Most Talented Player Of Our Times

From the past decade obviously Messi.

I'd say Ribery was a truly naturally gifted footballer too.
 
The testament to messi's talent is that there was a thread on here in 2006/07 (when he was 18/19 years old) asking if we're seeing the greatest player of all time. And it wasn't exactly a ridiculous question to be asking even with his lack of pedigree back then.
 
Striker: Ronaldo Luís
Forward: Lionel Messi
Offensive midfielder: Zinédine Zidane
Central midfielder: Fernando Redondo
Fullback: Marcelo Vieira
Centerback: Alessandro Nesta
Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer

Contemporary youngster: Rayan Cherki
 
R9
Messi
Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho would be first if it was from a purely technical perspective. But all things comsidered, R9 and Messi are evem more talented.
 
NewGlory said:
At his best, maybe even more magical than Maradona? Hard for me to judge, since I have only really watched Maradona at the national team level and not so much his club performances (only recordings).
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Maradona was basically Ronaldinho with a winning mentality. He's still the most gifted footballer of all-time.
 
Maradona, Real Ronaldo, Messi. It's hard to say who was the most gifted given the different periods they played and Ronaldo being quite a different player than the other two.

Ronaldinho was magic but he didn't have quite the natural gifts of the above. Maybe Pele was as gifted but I haven't seen enough to say.
 
In my lifetime...

Always thought Cryuff and Maradona were all right.

If we are doing positions...Baresi would probably get into the team in central defence I suppose.

George Best could play out wide and he would do a job for you...

That new boy Messi isn't half bad either.

And maybe not very 'talented' as the lads above...Bryan Robson was the best proper box-to-box midfielder I've ever seen.
 
Pretzels81 said:
Since the CR / Messi explosion in 2007-2009

Messi
CR
+ (random order)-----
Ribery
Ramos
Iniesta
Xavi
Busquets
Hazard
Toure Y.
Kompany
Robben
Mbappe
Lewandowski
Aguero
L.Suarez
Neymar
Modric
Muller
Boateng
Neuer
Van Dijk
Salah
Kane
De Bruyne
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Rooney??
 
Messi, by a distance. He's spent the best part of 15 years making the ridiculous commonplace.
 
In an era where sports science, professionalism and fitness have increased standards massively - where players and specialist coaches can forensically analyse every aspect of their performances - for someone like Messi to still be head and shoulders above everyone (a few years ago maybe) shows that he is the most talented of all time.

While not of this era, he is often compared to someone like Maradona, who was competing against players who ate steak and chips before games and drank 10 pints the previous night.
 
Gio said:
Can someone define ‘talent’?
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That thing that comes before hard work and which you maximize if you put work into it.

Ronaldinho was lazy, undisciplined maniac. And even with very little effort he was magical. Who knows if he'd be better than Messi or Ronaldo if he put as much work in, as the two greats did, but when you watched him you couldn't help see the sparks and understand that he was born to football. You can't get what Ronaldinho had if you are not born with it and very few are.
 
Flexdegea said:
Paddy McCourt.................ridiculous talent
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No offense, but Paddy is not even in the same league as Messi, Ronaldo, or Ronaldinho, but I do miss forwards (esp. in EPL) who would charge at defenders and bypass couple of them to score a screamer of a goal. Almost nobody does that in EPL, anymore.
 
Defence: Passarella
Midfield: Zidane-Redondo
Forward. Messi-Maradona-Dinho
CF Ronaldo, the fat one.
 
NewGlory said:
No offense, but Paddy is not even in the same league as Messi, Ronaldo, or Ronaldinho, but I do miss forwards (esp. in EPL) who would charge at defenders and bypass couple of them to score a screamer of a goal. Almost nobody does that in EPL, anymore.
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Sorry, I forgot the White Text :lol:
 
Messi without a shadow of a doubt. Best dribbler, one of the best final ball passer and the best pure/technical finisher (as compared to ronaldos instincts/determination to be in the right place at the right time) since I started watching football. At his peak he was truly unplayable.

