Messi in Miami

TheNewEra

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Should have gone to the saudi league as it looks more competitive but doesnt surprise me because he only played in the worlds best league for 3-5 years at max.
None of what Messi or Ronaldo does in MLS or Saudi matters from here.

Their European and international careers matter.

You can factor in the goals they score at MLS and Saudi but the relative strengths of the leagues are hard to weight, Saudi could be top 50 now and Top 40 next year with the investments.

We can't really start to add arbitrary weights to figure out "true goal" tally based on team ranking or something like that.

I think we can't really take goals and titles too seriously but we are wiping away 2 years of Messis goals since he's younger than Ronaldo
 

FrankFoot

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That's analogous to us as a species questioning our own existence.

All those factors listed above are what make him Messi. For better or for worse.

I could say that if Ronaldo didn't move to Madrid he would have been a merely good player (like Kaka or Henry) and not GOAT tier. And I would be probably right. But that's a meaningless statement because it didn't happen, as with a billion billion other things. The Madrid move, Fergie's faith etc (along with the poor transfer decisions at the end of his career) are what make him Ronaldo. For better or for worse.

The same goes for any other player. Mario Balotelli could have been a world beater if he wasn't a Knob head. But he is Mario Balotelli because he's a Knob head. For better or for worse.

I just find the whole didn't play in PL thing to be in extremely bad faith. People have proved to be able to come up with any number of reasons why he isn't the best (i.e. the world cup is the pinnacle of the sport until Messi wins it) but I guess that's just why he is Messi.
It's hilarious, cause if you do a list of the 15 best players in history only CR7 and Bobby Charlton are the only ones who played in England.

Pele, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Platini, Beckenbauer, Matthaus, Van Basten, Zidane, R9, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, etc...never played in England.

And if you do a top 50 also a very few played in England.

Even doing it right now, many don't think Haaland is better than Mbappe or Kvaratshellia, despite the norwergian scoring for fun in the Premier League.

I'd say the PL/England hardly had an undisputed best player in the world, except CR7, Bobby Charlton, and George Best. So all this "he should play in England" makes no sense.
 
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MarylandMUFan

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It's hilarious, cause if you do a list of the 15 best players in history only CR7 and Bobby Charlton are the only ones who played in England.

Pele,Maradona,Cruyff,Di Stefano, Messi, Platini, Beckenbauer, Matthaus, Van Basten, Zidane, R9, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, etc...never played in England.

And if you do a top 50 only a very few played in England.

Even doing it right now, many don't think Haaland is better than Mbappe or Kvaratshellia, despite scoring for fun in the Premier League.

I'd say the PL/England hardly had an undisputed best player in the world, except CR7, Bobby Charlton, and George Best.
That's amazing, more of those greats listed played in the United States than in England. Messi has got to be loving the lack of pressure un the States compared to what he was getting in Europe.
 

Zehner

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Coming from someone who said Mudryk would become the next Neymar. See how that works? :wenger:
How what works? Made up arguments?

Honestly, I assume you're a grown man. You aren't obliged to defend everything United related and to criticize everything rival related. Start building your own opinions instead of just repeating what you assume a top red should say.
 

mu4c_20le

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How what works? Made up arguments?

Honestly, I assume you're a grown man. You aren't obliged to defend everything United related and to criticize everything rival related. Start building your own opinions instead of just repeating what you assume a top red should say.
Poor judgment.

Not sure what you're on about, I haven't defended anything United related.
 

Zen

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It's hilarious, cause if you do a list of the 15 best players in history only CR7 and Bobby Charlton are the only ones who played in England.

Pele, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Platini, Beckenbauer, Matthaus, Van Basten, Zidane, R9, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, etc...never played in England.

And if you do a top 50 also a very few played in England.

Even doing it right now, many don't think Haaland is better than Mbappe or Kvaratshellia, despite the norwergian scoring for fun in the Premier League.

I'd say the PL/England hardly had an undisputed best player in the world, except CR7, Bobby Charlton, and George Best. So all this "he should play in England" makes no sense.
Wait, who has Kvaratskhelia above Haaland.... where are these 'many'? I've legitimately never seen that.
 

mshnsh

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I dont argue that he is others goats & the majority’s GOAT but i always will comment about how i personally feel as my opinion.
Loyalty to barcelona was the only excuse I really had for him for not being tested in a tougher/different league in his whole career to feed my anxiety about his adaptive ability (something you don’t have as a fan who views him as the best of all time, whilst it’s things I value more as my GOAT - more so than things like technique which can be heavily influenced by team & league and team mates or manager IMO).

