Messi has surpassed Di Stefano as Argentine with most competitive (no invitational or fixed games) team titles at senior level: 23 Messi (+ Olympics + WCU20) 22 Di Stefano 20 Cambiasso (+ WCU20 + 2 youth NT)
I don't know, probably Messi as he has won quite a few friendly tournaments. But then nobody counts those, except Pele.
The first player to win individual Uefa Best Player award three times. Uefa Club Footballer of the Year 97-98 Ronaldo 98-99 Beckham 99-00 Redondo 00-01 Effenberg 01-02 Zidane 02-03 Buffon 03-04 Deco 04-05 Gerrard 05-06 Ronaldinho 06-07 Kaka 07-08 Cronaldo 08-09 Messi 09-10 Milito Uefa Best Player in Europe 10-11 Messi 11-12 Iniesta 12-13 Ribery 13-14 Cronaldo 14-15 Messi
Messi fully deserved this award but I think how they do the vote is very poor, all the journalists vote and then vote again when they can only choose the top three which is very restrictive, why not just use the results from the first round. Messi would have actually won the 2012 award if just the first round of voting had taken place which again he deserved, but instead, Iniesta beat him 19 to 17 (joint with Ronaldo), this did not happen first time round. They said this was to re-kindle the old Ballon d'ir spirit but the voting is like X-Factor adn not the old Ballon d'or. I honestly think the most credible system now is the World Soccer award since they switched to a large panel of a few former players, managers plus predominantly journalists all giving a 1-5. The Ballon d'or is far to biased for players picking current team mates and foremr team mates and same for managers too. Either way I expect Messi two win both these two others this year but there can sometimes be very dubious top tens for the above reasons.
Journalists are sometimes fans with typewriters and often they prefer the more fancied names with an audience. Such as 2005, 2010 for instance. Even 2003 arguably. I mean it polite Bada Bing, but are you willing to answer the question posed in the other thread re: Cristiano media creation.
World Soccer Player (1982~) Most wins, average share of votes 4 Messi, 42% 3 Cronaldo, 27% 3 Ronaldo, 23% 2 Platini, 37% 2 Ronaldinho, 34% 2 Gullit, 32% 2 Van Basten, 31% 1 Maradona, 36% 1 Zidane, 26% 1 Xavi, 26% ... World Soccer Player (1982~) Times in Top 10, average share of votes 9 Messi, 28% 8 C.Ronaldo, 18% 7 Maradona, 11% 6 Henry, 9% 6 Shevchenko, 7% 6 Raul, 5% 6 Ibrahimovic, 4% 6 Batistuta, 3% 5 Ronaldo, 17% 5 Ronaldinho, 16% 5 Xavi, 10% 5 Iniesta, 10% ... Most wins, most top 10's with highest share of average votes.
Ballon d'Or multiple winners, average share of votes 5 Messi, 37% 3 Cronaldo, 32% 3 Platini, 31% 3 Cruyff, 29% 3 Van Basten, 28% 2 Rummenigge, 30% 2 Di Stefano, 29% 2 Keegan, 26% 2 Ronaldo, 26% 2 Beckenbauer, 23% Most relative Ballon d'Or's to others, Lionel Messi +2. Highest share of votes, Lionel Messi 37%.
The youngest ever to reach 500 goals in 1st level football. Age of 500th goal 1st level football (national or international) 28 Lionel Messi 30 Gerd Müller 30 Cristiano Ronaldo 32 Ferenc Puskas 32 Eusebio 35 Josef Bican 37 Hugo Sanchez 40 Romario The only play maker on the list, compared to others he also creates most of his own goals.
as many, u misunderstand the term "playmaker". "playmaker" (midfielder) and "#10" (forward) - 2 different roles. #10: maradona, messi, ronaldinho... playmaker: zidane, xaviniesta, riquelme
Pelé surpasses Messi for the eight-seasons period: 471 official goals in 1958-65 vs. Messi's 444 in 2008-16 (plus whichever number of goals he will score in the last matchday). C. Ronaldo and G. Muller follow with 412 and 406 goals respectively. This is quite interesting: I will try to do a bit of research on other players.
At age 28 Messi becomes the top scorer of Argentina senior national team (official goals). 54 Messi 54 Batistuta 35 Crespo 34 Maradona 33 Aguero If you add U20, U23 goals, it's 67 compared to 54.