Ronaldo Brazil comes next; if not for his knee injury would have become the greatest no 9 ever and would have been mentioned along with Messi, Pele and Maradona.

Ronaldinho comes third. A freestyles on the football pitch. The most entertaining footballer here.
 
Web of Bissaka said:
This tend to favor attacking player.. which I just hate, since football have many positions.

Most talented Players, depends on positions:

Forward - Ronaldo Lima
Attacking midfielder - Ronaldinho (Messi is close second)
Winger - Cristiano Ronaldo (United version)
Side midfielder - Beckham
Centre midfielder - Pirlo
B2B midfielder - Robson
Defensive midfielder - Makelele
Attacking full back - Dani Alves
Defensive full back - Maldini
Centre back - Nesta
Goalkeeper - Cech (pre-injury version)

Just from my time.
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Ronaldinho was more flashy but entertainment aside Messi has been better than him in every aspect of an attackers game be it goal scoring (keep in mind that alot of them are amazing goals), creating goals, or dribbling. But of course Ronaldinho himself was amazing,
 
Ronaldinho for what he could do with a football. Not even Messi and Maradona could do the things Ronaldinho could. However, for talent and ability to dominate a game i'd say the Brazilian Ronaldo. At his peak he was just insane. Could literally take a football beat 4-5 players and score and he seemed to do it on the regular.
 
Dante said:
Martial gets underrated in threads like these because he's not English.
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What? No he doesn't. He doesn't get rated because there are talents a billion times greater than his that we've seen. He's had one truly good season but if you think he's comparable with the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, C. Ronaldo, Zidane etc then you must have some incredibly strong United tinted glasses on. Hell he's not even the best United forward from "our times" a young Rooney and Ronaldo were far more talented.
 
NewGlory said:
That thing that comes before hard work and which you maximize if you put work into it.

Ronaldinho was lazy, undisciplined maniac. And even with very little effort he was magical. Who knows if he'd be better than Messi or Ronaldo if he put as much work in, as the two greats did, but when you watched him you couldn't help see the sparks and understand that he was born to football. You can't get what Ronaldinho had if you are not born with it and very few are.
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Yeah on that basis I suppose it’s hard to say because we can’t really compare all the superstars when they were young kids before they put in the 10-20,000 hours of ball mastery to make it as professionals.
 
I cant believe someone posted that Zidane was more talented than Ronaldinho... :wenger:

I find it hard to believe that people can't separate the idea of someone being a wholesome person and doing all the diet and exercise pieces right to have a long career from undeniable talent either.

If you took Maradonas best season and did that for 12 seasons and then took C. Ronaldo/Messi's best season and did that for 12 seasons then we'd be saying Maradona was a much better player than Ronaldo /Messi but because his talent was meteoric, like Ronaldinhos and George Bests they are instantly relegated to below Ronaldo and Messi, which is totally incorrect.
 
Messi / Ronaldo / Ronaldinho

Young Cristiano was better to watch than modern Cristiano.
 
Green_Red said:
If you took Maradonas best season and did that for 12 seasons and then took C. Ronaldo/Messi's best season and did that for 12 seasons then we'd be saying Maradona was a much better player than Ronaldo /Messi
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Maradona's best season wasnt even close to CR7's best season let alone Messi's best season, even less a 'just as good' season, and in no alternate reality of our planet earth would Maradona ever be called a "much better player than Messi" and be considered a correct opinion.
 
No mention of Neymar? He is surely up with the very best. Alright someone posted it a few seconds before me.
 
Depends what you mean. In terms of technical ability I haven't seen anyone like Zidane. He used to stroll around and caress that thing in a way no one else could. He'd do the outrageous and make it look easy.

As a footballer though I'd say the Brazilian Ronaldo. His combination of elite athletiscm and all types of footballing ability made him ridiculous.
 
Lingard
His dance moves,ability to hide from the ball,forever young personality plus the sheer luck to have a career at a club like man utd
 
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