of age.

It was surely an achievement, but football in the 50s could almost be considered semi-professional...

That being said I can give Pele the benefit of the doubt, I've only seen his highlights. The fact that there are no real contenders besides Pele says quite a lot in itself.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

cheesy wrote:It could be argued that Pele was, considering he was the best player for a Brazil World Cup winning side in 1957, when he was only 17 years of age.

It was surely an achievement, but football in the 50s could almost be considered semi-professional...

That being said I can give Pele the benefit of the doubt, I've only seen his highlights. The fact that there are no real contenders besides Pele says quite a lot in itself.

That is an excuse, a way you are creating to say Messi is top. You can't compare that time to how football it is nowadays, but it was the way it was, and Pelé shone. I've watched the full 1970 matches at WC and he was pretty awesome. But even if you haven't watched it, history is there to tell us that he was doing pretty awesome at 17..

And to whoever said Pelé only performed for Brazil: go kill yourself. Pelé is a Santos legend, he won many titles with us, including the two most important ones: the intercontinental cups.