Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has been named All Football Player of the Week.
Lionel Messi sealed a 3-0 win for Barcelona against Deportivo Alaves with a double in his first LaLiga match as the club's full-time captain.
The Argentina forward broke the deadlock at 64th-minute with a clever free-kick. It was fitting that Barca's 6000th goal in the top flight was scored by the man who got their 5000th back in 2009.
Moreover, the 31-year-old brought down Suarez's pass and slotted in his second goal of the game in the first minute of stoppage time to seal a routine win for the Catalans.
Starting the new season with a bang, Messi is now eyeing a magnificient year under his captaincy.
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BarcaFamily
345
yet UEFA didn't deem it fit for this all season star to be included in their list but added Salah and Modric that are just a season's star, even though none of them brake any of Lionel Messi's records. We in FC Barcelona family we are watching UEFA and their little introduction of bias in their affairs. Whether or not, Messi is and remain the best.
Sterzil
265
Congratulations Lionel Messi he's performance was brilliant fantastic and fabulous I enjoyed watching him play.... he didn't only score but still assisted and made some key passes which I think could have been goal he was a clinical finisher.... Congratulations once again Messi keep it up as always I would be expecting more from this pure football talent 👏
prakashcr7
183
Congratulations to leo messi. You won the player of the week though Aguero and Andre Silva performance was better than yours. But we all have to accept and you deserve it as well
Apostle1
171
at the age of 31 and still no sign of slowing down. pure talent and genius
Bellight
142
congrats Leo you'll always surprise me love you
AntonyAshal
96
Hope the player of week will become the player of the year. Don't hope just BELIVE..... Because he have the potential to achieve it
Zolex83
89
this is sentimental, Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick to help Man City thrash Huddersfield 6-1 as David Silva marked his 250th EPL game with a stunning free-kick goal. and you mentioned Messi to be the player of the week because of one free kick . what of that of David silver. this sentimental attached to Messi is not credible for all football. you guys love Messi. this is the footballer of the week.
Rony10
84
follower
65
congratulations to leo messi, his freekick goal proves that he deserves it. hopefully he come back stronger in world cup 2022 and win it. who is waiting for that day to happen and see messi win the ballon dor in the same year? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🏆🏆🏆🏆
adepops
58
Here are our 7 reasons why Lionel Messi is the GOAT (the greatest of all time) 7. Internationals Lionel Messi has never won the World Cup, and with Argentina priced at 10/1 to win the 2022 competition, his chances don’t look great at the moment. So firstly we must start with this World Cup argument, and I’ll try to be terse. The World Cup is arguably the pinnacle of the world game, and certainly the pinnacle of international football, so its hefty weighting is understandable. It shouldn’t, however, be forgotten that the World Cup is only a month long tournament which comes along once every four years, and the other three years and eleven months in between is still pretty important. Then we come to Messi himself, whose critics accuse him of being a flop on the international stage, but is that really the case? Well, Messi is Argentina’s all time leading scorer, and he trails only Pele in terms of South Americans, which doesn’t sound too bad. He scored once and had another wrongly ruled out as a teenager at the 2006 World Cup, he was named by FIFA as one of the 10 best players at the 2010 World Cup and won the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2014 World Cup. It is true that he was quiet in 2018, although he was still Argentina’s best player in our books, with two assists and an excellent goal, and he was in a genuinely calamitous Argentina side. All in all, it is certainly true that he has never had a completely awe-inspiring World Cup like Maradona in ‘86, in which he has inspired his national team to glory against the odds. However, he has been by far Argentina's best player, at least one of the best players at multiple tournaments and is the country's all time leading scorer. 6. Big Games Leo Messi during the match between FC Barcelona and Deportivo Alaves, corresponding to the week 1 of que spanish league, played at the Camp Nou, on 18th August, 2018, in Barcelona, Spain. To rank among the pantheon of all time greats, surely you have to be able to turn on the style on the biggest stages, and when it matters most. That is often used as an argument against Thierry Henry, and in favour of someone like Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima. So we thought it might be worthwhile to look at Messi’s so-called ‘Big Game’ credentials. In terms of finals, his record is truly superb. He has played in a total of 28 finals for Barcelona, scoring exactly 28 goals. Compare that to his greatest contemporary rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who many consider to be a better big game player, the Portuguese superstar has managed an equally impressive but slightly poorer 18 goals in 24 finals. We should point out that Messi’s record in international finals is played 5 and scored none, but his overall record is still exceptional. Then there are big games in terms of simply being against top teams or great rivals. Messi is by far the all time record goal scorer in El Clasico ties, having scored 26 times against Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Alfredo Di Stefano tied in second with 18 apiece. Messi’s four favourite opponents - that is to say the four teams he has scored the most goals against- read Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Valencia. Compare that to Cristiano Ronaldo, as someone who has played in the same era and predominantly the same league, his favourite opponents read slightly less illustriously as Sevilla, Getafe, Atletico Madrid and Celta Vigo. 5. Goal Scoring This shouldn’t take as long as some of the other entries in this seven, but everyone knows Lionel Messi has a quite phenomenal goal scoring record. In the decade before Messi and Ronaldo both scored more than 50 goals in a single season - both in the 2010-11 season incidentally - those kind of numbers were thought of as having become unattainable in the modern game. Sure, there have been tremendous goal scorers from Dixie Dean to Gerd Muller, but the game had changed. Not only have Messi and Ronaldo proved that those kind of numbers are possible, both have hit them regularly for the best part of a decade. Messi, in fact, has gone beyond that, setting all time records for both the most goals in a single season and the most in a calendar year. He is the most prolific footballer of his generation and one of the most prolific of all time - this in spite of being very unselfish in his play and rarely operating as an out-and-out centre-forward. 