Is Lionel Messi the Best Player in History?

(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Barcelona president Joan Laporta recently stated in a press conference that his team's biggest star, Lionel Messi, is the best player in the history of the beautiful game.

The fact that Laporta has given Messi the cut above greats like Maradona, Pele, Zidane, and Cruyff has irked many. Many have even charged him with disrespect toward the legends.

But, how can they blame him?

What the people criticising Laporta for his remarks keep forgetting is that, at 22, Messi has already achieved far more than any of the above named players did at that young age (barring perhaps Pele, who had won the World Cup with Brazil when he was just 17-years-old). 

He has already won three La Ligas, one Copa del Rey, and one Champions League with Barcelona and an Olympic gold medal with Argentina.

He scored his first professional goal at the age of 17, won his first professional title in the same season, and he was also selected as both the FIFPro and World Soccer Magazine Young Player of the Year for three years running from 2005–2008.

What they also forget is that, at this age, Messi has already taken up the mantle to be the face of the club he represents.

It is an undeniable fact that when a person thinks of FC Barcelona, the first person that comes to mind from the current squad is Messi. 

Which of the above named players have, at such a young age, been the face of their respective clubs?

Which of them has already been indispensable to the team they represent?

And, most importantly, which of them has ever won the treble?

The answer is, of course, none. 

At 22, Diego Maradona was still hopping clubs. He joined Barcelona when he was 23, and never won the Champions League or the La Liga. Two years later, he demanded a transfer to Napoli and there, at 26, Maradona finally came into his own.

Zinedine Zidane scored his first professional goal at the age of 19, which was the age at which Messi scored a hat-trick against Real Madrid. He did not win any trophies until he was 23 when his team, Bordeaux, won the 1995 Intertoto Cup. 

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