Then watching him in Ligue 1 not helping PSG to the success he was bought for as his only other daily competition took me to places again.He hasn’t been successful in the CL for ages and all of that success came under an era of Pep +- 1 year, the best Possesion football of all time, Xavi, Iniesta & then Messi as a cherry on top of the tastiest cake.
That started deteriorating soon as each one of them left even for Barcelona in that order. The success literally dropped in that order. Xavi & Iniesta we’re loyal to Barcelona & helped a non historical winning country like Spain win the World Cup but Messi wasn’t loyal so I analyze him outside Barcelona & his ability at other clubs more.

I just don’t see him 100% having the same trajectory under a different manager, league or club that might have played different tactics like countering, not ever trying out things like being a false 9 or even having a deep lying playmaker like Xavi (Mourinho) Even under a manager like SAF - Messi could have spent his growing years playing solely as a left winger providing for a striker like RVN & never getting the chance to play as a false 9/cf because SAF didn’t know or abide with that tactic.

Then I find out that Barcelona’s period of success under Pep could also be influenced by paying referees & then my anxiety still grew.
Anyway, I don’t hate him, not one bit - and I do think he is the most successful player of all time that is rightfully regarded as the GOAT by the majority, the most technical player succeeding in the most technical tested league but he is personally not my GOAT because I feel like he didn’t take my personal tests (everyone has their own tests) where he could have grown or adapted in a total different way to the philosophy of Barcelona.

Anyway, no one is going to change each other’s minds even if I’m in a minority. This is boring to talk about as it’s old and all I do is occasionally make a comment to show that there still is viewers of the sport that believes Messi is not rated rightly or accurately in their eyes - for simply not taking their personal tests. Like few men who might not like a woman that the majority would die for, which is plausible isn’t it? Simply because they like different beauty assets on their woman.
Hope you enjoy him whilst you can & hope he continues to kill with Inter Miami in the USA to have a beautiful highlights reel for our next generation.
Yawn. Just accept that you are biased towards his great rival.

Messi was amazing even before Pep joined. The only issue was injuries. When he was fit, he was far superior to anyone else. When we played Barca in the UCL semifinal of 2007/8 season, Messi was on another level to anyone else on the pitch including that year's ballon d'or winner Cristiano. And that was Messi just back from injury.

I saw many such performances and better from him even before and after Pep. The guy played under mediocre managers and still won the ballon d'or, still scored 50 plus goals and provided around 20 assists. The players who improved under Pep were the midfielders at Barcelona.

As for Messi not enjoying success outside Barcelona, he has won 2 major trophies with Argentina recently as the well deserved player of the tournament. He joined PSG well past his prime without actually wanting to and you can't ignore that PSG are a dysfunctional side. He was their best player in the first half of last season. Like most players, the world cup affected his form somewhat.
 

Mr Pigeon

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I just don't understand the hype about this guy and why he got millions of followers.
I understand he's quite good at football. Used to play for Barcelona or something.
I don't think that we're talking about the same guy unless you're being sarcastic?
He thinks you're talking about Messi.
I thought that my post was pretty obvious. Oh well...
 

porcorosso

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It's hilarious, cause if you do a list of the 15 best players in history only CR7 and Bobby Charlton are the only ones who played in England.

Pele, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Platini, Beckenbauer, Matthaus, Van Basten, Zidane, R9, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, etc...never played in England.

And if you do a top 50 also a very few played in England.

Even doing it right now, many don't think Haaland is better than Mbappe or Kvaratshellia, despite the norwergian scoring for fun in the Premier League.

I'd say the PL/England hardly had an undisputed best player in the world, except CR7, Bobby Charlton, and George Best. So all this "he should play in England" makes no sense.
Yes, and I would say, EPL is the most entertaining and most competitive league, but not necessarily the best league in terms of football.

The best players played in Serie A then La Liga, but I think they are coming to EPL.
 
