like the grand master Xavi said "Messi is the best in the world. If you disagree you don't understand football."
Messi's got 73 goals + 27 assists for barcelona in the 2011/2012 season. those #s are astronomical. orgasmic.
but he's more than stats, he's the player all kids want to be. he makes us dream. he makes us feel young again. Messi is the man, the top gun, the guy.
watch how he links up btw midfield and attack, dropping deep to draw out centre-backs. it's just like kevin love in basketball, when the 4 catches fire from the promise land you force the bigs to come out and respect that perimeter firepower--a territory that they can only awkwardly patrol as they normally only thrive in the paint. same thing with football, messi forces defenders to advance deep into midfield to start tracking him otherwise he has too much steam by the time you'd normally start marking a forward player. cristiano can't get away with doing this because he doesn't playmake the way messi does. watch messi's passing, it is so astonishingly complete, almost like xavi: messi has mastered the short-range give-and-go tiki-taka as well as the mid-range lob and the long-range defense-splitting pass. he is just so, so complete. he continues to astonish us every game, every year. and he does this while staying incredibly humble.
if you dislike messi, chances are, you dislike football. i mean, the way he plays, it's just so beautiful to watch. i am an amateur youth coach's assistant and all the young kids want to be messi for good reason! he is so inspirational...such a great example for athletes and children right round the world.