Pep Guardiola's thoughts on whether Messi is the Greatest of All-Time 👀

Pep Guardiola had his say on Lionel Messi's status in the history of football after the Argentine played a starring role in Argentina's World Cup win.

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[yellowscarlightningscream]

I got to experience the entire career of Lionel Messi and it makes me proud.

[sundarsingh]

I would say Messi not only scored goals but also produced absolute magic by his dribbling, creating, changing the tempo of the beautiful game.

[kashd]

People forget he's 35 years old - and he's still plays football better than anyone else! And people forget how good he was in his prime - he was a monster! There never was, and there will never be, anyone as good as him!

[joshk]

We are so honored to be in a period that messi exists, he's absolute magic

[youman]

Watching Messi win the World Cup is like football has been complete

[ollie-pnql]

Lionel Messi is undeniably the greatest of all time. 🐐

[AbhishekChaudhary-uqxo]

Guardiola is like that proud father/big brother who has seen his kin achieve all.

[ns]

Messi is adored by all of his mentors, teammates, even rivals..He has some best friendships with other players..His humility & not comparing himself to others is what makes him the greatest.He wanted to win the World cup for his country not even for himself.He is the best.

[zeo]

Guardiola always knew Messi was the best, ever since he took over Barcelona, he could see how much better Messi was despite people like Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol being there as well.

It's for the average football fan that the World Cup proves his greatness, but for people that have been following football for more than a decade at least this is no question.
Messi is by far the best, certainly in his time and possibly in history.

[hwanohchung]

The first time I saw Messi playing was when he played at U-20 World Cup. The moment I saw him playing I had a feeling that he is something else. I have never seen anyone like him before. I was so excited to see how his career was going to unfold. This World Cup trophy marks the pinnacle of his career and it sums up all the debates regarding who is the GOAT. Messi will be remembered forever.
What a blessing to have him in our era.

[hhumca]

The fact that at 35yrs in some games with PSG he plays better than Neymar and Mbappe is insane.

[gohumberto]

18 years of consistent brilliance. EIGHTEEN YEARS STRAIGHT !!!

[pinealdreams]

What swings it for me is that Messi is the mostall-round player I've ever seen.
His passing range and ability is as good as Zidane or Xavi.
His finishing as good as Pele.
His dribbling as good as Maradona.
His first touch is as good at Cruyff's.

He's every GOAT rolled into one absolute monster player.

[Tsuntsu]

Take your eye off Messi even for a minute and you lose that’s how good he is. He’s a constant threat and can never be left to roam. GOAT

[Cosmic-Arts]

The stats speak for themselves.

People often make the argument that the days of Pelé and Maradona were physically a bigger challenge, but I’d argue the mental challenge in this era of social media should be accounted as well. Messi was critiqued heavily (even by his own country man) and other media that he was not the man to lead Argentina to international trophies. The amount of pressure was monumental. To retire in 2016 from international football, come back and then win 3 international trophies including the most prestigious one the World Cup is simply unmatched in football history. To complete the game of football with these accolades you can not conclude anything other that Messi is indeed the greatest footballer of all time.

Edit: Pelé is an iconic player, who set the standard for future evolution. However the World Cups he participated in and won in 1958, 1962 and 1970 only had a format of 16 competing teams. It wasn’t until the World Cup in 1982 in Spain that the format was changed to 24 teams. Not taking anything away from his achievements, but you could find a point of ‘critique’ in any era.

[CYP]

No doubt he had a hand in making Messi who he is today.

[bontempo]

You need to have watched Messi play for some years to realise he is a phenomenon.
What's most enjoyable, is that despite the unbelievable ability, it didn't give him a cheat code to just walk through it, he always had to play his game to achieve his outcome. He knows every corner of football, both the physics and the mental, and he incorporated that into his chess like strategy when playing.
He is a man without doubts of his control and precision, his only remaining task was how to be in the position to unleash it. It's like a magnetic force toward the goal, it's incredibly difficult to stop it. And if you don't understand that he is born god tier, then watch him play as a tiny little kid. It's the same player.

[robmichael]

When he said "he's the best", look at the way he smiled and choked up on his words while thinking about how great he believes Messi is.
That says it all.

[wakaman]

There’s a certain magic involved with Messi that I’ve only seen one other player come close to displaying in my lifetime. That’s ronaldinho. The difference is Messi has been very consistent for far longer. I doubt we’ll ever see someone like that again but I hope I’m wrong. Those of us who grew up on them both were blessed to have witnessed not one, but two iconic stars that truly embody what it means when we say the beautiful game.

I hope people get to experience something like this again in the future.

[AkuTukangKomen]

The moment i've been waiting for. Since i know him since World Cup 2010, i admire Messi as Magician in Football and im right. Before lift that World Cup, Messi has suffered a lot while in Argentina uniform. Starting from the 2014 World Cup Final defeat to Germany. Then it was followed by losing to Chile in the 2015 and 2016 Copa America. At that time he wanted to retire from the Argentina national team, but I always believed he would come back. After returning, he again tasted the bitterness of the 2018 World Cup defeat to France (Because France was in extraordinary performance at that time) and the subsequent defeat at the 2019 Copa America against Brazil. And finally, since Lionel Scaloni managed the team, Argentina managed to prove to the world once again. That they are the best team in the world. By winning the 2021 Copa America Trophy for the victory against Brazil and the 2022 Finalissima over Italy. And that beautiful story ended when they won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

And with that, the best fairy tale in football history is done.

No matter what happen in future or sometning else like that, im always Admire Messi as the true G.O.A.T. of the Century

Thank you, Leo😇
Thank you, La Pulga❤️‍🔥
Thank you, Argentina🇦🇷

Thank you for the best fairy tale ever🥲