Lionel Messi - Gold Medalist!

[Jager]

They love him now, but Barca fans seem to turn on their stars or it seems.

[lionel]

Originally Posted by Jager

They love him now, but Barca fans seem to turn on their stars or it seems.

I don't agree with you here... maybe you want to say they turned on ronaldinho, but it was a result of ronaldinho's bad shape, and also because there was a new star(messi) who was prefered by the fans, I don't think it ever happened before ronaldinho's case.
for the barca fans, messi is #1 atm. and they don't change their #1 too often: cruif, diego(he ran away, the fans wanted him), romario, rivaldo...(can't look more back). ronaldinho is another story, and people don't dislike him now as one may think, he is still loved in barca, but they love messi more.

[Robinho4Ever]

Originally Posted by lionel

I don't agree with you here... maybe you want to say they turned on ronaldinho, but it was a result of ronaldinho's bad shape, and also because there was a new star(messi) who was prefered by the fans, I don't think it ever happened before ronaldinho's case.
for the barca fans, messi is #1 atm. and they don't change their #1 too often: cruif, diego(he ran away, the fans wanted him), romario, rivaldo...(can't look more back). ronaldinho is another story, and people don't dislike him now as one may think, he is still loved in barca, but they love messi more.

I agree with you !!
IMO Messi in Barca is like Raul in Real !!
The fans never disliked Ronaldo, but they loved Raul more, & even when Ronaldo scored a goal all the fans screamed "Raul , Raul !! ".
The same thing is in Barca, the fans don't dislike Ronaldinho, the love Messi more !!

[lionel]

Originally Posted by lionel

Francescoli:"Messi es el mejor hoy y lo sera en el futuro"
(Francescoli:"Messi is the best today, and he will be better in the future")

'el principe'(the prince) - Enzo Francescoli - the best uruguay player in history, is one of the best people to ever play the game.

francescoli said that in his opinion messi is the best player in the world today. he had also some good words about kaka and ronaldinho.

here it is in english:

Francescoli Praises Messi And Argentina
According to former Uruguayan football superstar Enzo Francescoli Argentine striker Lionel Messi is the best player in the world at the moment and will help Argentina win the 2007 Copa America. He also provided his thoughts on other interesting issues.

Francescoli, who helped Uruguay win the Copa America on three occasions ('83, '87, '95), regards Messi as the best player in the world at the moment, but also mentioned other South American players that he highly regards.

“Leo Messi is the best and he will continue to be so in the future. Other players that are at a very good level are Kaka, Ronaldinho, Crespo…but Messi offers something more than the rest”.

Francescoli also chose the most likely winner of the Copa America to be “Argentina, for their quality, for their capacity, and for their necessity, because they haven’t won anything important for a long time", and added "They have always livened up things, and have given this Cup the importance it deserves, not like Brazil did, and I’m sad for this. I don’t like the way some players prefer to have holidays”, he stated.


Goal.com

Goal.com - Copa America - Francescoli Praises Messi And Argentina

simple: francescoli thinks messi is the best in the world!
(francescoli is a serios man that has a 'word' in uruguay and in s.america in general.)

[Pat Murphy]

Originally Posted by Jager

They love him now, but Barca fans seem to turn on their stars or it seems.

I'd say less the fans but the board in the case of Saviola and Riquelme. When the announcement to ship Saviola out on loan the first season I think most Barca fans were shocked as Saviola was a big fan favourite, that was more of a board and Rijkaard's decision. I remember the Boixos Nois rebelling and booing in matches and chanting Saviola's name when he wasn't here that first season. Also with Riquelme the board pinned the blame for our 6th place finish largely on him and he was unfairly transfer listed. But Barca fans do sometimes turn on their stars when things are going down just as Madrid have recently, Kluivert was a good example of that mainly because he turned unbelievably crap.

[Diabolico]

Originally Posted by Pat Murphy

But Barca fans do sometimes turn on their stars when things are going down just as Madrid have recently, Kluivert was a good example of that mainly because he turned unbelievably crap.

Honestly, are there any clubs where the fans don't turn on their stars? I know it's not just Barca and Madrid anyway, since many Milan fans are experts at this, annoyingly enough.

On the issue of whether Barca fans prefer Ronaldinho and Messi... maybe I'm weird, but I actually (still) like Ronaldinho better, though I like Messi too. But Barca is not my primary club, so maybe that's why.

[lionel]

Originally Posted by Diabolico

On the issue of whether Barca fans prefer Ronaldinho and Messi... maybe I'm weird, but I actually (still) like Ronaldinho better, though I like Messi too. But Barca is not my primary club, so maybe that's why.

ronaldinho will play for milan at some point, while messi will play for inter one day. this is obvious, and it explains why you prefer ronaldinho

[BlackNess]

Messi will be the new diego maradona!! wait...

he is one of the best 3 soccer players atm, and in a few years he will be the nomber 1 by far!

lionel is right about the argentinian style of play, they need a number 10. messi has to be given the #10 role!

