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Offline capodetutticapi

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Lionel Messi Thread.
« on: February 22, 2008, 10:44:28 AM »
Messi Wins EFE Award

2/22/2008 10:05 AM
Barcelona's Argentine forward Lionel Messi was awarded the EFE trophy as the best Latin American player in La Liga last season at a ceremony at the Camp Nou earlier today.
Messi was presented with the trophy by EFE president Alex Grijelmo and was joined by his parents, brothers and other family members at the ceremony.

This was the 17th year that EFE have honoured the best Latin American player in La Liga and Messi beat off competition from Daniel Alves and his Barça teammate Ronaldinho to scoop the award, voted for by the members of EFE.

Messi was grateful to receive the award and stated that he hopes to continue to improve as a player in the coming years.

"I want to thank the Agency EFE and all the people who are present, to my family and my captain, Carles Puyol. It is beautiful to be able to receive this prize and it gives me extra motivation to continue grow as a player," he told those in attendance.

Before presenting the award to Messi, Grijelmo spoke in glowing terms of the Barcelona forward, saying that he is an inspiration to kids of small stature who want to become professional footballers.

"Messi is one of those players that I enjoy watching. Today he receives an important prize. They say that he is the new Maradona; he is not very tall, like Butragueño or Aimar, and that is one of the great things about football, that anyone can dream about being a star regardless of their physique," he explained.

Messi becomes the sixth Argentine to win the award, following in the footsteps of Diego Simeone, Martín Herrera, Fernando Redondo, Javier Saviola and Pablo Aimar.

« Last Edit: December 29, 2011, 06:08:14 AM by Flex »
soon ah go b ah lean mean bulling machine.

Offline Jumbie

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Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2009, 09:23:22 PM »
Argentina's Lionel Messi has won the prestigious Ballon d'Or, the award for Europe's player of the year voted by journalists and organised by France Football magazine.


Messi, the talented Barcelona forward, sent last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place, making him the sixth Barcelona player to take the award but the first for four years - since Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho.

Messi became the first Ballon D'Or winner from Argentina, eclipsing Ronaldo by a record 240-point margin. The award's 96 jurors gave Messi 473 points out of a possible 480, a near unanimous verdict, the magazine said on its website.

Messi told France Football: "There's lots of emotion - the Ballon d'Or is very important for me. I know I appeared among the favourites because Barcelona had a profitable year.

"For me it's a big honour to win - but also to become the first Argentinian in history to receive the trophy. I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.''

Messi recently signed a two-year contract extension with the European champions until 2016 - an improved deal which includes a buy-out clause worth 250million euros (£228million).

The 22-year-old Argentinian won an unprecedented treble last season as Messi's Catalan side won the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Copa del Rey. Messi was the top scorer in last year's Champions League with nine goals, including a header in the 2-0 final defeat of Manchester United in Rome.

Messi also hit 23 goals in the league and six in the King's Cup. As the leading light in the world's best team this year, it had been widely expected Messi would snare the Ballon d'Or in the lead up to Tuesday's announcement.

Ronaldo (233 votes) was the only non-Barcelona player in the top four, with Xavi (170) and Andres Iniesta (149) next in the list. Former Barca striker Samuel Eto'o - now with Inter Milan, was fifth on 75, 17 votes clear of Real's former AC Milan playmaker Kaka.

Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who moved in the opposite direction to Eto'o, polled 50 - before a quintet of English-based players. Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney and Chelsea forward Didier Drogba were eighth and ninth, with Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard completing the top 10.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was 11th, Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas 12th, with Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs - who netted his 100th Premier League goal at Portsmouth on Saturday, finishing 14th.

Barcelona's Thierry Henry, heavily criticised for his handball in France's World Cup play-off win over Republic, completed the top 15. Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic shared 16th place with eight points alongside Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Atletico Madrid's Diego Forlan polled seven and Bordeaux striker Yoann Gourcuff six, while Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin and Chelsea counterpart Frank Lampard shared 21st with five alongside Inter keeper Julio Cesar.

Inter Milan's Maicon (four), Juventus' Diego (three), Valencia's David Villa and Chelsea defender John Terry (two), and Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery and Barcelona's Yaya Toure (one) completed the star-studded list.

Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=706306&sec=europe&cc=5901

Offline 100% Barataria

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2009, 09:29:05 PM »
 :applause: :applause: :applause:

Well deserved, hard luck macoh meh man  :devil:
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Offline Small Magician aka Wazza

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2009, 09:30:50 PM »
Well won.. congrats


Offline Big Magician

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2009, 09:43:31 PM »
well done smalls...play yuh fitball
Little Magician is King.......ask Jorge Campos


Offline Jah Gol

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2009, 09:44:05 PM »
little man , big player.

Offline TdotTrini

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2009, 10:06:09 PM »
steups, Jones rel shoot himself in the foot with that red card. there is always next year.

Well done little man.
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Offline Mango Chow!

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Re: Messi claims Ballon d'Or
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2009, 11:09:30 PM »
:applause: :applause: :applause:

Well deserved, hard luck macoh meh man  :devil:


 :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


Not because a man ears long and he teet' long dat it make him a Jackass!

