Please provide proof for the statement in bold.
Messi is by no means greater than Maradona or Pele. How can he be, when he has not won the World Cup, despite playing for a strong footballing nation?
Is this a bad joke? Turn on the tv. Every 20 seconds, there's a football figure from a different generation talking about him as either the greatest ever or at the very least 2nd to Diego:
Lionel Messi will go down in history as the No. 1 player of all time, the best that there ever was.
- Ossie Ardiles
Messi is out of this planet, I would say he is so far ahead of the rest of the players playing right now and I would say historically as well. There are not words to describe him. - Ardilles
Messi is better than Maradona and Pelé. Every week he shows that he is capable of things that no one had done until now. Messi defies the laws of anatomy, he must have an extra bone in his ankle --Carlos Bianchi,
Messi is Maradona every day. He has played at the level of Maradona in 1986 for the past five years-Jorge Valdano, 2013
Messi is the best player I've ever seen, better than Maradona and Cruyff combined -Marcial Pina
He's a problem solver, a game changer, the greatest player to have played the game. I am more than 60 years old now, and I don't believe that I've seen, or that I'm likely to see, anyone better in my lifetime. The world's best when I was growing up was Pele and he would have been a great player now, too, but Messi surpasses him. He's also way out ahead of Diego Maradona - it's not even close anymore - Graeme Souness, 2015
Messi makes the difference. I think he has reached and surpassed the level of Maradona-Paolo Maldini, 2015
Who is the Best Player in the World? Leo Messi. Who is the Best Player Ever? Leo Messi." -Arsene Wenger
I like Messi a lot, he’s a great player. Technically, we’re practically at the same level- Pele
I never ever thought I would say that there was a better player than Maradona since he was in my time and I was in awe of him, but I honestly think for a number of reasons that Messi has surpassed him. He can do anything that Maradona did, and he does it more frequently and consistently-Gary Lineker, 2015
The best by far is Messi. Second is Maradona, third is Pele and Di Stefano. Fifth is Cruyff, Zidane or Pele - José Luis Chilavert, 2015
"Messi is the best in the world without any doubt and for me the history of football." Luis Enrique
"Messi is the best player ever. And this is said by someone who has seen Maradona and Pele play." - AC Milan chief Adriano Galliani
I think about the great players with whom I have shared a pitch: Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo – and the greatest of them all is Messi - Paul Scholes, 2015
Messi is best player ever. Some say Pele, Cruyff or Maradona, but none of them was as decisive as Messi-Ronald Koeman
"I have played against Platini, Maradona, Cruyff and played with George Best — a lot of big names, but none of them has been able to do what Messi does. Two years ago I said that the best player I played against was Maradona and the best player I have played with was Bestie. But I can now say I have never seen a player as good as Messi. He’s in a league of his own." - Former Tottenham star Gerry Armstrong
"Fella’s a genius. Best ever by a distance in my life time. Never really saw Pele… Souness, Gullit, Venables and now Rooney agree Messi is the best they have seen. He plays a game with which we are not familiar." - Gary Lineker
"I played with Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Laudrup and Stoichkov but Messi is the best I’ve seen." - Former Barcelona and Chelsea star Albert Ferrer
"Messi is better than Maradona; he is more complete, more consistent, more spectacular. He is reinventing the game – a mix of the real and the virtual." - Tostão
"Comparing CR7 to Messi is an exercise of ignorance in football. Messi is Messi and others, footballers." - Spanish manager Miguel Angel Lotina
I genuinely cannot believe that you asked me to show you stuff that's been on every television station and repeated in multiple documentaries over the years. It's either you've been living under a rock or that you don' understand football. Everyone has heard statements from Maradona's ex teammates rating Messi ahead of him and footballers playing against Maradona doing the same.
Some of them have been made in UCL finals (Souness in 2011 for example) so the entire world heard them except for You, it seems
Regarding the secnd statement, are you serious or you just trying to be daft? Need I explain to you that there are 11 footballers on a pitch and that no one individual singleshandidly wins a tournament?
The difference between 1986 and 2014 was that Maradona's teammates took their chances and Messi's didn't.
Their legacies are not predicated on whether a teammate scored or messed up a chance. They'e out of the play at that point.
Surely, this isn't too complicated. Do you watch football, at all?
