The "Messi: the best player in the world. Is it even up for discussion?" thread

He has more "free" time now. Between Argentina matches, he seems to be doing more stuff like this, even things that involve considerable travel. Same with other players close to retirement, mind you. Lewandowski popped over to New York during the last int'l window. Messi just has more time to devote to such activities since MLS doesn't have the grueling schedule of other leagues.

 

I love how "all-time" stats like this keeps changing from time to time. Suddenly there's always new names which you never heard popping out of nowhere. I remember Pele used to have 92 international goals then changed into 77. Batistuta used to have 56 then changed into 54 then its 56 again. The FK list has always put Juninho at no.1 with 77 now it changed again... its like if there's somebody scores 800 goals in Indonesian league , the guy would suddenly appears on the top 10 list of player with most career goal ?

 

I think it's just because people start being more interested when something appears on limelight. And then somebody will come up with better information they have. I mean who actually knew Müller scored 86 calendar year goals, before Messi started closing in?

I don't have data on Juninho, but I'm sure the difference comes from indirect freekicks, which some call freekick goals too in general, and which I think is just wrong. It's like giving Weghorst a freekick goal v Argentina.

 

Yea, I remember two different FIFA articles from WC 2006, one puts Riquelme as top assister with 4 assists, the other article puts him with 3 and Totti wirh 4. So which one count?

As for freekick sometimes when the ball deflected by the defender , its counted as an own goal but sometimes its counted as direct FK. Lamela's freekick vs Bolivia in Copa 2016 counted as direct FK even though its strucked the defender's shoulder. By that logic, Messi FK against South Korea in 2010 should have counted as direct FK cause its deflected by the defender into the net.
I'm sure if there's more strict rule about this , we'll probably see another different list.

 

Yeah assists are another set of innaccuracies. It wasn't defined by FIFA, and still isn't I think. So any competition could have their own assist rules, which anyone could use as assist stats. And after decades if someone includes "assist" from news paper sources as assists of today, it can lead to more inaccuracies. It's very hard to define though. Direct assist, wide assists where do you draw the lines?

Goal is much easier to define. I think the general rule is that if ball is going at goal, even deflections are counted as goals. And if it's clearly going to miss, deflections are own goals.

 

It's a very impressive statistic. He may even get the top spot by the end of his career.

 

Sure. To score that many goals means he survived living in Indonesia that long.

 

So, elephant in the room: thoughts on Messi visiting Trump at the White House?

This thread staying open??

 

I think Messi wants people to think he's apolitical but is he?

He's a billionaire in his forties who declined an invite to the White House from Biden and accepted Trump's invite. No way he is apolitical.

 

Does he want people to think that or do people idealize him as the anti-Ronaldo and thus attribute him certain amiable qualities and portray him as apolitical when he isn't? Anybody who gets behind Trump and applauds what he says isn't trying to be apolitical or have people think of him as such.

And I agree with you, he's an extremely wealthy guy - and Trump is Trump but he has also donated $20 billion to Argentina very recently. I have no idea what views on Trump are in the country but of all the countries in the world I would assume Argentina likely has some pro-Trump supporters.

I legit think when you reach a level like Messi's he couldn't give less of a shit about what you think of him unless you paid him otherwise.

 

Javier Mascherano on Donald Trump talking about the war during Inter Miami’s visit at the White House:

"We were told the visit would simply be to congratulate us on our title and that we’d ONLY talk about football, but that’s not how it turned out…"

"We arrived early, waited, saw very little of the White House, and only saw the President Trump during the moment shown on TV."

"We’re mature enough to separate things. The visit was scheduled more than two months ago, so we followed the protocol that had already been agreed."

"We’re aware… But the current situation in the world is different from when the visit was first arranged."

 

He is the best player in our history , this thread should never be closed even after he retires ...

 

Things weren't that different two months ago or even 10 months ago. Trajectory is consistent.

Even teams that represent the US declined invites. It's not an escape room where you have to solve some tough puzzle to get out of it.

 

Pipo Gorosito :

“How am I not going to shake Trump's hand? To Trump or to whoever, football has nothing to do with that. It's crazy that people are talking about it. That's why we're in the state we're in as Argentines, living in an extraordinary country.

‘No, because this one was greeting that one.’ Let each person greet whoever they want. What do I care? Messi is a football player, it's nothing strange. The kid has an extraordinary conduct.

“What is he going to do? He won the championship in the United States, he's not going to go greet the president of Nicaragua. It's normal. Whether the guy uses it or not no longer depends on him.”

 

"The kid has an extraordinary conduct."

He's 40.

Its true - once you accept the WH invite you can't not shake Trump's hand and you can't not stand there smiling while he talks about unrelated and controversial topics.

That's why the key is not to accept the invite in the first place, as many others have done, including Messi himself a couple of years ago. Mascherano is just digging himself a bigger hole with that lame excuse. Look at how ridiculous Juventus players looked standing there like wallpaper as Trump went on and on about some non-football related stuff.

 

the problem is that there are some extreme left wing liberals here who want to cancel him and insult him and try to tarnish his reputation just because he doesn't follow their cult , i hope they don't sway you with their lies and end up closing the thread like they demanded.

 

If that was meant at me, I merely suggested that the thread be closed or moved. The reason being (and I made this point at least 1-2 years ago) is that this thread is mainly used by non-Barca fans who never post in the other threads of this forum (and we could use the added traffic). It also attracts trolls that want to start up CR7 v Messi debates (less common lately). I could easily name 4-5 other parts of this Forum where this thread fits better.

But I don't care that much, which is why I merely suggested it.