4. Completeness Lionel Messi of Barcelona looks on prior during the La Liga match between FC Barcelona and Deportivo Alaves at Camp Nou on August 18, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. The end of that last entry leads us on nicely to our fourth point, the completeness of Messi’s game. From Alfredo di Stefano to John Charles, the game’s most complete players have often tended to rank among its best. Messi isn’t a guy who is going to put in crunching tackles every week or beat 6’5” defenders in 50/50 aerial balls, but in an attacking sense, he may be the most complete player in the history of the game. His talent and poise in front of goal is shown in his sheer numbers, which have come courtesy of all kinds of goals, from mazy 40 yard runs and dinks over the ‘keeper, to simple 30 yard thunderbolts or tap-ins from the six-yard box created by his exceptional movement. Messi is so much more than a goal scorer though, in fact, he has the most assists of any footballer on the planet since records began, and that’s a stat that will come as little surprise to anyone who watches him regularly. Messi’s touch, close control, intelligence, agility, vision and passing are all second to none. One could make a good case for him being both the finest goal scorer and playmaker on the planet all in one. 3. Consistency / Longevity / Evolution The truly great players maintain their form over a number of years, remain at the very highest level and typically have to modify their game to do so. Football’s first global superstar Stanley Matthews played until the age of 50, Ryan Giggs converted from a quick and tricky left winger into a calm and composed deep-lying playmaker, and Cristiano Ronaldo has come in off the left flank to almost become one of a dying breed as a pure poacher in his early-mid 30’s. Messi’s consistency and longevity is inarguable, as at least one of the top three players in world football for more than a decade, with no signs of letting up. Then we come to his evolution, and this is something which is often overlooked. The naturally simplified media narrative tends to be that of the two great players of our times, one is an unstoppable machine carved out of hard work, dedication and the relentless pursuit of greatness, whilst the other is just a born genius from another planet with magic in his feet. Both contain elements of the truth, but neither tell the full story. Messi may have a great deal of god-given talent, but anyone who thinks he has spent 10+ years at the top without having an impeccable attitude, mentality and drive is deluded. Take any element of Messi’s game which wasn’t originally world class; such as set-pieces for example. In the early stages of his career, Messi either didn’t take or wasn’t brilliant at set-pieces by his own high standards. Today, he is either the or one of the best players in world football from dead ball situations. That doesn’t happen by accident. As well as his positional changes, which have seen him move from the right flank into centre-forward or at least more centrally and then much deeper into attacking midfield, the weaker elements of Messi’s game have constantly been improved and fine-tuned by his own dedication. 2. Style of Play Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona competes for the ball with Ruben Duarte of Deportivo Alaves during the La Liga match between FC Barcelona and Deportivo Alaves at Camp Nou on August 18, 2018... Well, this feeds into his completeness, but Messi’s style of play, few would argue, is a joy to watch. Football is all about those moments which put a smile on your face and rarely does 90 minutes pass without Messi doing that at least once. Exceptionally skilful and creative, Messi’s style of play is another element of his game which has been developed over the years. Perhaps we see a little less flair from him these days since every touch and every movement serves a purpose. He is equally happy to beat his opponent with a nutmeg as he is a simple body swerve, whatever gets the job done. Unlike other great players who show us flashes and glimpses, who you accept making mistakes for they can turn a game on its head, virtually everything Messi does is careful, considered, intelligent and beneficial to the team. Watch his performances and goals against Bayern Munich in the Champions League and Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final, both in 2015, for vintage Messi and his style of play at its absolute best. 1. Competition Lastly, and most importantly of all of course, to consider Messi our GOAT, what we are saying is that there has never been a better footballer than him. To do so, we must look at the other obvious candidates, although obviously, we cannot do so in any great depth, and feel free to check out our 7 greatest footballers of all time video (I’ll stick a link in the video description below) for more on that. The genuine rivals for Messi’s title of GOAT would be Pele, Maradona and Di Stefano, followed in a bracket just below that by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo, Beckenbauer and a few others. So why does Messi beat these great players? Well, you’d have to take it on a case by case basis, but I believe he was and is more consistent than any of them, and he is more talented, purely technically than any of them, with the possible exception of Maradona. Messi is a relentless goal-scoring machine, yes. He’s also an incredibly prolific creator of goals. He contributes to multiple phases of play. He can beat a player with five step-overs or he can split a defence in half with the simplest of passes. When you take talent, technique, consistency longevity and above all else sheer effectiveness all into consideration, in our eyes, no-one can compete with Lionel Messi
AbrahamKumar
50
Then What Is UEFA thinking... His is a legend, star amd even King of football but yet his not even in the top three... I really feel sorry for Messi and his fans... but for me, his the best player of this CENTURY
SalehSalim
48
bla bla bla bli bli bli just shut up UEFA is championnat Copa and cl so all tounement in Europe are you à player or do you no somethings in football??? let up compare madrid and baca is only messi and umtiti can plays in madrid inista was old so Madrid is bater than baca in all position and most of baca players were old like iniesta busqué pique and many no perform like suarez rakitich... penaldo is perform because hé has more talented player like modrich marcelo cassemiro Ramos bale... messi is alone there are players in baca bug not talented like Madrid but messi is still doing beter things than pénaldo more assit more gold more drible more and more... my use your brain like human be not like sheep and goat
Who is your English teacher 🤣🤣🤣
Hillmessi
42
The WORLD BEST...THERE IS NO BETTER