And that’s gross negligence from PSG. It’s the overhype I don’t understand, we keep getting these numbers quoted at us because it’s huge names involved but where were the Balon Doe nominees demands when the likes of Lacezzette, Depay and Cavani owned French football and broke records? Who was on here defending French football then?
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The season before Messi arrived Psg finished second. But yes, lots of crap teams. But full packed of people with African background in their Physical prime.
It's the financial disparity that is ridiculous. PSG barely get out of first gear to win games. Lens are in second their total wage bill a year is only £11m a year! Even Marseille is only £70m a year ish. Messi is on £30m a year, Neymar £40m and Mbappe around £70m+.
The PL certainly not perfect and La liga used to be the best league, 3 or 4 years ago even the lower teams were doing well in Europe and winning the Europa League consistently.
He' brilliant to watch! While Cristiano walks off the pitch Messi walks on it and still heavly contributes- that's the main difference between two.
It's not about the records or goals. It's about the whole package. None of the players you mentioned delivered what Messi delivers. People considered Mbappe and Neymar for Balon D'Ors in the past and Messi now outshines them although they are in good form, too. That's why people bring him into the conversation again.
This whole league debate is pointless, IMO. Lewandowski and Haaland are proving that this season. I don't think it is more difficult to get goals for City than for PSG or Bayern for instance. Especially if you consider the difficulty of Messi's goals. He scores so many beauties from outside the box, it is unreal.
Anyway, league performances will be irrelevant regardless of the country you're playing in. Domestic performances aren't enough to be considered for the Balon D'Or these days, even if you play in the EPL. Not if another player does something comparable and wins a big title on top of it.
This whole league debate is pointless, IMO. Lewandowski and Haaland are proving that this season. I don't think it is more difficult to get goals for City than for PSG or Bayern for instance. Especially if you consider the difficulty of Messi's goals. He scores so many beauties from outside the box, it is unreal.
Anyway, league performances will be irrelevant regardless of the country you're playing in. Domestic performances aren't enough to be considered for the Balon D'Or these days, even if you play in the EPL. Not if another player does something comparable and wins a big title on top of it.
Financial disparity is a huge factor but there are diminishing returns to this. The midfield teams of the EPL are probably thrice as rich as the midfield teams of the Bundesliga but they aren't thrice as good. France is a huge country with a deeply embedded football culture and close ties to many African countries that produce great talent. I don't think it is much easier playing against them than playing against the midfield and bottom teams of the EPL. So maybe PSG has 38 games as a clear favorite while City has 34 or so.
There's no real overhype, nobody will deny that Ligue 1 is inferior to PL, Bundesliga, Serie A and La liga (even if in some seasons, the difference with Bundesliga or Serie A isn't that huge). People argue mainly about the fact that a lot of PL fan consider Ligue 1 is barely football and that any average PL player would score 30 goals there.
Ligue 1 has flaws, coaches are mostly uninspired, there's a lack of teamplay on offense and other leagues snatch good players far too quickly but it's a huge pool of talents especially for centerbacks. There's a reason almost all top clubs in europe have 1 or 2 center backs linked with ligue 1 (either french or trained in france), it's a very physical league with a lot of athletic players and scoring there isn't particularly easier than in other top5 leagues, i'd say it's even harder than in Bundesliga or La Liga.
Comparing Ligue 1 to MLS really shows a deep ignorance of european football.
That's a very good point, especially in a ligue considered a talent pool, good players are often really young so they can have a level that doesn't match their current wage.
Lot’s of butt hurt Madrid fans round here. Let it go. He humiliated them over and over. They waited till he is 35 to get out of the holes they were in.
the only real flaw of the league is that it lacks a proper second club. the league is actually filled with young and talented players, but it's almost impossible for other clubs to keep them long enough to actually build something with them. Lyon goes from eliminating City to 10th place. Lille wins the league and then do the same as Lyon. Marseille are ok, but I feel Tudor is going to be sacked around march. even in Germany you can count on more stability from their other clubs. Bayern is always winning the league, but at least Dortmund and Leipzig are also getting their CL places every year.
Ronaldo is 2,5 years older which does matter when you're 37 and 35. I like Messi but he won't be the same player come 2025.
He’s been walking on the pitch for nigh on a decade. Everything in life is possible, of course, and he might wake up one day and forget how to play football, but I don’t see him getting this sudden, precipitous decline like CR this season. It’s more likely to be injuries and the will to compete that sees him finally hanging up his boots. Winning the WC or CL this season might fast track that decision.
@Bebestation Messi putting your "can only do it in Barca" theory to rest.
Sorry the age related decline is just as general for technical players as it is more players with great physical attributes. Messi is a freak, but in genius only.
The only difference is, when a player with great physical attributes looses his physical attributes, there's nothing left. For a player like Messi, you still have the genius part. It won't make him last forever but it could buy him time if he changes the way he plays accordingly.
Dunno, he's already an advanced pirlo. His slowness is just going to become more and more visible and burdensome.
