Guardiola - Messi's the best

[lfc4life]

Pep Guardiola labelled Lionel Messi "the best" after the Argentina international scored five in Barcelona's 7-1 UEFA Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen.

The Catalan side destroyed Leverkusen at the Camp Nou to secure a 10-2 aggregate victory, Messi stealing the show by becoming the first player to score five in a single Champions League game. Substitute Cristian Tello added two in a performance of startling brilliance.

Guardiola described Messi as "the best" after the match, and said he felt fortunate to be working with the 24-year-old.

"I'm lucky to coach and manage this player," the Barca boss said. "He is the best. There's no-one else. He is a unique player because of his innate talent and also for his competitiveness.

"We will not see another player like Messi. It's not easy to score five goals, and one day he will score six."

In my opinion he is ronaldo + neymar + tevez combined

Just needs that world cup trophy to be confirmed as the best player ever

read more here -

Guardiola - Messi's the best | Barcelona Football News, Fixtures, Results, Table | Sky Sports

[Rodbouy]

The guy is a legend.

And to think he was told he would never make it........Barca reaping the rewards for paying for his medical treatment.

[KDC]

By far the best on the planet at the moment, a joy to watch. I've also heard people say he's the best ever but i think he's a long way to go before he reaches the level of the best player i've ever seen, one Diego Maradona.

[RomRom80]

Messi the best

[AgentD]

...and still several years from reaching his peak!

[johnboy1974]

what a player he is but the best ever I don't know about that.

[andy1967]

Still too young to say, very very close though.

[mattybhoy]

He's been on another planet to every other player in the world for the past 3/4 yrs.

I remember starting a thread about the worlds best 11 a yr or two ago and remember at least one Pool fan not putting him in the 11, but putting 3 Pool players in. I also remember before the last world cup the amount of peeps on here (especially Utd fans) posting that Rooney was the best player in the world...

[andy1967]

Messi is 100% a better player than Rooney.

[zee24]

I don't know why people even mention Rooney in the same breath as Messi. Messi is on a different planet, there isn't another player on his level not even Ronaldo.

Rooney will never come close, to the past 3/4 years Messi has had nevermind the next 10+ years

[zee24]

I wasn't fortunate to see the likes of Pele and Maradonna and the other former greats, i really feel lucky to see such a marvel like Messi showing us his gift. I really want him to win a World Cup one day.

[Wolfpack]

By far the best on the planet at the moment, a joy to watch. I've also heard people say he's the best ever but i think he's a long way to go before he reaches the level of the best player i've ever seen, one Diego Maradona.

Maradona = Cheater.

Messi is a great player but plays in Spain.

[KDC]

Maradona = Cheater.

Messi is a great player but plays in Spain.

Ok, you dont like Maradona for the hand of god goal. I can understand that but do you remember the other goal he scored in that game? One of the greatest goals ever scored imo. I have never seen a player in my lifetime who comes close to Maradona, the man was simply amazing! Almost single handedly carried Napoli to the Serie A title and carried Argentina to victory in major tournements at times, Mexico 86 being a prime example of that. Also his record for Barca and Boca juniors simply outstanding. He was and still is the best player ever seen in my lifetime in my opinion.

Dont really understand the Messi playing in Spain comment? Would you care to expand on that m8?

[tshirtman]

Messi is a great player but plays in Spain.

not all Spanish teams are great, as we saw last night, when an average Spanish side beat a poor English team.

[zee24]

Maradonna single handedly ended England's WC hopes he also ripped the whole team apart single handed.

Maradonna's a legend fantastic player, for me he's better then Pele because Brazil had a team full of outstanding players, Maradonna was the only great player Argentina had really and he got them the WC.

People can talk all they want about his hand of god, the fact of the matter he was a special player.