[ODee]

definetly has the potential to be the next maradona just hope he doesnt get distracted on the way there

[lionel]

The greatest goal ever?

(a comparison between the 2 goals. highly recommended!)

It was a goal that had commentators screaming and shouting, dragging out the cry of Gol! until their breath could hold no more, a strike that caused websites to crash and dominated television screens, a work of art that had journalists running out of superlatives. One newspaper incredulously posed the same question famously asked of Diego Maradona back in 1986: "What planet did you come from?"

It was not just that Barcelona's Argentine teenager, Lionel Messi, scored a goal of stunning beauty, it was also that he reproduced, almost second by second, touch by touch, Maradona's famous strike against England.

The two players, both left-footed, short, stocky and deceptively quick, traced virtually the same course across two of the world's most emblematic football fields - Maradona at Mexico City's Aztec Stadium, Messi at Barcelona's Nou Camp.

To be fair, playing Getafe in the semi-final of the Spanish Cup may not be the same calibre of fixture as meeting England in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but otherwise Messi's fabulous goal on Wednesday night was virtually identical to that of Maradona on June 22, 1986.

Both men ran for just over 10 seconds, Maradona covering 62 metres, Messi 60, both touched the ball 13 times and beat six rivals, dashing past five of them and shooting home past the sixth. "Messi scores Maradona's goal," declared the headlines on the front of all four of Spain's major sports dailies.

Messi, like Maradona, collected the ball on the right, around the halfway line. Where Maradona skipped past Peter Reid and Peter Beardsley, quick feet took Messi away from Javier Paredes and Ignacio Nacho.

Coming in from the right, Maradona cut inside Terry Butcher and then straightened up to go through the gap between him and Terry Fenwick; Messi did the same with Alexis and Belenguer. Peter Shilton came out to meet Maradona, Luis Garcia came out to meet Messi. A dropped shoulder, a turn to the left and both men were past the goalkeepers, Maradona putting the ball into the net away from the despairing lunge of Gary Stevens, Messi eluding the dive of Pablo Redondo.

Messi dedicated the strike to Argentina's finest footballer, who is in intensive care as he battles against alcoholism. His team-mates, meanwhile, ran to him with incredulity on their faces.

"It was the best goal I have ever seen in my life," said Deco, while Barcelona's sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, said: "I hope Maradona can forgive me, but I think Messi's goal is even better."

Was this better than Maradona's wonder goal?

take a look and decide!
YouTube - messi-maradonna

[lionel]

messi's goal is much more beautiful imo! ( surprise! )

I don't know much about the defenders maradona passed, but they look realy poor, maybe because the defenses are improving with the time, or i don't know.
however. in maradona's goal you got a feeling that the players don't give a dam. they don't even run, don't tackle, like they're scared of him(they have a reason ). while in messi's goal, players are so aggressive, they push him several times and he could have gotten a foul easily in that run.. players throw themselves at every side to stop him. this makes messi's goal more impressive imo, but you can see it on the other way, like, diego is great so they fear him (some guy said that explanation to me ^^ ) wich makes his goal more god like.
another point: messi humiliated the first 2 players he passed, with the ball between they're legs(), I don't know how it is in europe, but here, it's the biggest humiliation in football! wich makes the goal harder to make and for people who think like me, gives it a big advance over diego's

now, I already predict the kind of things people are gonna say: you can't compare getafe to England. you can't compare a coopa del rey match to a WC match...
first, let's make it clear: getafe has the best defense in la liga. this team conceded less goals that barcelona or real madrid(cannavaro ). so there isn't such a difference in the levels as one may think.
a goal in a WC worths much more than a non-WC goal. that's undisscussable. this is the only thing that I can't realy answer . but it doesn't make such a difference, we aren't talking about importance here (are we?).

[is there anyone that agrees with me?]

[Pat Murphy]

I think you've put a good case forward for Messi's being better and if we take out the importance of the match and competition it was played in and just consider 2 players who both put their head down, ran past 6 players and scored technique and skill wise then you could say that Messi's is a better goal because the defenders were more agressive and more challenges came in than the Maradona goal and the Getafe players were sprinting after him while most of the English players were jogging after Maradona, other things like the final finish was harder in Messi's case and so on.

[lionel]

Originally Posted by Pat Murphy

I think you've put a good case forward for Messi's being better and if we take out the importance of the match and competition it was played in and just consider 2 players who both put their head down, ran past 6 players and scored technique and skill wise then you could say that Messi's is a better goal because the defenders were more agressive and more challenges came in than the Maradona goal and the Getafe players were sprinting after him while most of the English players were jogging after Maradona, other things like the final finish was harder in Messi's case and so on.

I liked the jogging part... couldn't explain it in a better way.

(lets see what other people think.. )

[Robinho4Ever]

I agree with Lionel !!
IMO Messi's goal is lot better than Maradona's, even the HUGE similarity !!
The only thing I have to say is that atm the defensive part is better than before 21 years and it needs more technique to score a goal like Messi's.
& even Ronaldo, Henry ,Robben, Ibrahimovich ... don't have The technique that I'm talking about !!