“Is Messi a real player or a PlayStation character?” – The best quotes about Lionel Messi

It’s the 28 birthday of the Barcelona wizard- widely heralded as one of the greatest ever to grace the sport; Lionel Messi is in a class of his own. With everything that he has achieved at such tender age, his story seems more like a fairy tale to believe on. But as once described by a commentator, “It’s Lionel Messi’s world and we are just living in it”, the Argentina international continues to turn impossible into ordinary week in and week out with his club and country.

We present you some of the best quotes on Messi by some of the game’s great representatives and journalists around the world.

Diego Maradona– “I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi. Messi is a genius.”

Luis Figo-  “For me, to watch Messi play is a pleasure – it’s like having an orgasm – it’s an incredible pleasure.”  

 Hristo Stoichkov– “Once they said they can only stop me with a pistol. Today you need a machine gun to stop Messi.”

 Samuel Eto’o-  “Messi is God, as a person and even more as a player. I knew him when he was a boy and I’ve watched him grow. He deserves it all.”

 Romario-  “Newton and Einstein had a certain level of autism – I hope that, like them, Messi surpasses himself every day and continues to give us his beautiful brand of football.”

 Johan Cruyff– “For the world of football, Messi is a treasure because he is role model for children around the world. Messi will be the player to win the most Ballons d’Or in history. He will win five, six, seven. He is incomparable. He’s in a different league.”

 Mario Gomez– “I am not crazy enough to compare myself with Messi because he is the best there ever was and the best there will ever be.”

AC Milan chief Adriano Galliani – “Messi is the best player ever. And this is said by someone who has seen Maradona and Pele play.”

 Radamel Falcao-  “Is Messi a real player or a PlayStation character?”

 Spanish manager Miguel Angel Lotina – “Comparing CR7 to Messi is an exercise of ignorance in football. Messi is Messi and others, footballers.”

Former Brazil manager Felipe Scolari-  “The only bad thing about Ronaldo’s life is Messi. If it was not for him, Ronaldo would be the best player in the world for five years in a row.”

 Franck Ribery– “Messi is class. There is him, and then there is the rest. What he does is extraordinary.”

 Kobe Bryant- “I wear the number 10 Jersey for the US National Team in honour of the Greatest athlete I have ever seen: Messi.” 

 Wayne Rooney – “Messi is a joke..For me the best ever.”

 Portuguese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes– “There are three or four important things in life: books, friends, women… and Messi.”

 Real Madrid legend Raúl González –“The other day I saw one of his games. He was running with the ball at a hundred percent full speed, I don’t know how many touches he took, maybe five or six, but the ball was glued to his foot. It’s practically impossible.”

 Raúl González – “I was lucky that I played with Zidane, with Cristiano Ronaldo, with Ronaldo, with Figo… but against, I think Messi… [he] is very different; he makes everything look so easy, so effortless – even the impossible.”

Henk ten Cate–  “Ronaldo is a top player, it’s a shame that he’s in Messi’s era — he’ll always be 2nd best regardless of the Ballon d’Or.”

 John Terry– “Lionel Messi is quite clearly the best player ever. It’s a pleasure to pit myself against him and when I finish my career it’s something I can look back on and know I’ve tested myself against the very best.”

 Gianluigi Buffon- “I just wanted to make sure that he’s a human being like us.”

 Turkish international Arda Turan– “Messi or Ronaldo best player in the world? In the world, I would say Ronaldo. Messi is from another planet.”

 Jürgen Klopp- “Messi is the best. There must be life out there somewhere, on some other planet. Because he is too good and we are just too bad for him.”

 Gerardo Grighini– “Once he performed five flick-overs against one player. The player threw himself to the ground and grabbed his feet! Five flick-overs, one after the other. On top of that he was 1.40 metres, while the other boy was 1.70.”

 Ronaldo (O Fenômeno)– “Does Messi deserve to be called the greatest player in the world? Yes, for sure.”

 Zlatan Ibrahimovic– “Who’s better, Messi or Zlatan? — After what Leo has done in recent years, there’s no debate.”

 

Ray Hudson- “Messi invents passing lanes, he doesn’t look for them.”

Ray Hudson– “Angles mean nothing to this man — he could decorate a rose and make it look better.”

 Arsene Wenger- “Who is the Best Player in the World? Leo Messi. Who is the Best Player Ever? Leo Messi.”

 Dutch star Klaas-Jan Huntelaar– “Who’s better, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? Messi. Ronaldo is good, but Messi is 10 times better.”

 Barack Obama– “Me and Messi, we’re right up there.”

 Gary Lineker– “A guide to how good Messi is, is that by comparison, Luis Suárez looks average.”

 Gary Lineker– “[Messi is the] best passer, best dribbler, best finisher I’ve ever seen.”

  Roy Keane– “I was a big fan of Maradona growing up and of the current crop Ronaldo is good but Messi is the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t dish out praise lightly but Messi deserves it. I look for weaknesses in his game and I can’t find them.”

 Michael Owen- “I can’t believe anyone can have played the game of football as well as Messi.”

 Bacary Sagna- “He is the best in the world. Football seems easy when he plays it.”

 Tostão– “Messi is better than Maradona; he is more complete, more consistent, more spectacular. He is reinventing the game – a mix of the real and the virtual.”

 German legend Franz Beckenbauer–  “Messi is a genius. He has everything. When I watch him, I see a player who is very, very, skilful, very clever and his left foot is like Diego Maradona’s.”

 Xavi – “It is clear that Messi is on a level above all others. Those who do not see that are blind.”

Fabio Capello- “Cristiano knows English, Messi knows football”

Pele – “I like Messi a lot, he’s a great player. Technically, we’re practically at the same level.”

 Pelé– “I like both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but I don’t think there is a fair comparison here. Messi has been the best player around for the last 10 years and he is a guy who is much more present in the game overall. Cristiano reminds me a lot of the Brazilian Ronaldo. He’s a great goalscorer and I had the pleasure to hand him the Ballon d’Or last year, but his passing is not a good as Messi and he is not as involved as Messi.”

 Former Real Madrid and Argentina midfielder Santi Solari after Messi had won a record fourth Ballon d’Or in a row- “No other player has combined the competitiveness of professional football with the spontaneity of street football so naturally. No other player is capable of solving tactical conundrums so frequently, as if he were playing just outside his house. Watching Messi is like taking a trip back through time; when he’s on the ball he opens a crack which we can peek through to spy on the essence of football.”

Diego Simeone– “Diego [Maradona] filled us with emotions. But between the cracks, without doubt, Messi is better than Maradona.”

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.”

“Every time he plays, Leo Messi reminds me more of Maradona, both left-footed and short, Messi is the best player in the world, along with Kaká 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.”

The quotes are endless, the article can go on and on compiling the superlatives used for expressing this genius, but we would conclude with this quote from Barca’s former manager Pep Guardiola-

“Don’t write about him, don’t try to describe him. Just watch him.”

Happy Birthday Leo. Football would had been so boring with out you.