To be honest, I think you're exaggerating that quite a bit. Messi is at 3.7 successful dribblings per 90 this season, that's more than Neymar and Mbappe. There's no way Pirlo would have been able to do that. The UEFA had him at 32 km/h top speed last season as well if I remember correctly which is decent. He still has good bursts of pace in him.
Obviously coping better than you are. You wouldn’t catch me trying to troll ex rival players on a Real Madrid forum.Mbape was by far the best PSG's player in this tie, what are you smoking?
Messi hasn't dominated Marid for more than half a decade, get used to it.
Not even sure how to comment the last part. Real Madrid has won more CL in the last decade than almost every club in their entire history, but yeah sure, they are not really all that good. The coping is strong with you.
He already does. Now he doesn't play like a forward anymore. Very few deep runs. He plays like a genuine old style playmaker, which is pretty enjoyable. It's probably the thing i like the most with Messi, he managed successfuly to change his playstyle with the age.
I'm pretty sure that changed to "Can only win Champions leagues at Barcelona" a couple of weeks ago.
Seems to be getting his old form back now, really playing well again. Beautiful goal this weekend
Can’t bash Ronaldo for his current form, he’s almost 38 and still a valuable player. Props to him. Top top player. If it wasn’t for Messi he would have been the best player for almost 16 consecutive years
Portuguese football is behind french football though.
Portuguese mid table teams have even less budget than their counterparts in France btw, and the only teams that fill their stadiums in Portugal are the big 3, because almost nobody support their local team there, it's either Benfica, Porto or SCP, and it's not like those stadiums are for 50k people, we are talking about not filling stadiums for 10-15k... kinda like the scottish league with Celtic and Rangers.
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Mbappe was best PSG player along with Neymar, Messi had a mediocre series against Madrid though, and i love Messi btw
It was Donnarumma and defenders who fecked up PSG, not Mbappe.
Wasn't Madrid playing with 10 at that point?
It doesn't really take anything away from the goal.
oh Jesus, he went through the entire team
I love you so much Leo. You are the greatest ever I would travel the world to see you play again in the flesh before you retire. No footballer makes me feel the way about the game you do
anyone know his @ btw
anyone know his @ btw
Yeah he's a cross between the old Messi and the pure playmaker he's in the process of transforming into. He's still got some pace, but he doesn't have the same acceleration he used to when he made everyone trying to stop his dribbles look like an amateur. He's playing much deeper now, though, and on current pace, might break his all time assists mark for a season.
Pirlo wasn't quite the same type of player, as you pointed out. He controlled matches and dictated pace; even at his best, he wasn't quite as creative as Messi is.
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Seems Ronaldos CL record is safe.
Gonna be weird seeing people argue MLS goals are worth more than Saudi goals as both players choose their retirement homes. As much as Messi v Ronaldo you gotta question why he would leave Europe so early.
Messi gives the impression that he doesn't really care for these individual statistical records that much
Not that I have a lot of love for PSG, but it would be disappointing to see him feck off to MLStirement when he just got rolling in France.
can understand why he’d rather be coached by Phil Neville than Xavi
I dunno, they’ve both credited each other with pushing each other to get better. Be strange to settle for being just behind Ronaldo in important metrics when they’re so close towards the end. I supposed there’s an argument that says he kind of gave up elite, week to week football when moving to France anyway which shows what a freak mindset Ronaldo has by going to England at 37. it’s also clear which player will adapt better to retirement which shows who’s more comfortable in their greatness imo
So did Pepe in League 1.
Im waiting for him to win a CL for PSG with the Mbappe and Neymar brigade for me to change my opinion. That or winning the World Cup with Argentina.
Should not be too hard to do as both are capable teams.
Hope your enjoying his performances vs Troyes & Macabi. Looks good and hopefully he can perform in the CL to a team that bought him to win it.
One plays for the statistics and the other doesn't, it's quite obvious actually. Messi himself said that goals aren't everything and sometimes he has good games without scoring and sometimes bad ones in which he scored. He willingly drops deeper at the end of his career (which will clearly affect his goals total) to accomodate Neymar and Mbappe. Can you imagine Ronaldo doing that?
As sad as it will be when both have retired, I can't wait fir all this "superior mindset" nonsense to finally stop. The kind of arguments some people make out of cognitive dissonances are really, really annoying.
Ronaldo tried to move to PSG and was rejected in favor of the other guy, so I'm not sure where mindset comes into it.
Regarding your other point, Messi does not consider cumulative goal totals an important "metric". He already has the record for most golden boots and the highest goalscoring peak in football history.
Using your logic, Ronaldo should not retire lest he "settle" for being behind Messi in Golden boots (or total career goals + assists, for that matter).
You can’t argue against Ronaldos killer mindset just because it doesn’t suit the argument you’re trying to make. That man will rinse every ounce of his fading talent to keep scoring even a fraction of the goals he did in his pomp at the highest level he possibly can. I mean we can pretend mindset doesn’t matter when Ronaldos scoring record after 30 is almost a goal a game alone. You don’t get that without being abnormal.