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m1tch

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Given that we'll be lucky to have 1 CF this year, I wonder if Becks will loan us Messi during the MLS off-season.
 

calodo2003

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Some great writing about how Messi got to sign with Inter Miami & how it’s going with teammates, etc…

 

BusbyMalone

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Look, I know footballers have a great life (the really elite ones) and they get paid handsomely...but feck that level of celebrity. I couldn't do it for any amount of money. My head would pop.
 

Redplane

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Poor man can't even get a break in the United States. :lol:

I know it exists to a degree elsewhere as well but holy feck do I loathe the celebrity worship in this country. Nothing against Messi in particular. Its just sad and explains a lot of the keeping up with the Joneses mentality that exists here that fecks with so many minds.
 

Gehrman

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They are really going all out with the promotional stuff over there


Nothings ever going to beat Ronnie's hideous statue and the one where he has a boner.
 

Gehrman

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None of what Messi or Ronaldo does in MLS or Saudi matters from here.

Their European and international careers matter.

You can factor in the goals they score at MLS and Saudi but the relative strengths of the leagues are hard to weight, Saudi could be top 50 now and Top 40 next year with the investments.

We can't really start to add arbitrary weights to figure out "true goal" tally based on team ranking or something like that.

I think we can't really take goals and titles too seriously but we are wiping away 2 years of Messis goals since he's younger than Ronaldo
I dont think any goals they score where they are at matter. Even if it means wiping out Messi's goals past 36. Officially they count but they are playing at a level where it means zilch.
 

MrMarcello

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Look, I know footballers have a great life (the really elite ones) and they get paid handsomely...but feck that level of celebrity. I couldn't do it for any amount of money. My head would pop.
Can't confirm which athlete or celebrity it was, but seem to recall Michael Jordan would arrange shopping in advance and go after or before store hours to shop if he wanted to go out himself.
 

Gehrman

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Can't confirm which athlete or celebrity it was, but seem to recall Michael Jordan would arrange shopping in advance and go after or before store hours to shop if he wanted to go out himself.
They could also just hire a butler for the job. But of course they want some semblance of a normal life.
 

adexkola

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I know it exists to a degree elsewhere as well but holy feck do I loathe the celebrity worship in this country. Nothing against Messi in particular. Its just sad and explains a lot of the keeping up with the Joneses mentality that exists here that fecks with so many minds.
I think it's Messi Mania that'll fade after a few months.

I don't think stars in other sports get mobbed like this. LeBron, Brady, Ohtani... They go about their business in LA and Miami without this sort of crowd.
 

MrMarcello

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They could also just hire a butler for the job. But of course they want some semblance of a normal life.
Fairly certain Jordan didn't do most of his personal shopping but on the odd occasion he ventured out he went after hours.

I have read stories of celebrities booking an entire movie theater to watch a flick with family, and would do the backdoor secret entry stuff.
 

Scarlett Dracarys

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They worship him down there. This is Wynwood Miami. It's an art district that's covered in graffiti and as soon as you enter this is the right in your face.

 
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calodo2003

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Can't confirm which athlete or celebrity it was, but seem to recall Michael Jordan would arrange shopping in advance and go after or before store hours to shop if he wanted to go out himself.
Jordan would buy out as large a bloc of tee times on one of our courses on a summer day at the resort in north Scottsdale where I was an asst. pro, sometimes up to a six hour bloc so as not to see a soul besides the ranger & the bev cart girl. If he & his entourage couldn't get a large enough bloc of tee times tied down, he would helicopter into the resort at 601P when the golf shop closed so he could get right out by sliding us a few hundred.

He had being an apparition at our resort down to a science. He & his posse tipped disgustingly well to boot.
 

JB7

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Interest waning quicker than expected in Fort Laurderdale? Local derby at home in a knock out game 2 days from now and there are loads of tickets available all over the ground: Tickets
 

njred

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Interest waning quicker than expected in Fort Laurderdale? Local derby at home in a knock out game 2 days from now and there are loads of tickets available all over the ground: Tickets
Those are verified resale tickets. In other words it’s sold out and it’s people reselling to make a buck.
 

JB7

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Those are verified resale tickets. In other words it’s sold out and it’s people reselling to make a buck.
Look again. You can pick up tickets in almost every block along both sides direct from the club.