Offline Disgruntled_Trini

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Messi takes Ballon d'Or
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2009, 07:09:49 AM »
Argentina's Lionel Messi has won the prestigious Ballon d'Or, the award for Europe's player of the year voted by journalists and organised by France Football magazine.


Lionel Messi's Champions League win helped him to the Ballon d'Or

Messi, the talented Barcelona forward, sent last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place, making him the sixth Barcelona player to take the award but the first for four years - since Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho.

Messi became the first Ballon D'Or winner from Argentina, eclipsing Ronaldo by a record 240-point margin. The award's 96 jurors gave Messi 473 points out of a possible 480, a near unanimous verdict, the magazine said on its website.

Messi told France Football: "There's lots of emotion - the Ballon d'Or is very important for me. I know I appeared among the favourites because Barcelona had a profitable year.

"For me it's a big honour to win - but also to become the first Argentinian in history to receive the trophy. I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.''

Messi recently signed a two-year contract extension with the European champions until 2016 - an improved deal which includes a buy-out clause worth 250million euros (£228million).

The 22-year-old Argentinian won an unprecedented treble last season as Messi's Catalan side won the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Copa del Rey. Messi was the top scorer in last year's Champions League with nine goals, including a header in the 2-0 final defeat of Manchester United in Rome.

Messi also hit 23 goals in the league and six in the King's Cup. As the leading light in the world's best team this year, it had been widely expected Messi would snare the Ballon d'Or in the lead up to Tuesday's announcement.

Ronaldo (233 votes) was the only non-Barcelona player in the top four, with Xavi (170) and Andres Iniesta (149) next in the list. Former Barca striker Samuel Eto'o - now with Inter Milan, was fifth on 75, 17 votes clear of Real's former AC Milan playmaker Kaka.

Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who moved in the opposite direction to Eto'o, polled 50 - before a quintet of English-based players. Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney and Chelsea forward Didier Drogba were eighth and ninth, with Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard completing the top 10.

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was 11th, Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas 12th, with Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs - who netted his 100th Premier League goal at Portsmouth on Saturday, finishing 14th.

Barcelona's Thierry Henry, heavily criticised for his handball in France's World Cup play-off win over Republic, completed the top 15. Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic shared 16th place with eight points alongside Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Atletico Madrid's Diego Forlan polled seven and Bordeaux striker Yoann Gourcuff six, while Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin and Chelsea counterpart Frank Lampard shared 21st with five alongside Inter keeper Julio Cesar.

Inter Milan's Maicon (four), Juventus' Diego (three), Valencia's David Villa and Chelsea defender John Terry (two), and Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery and Barcelona's Yaya Toure (one) completed the star-studded list.


Més que un club.

Offline kicker

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Re: Messi takes Ballon d'Or
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2009, 07:25:04 AM »
Wow!! What a shocker!!!

Live life 90 minutes at a time....Football is life.......

Offline Disgruntled_Trini

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Re: Messi takes Ballon d'Or
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2009, 08:00:32 AM »
Messi fans, check this site I now stumble across.



http://www.lapermanenteamessi.com.ar/


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Lionel Messi: Boy Genius
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2011, 07:44:44 PM »
Lionel Messi: Boy Genius
By JERÉ LONGMAN
May 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/sports/soccer/lionel-messi-boy-genius.html?sq=messi&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all

He Doesn’t Live There
by Robert Lalasz

Brilliant!
Magic!
Aaaaaaaagh!
Absolute genius again
From Messi!
They tried
To kick him
They tried
To plow him into the ground
And what you do then?
You try to put
Fire out
With gasoline!
Don’t look for him
In the X’s and O’s
He doesn’t live there.
He doesn’t live in
The tactical world
Or the technical world
He lives in the
Magnetic spectrum
Of genius.
You could corral him with
A dozen alligators
And still he’d weave
His way out.

BARCELONA, Spain — Given a rare night on the Barcelona bench last Sunday, Lionel Messi yanked on the seat in front of him, hunched his shoulders over the chair back and kicked it with his cleats. He seemed not so much the world’s best soccer player as a restless kid in a movie theater.

He is 23, with a grown-up’s income reported to exceed $43 million this year. Yet Messi still has a boy’s floppy bangs, a boy’s slight build and a boy’s nickname, the Flea. Even the ball stays on his feet like a shy child clinging to his father’s legs.

It is a boy’s fearlessness, enthusiasm, calm and humility, too, that help explain why Messi is already considered one of the greatest ever to play the world’s game. In the space of 18 tense days from April to early May, Barcelona played four Clásicos against its archrival, Real Madrid. The Madrid strategy was to strangle beauty out of the matches, to use nasty muscle against Messi, to shoulder him down or shiver him with a forearm or take his legs in scything tackles. Once, he was sent rolling as if he had caught fire.

Messi made small appeals for fairness with his eyes and hands, but he remained unflappable and without complaint. He did not yell at the referee or clamp a threatening hand around an opponent’s neck or fake a foul and dive to the ground. He remained apart from ugly words and scuffles and expulsions that marred the matches. Instead, he trumped cynicism with genius.

With a boy’s ardor, Messi put Barcelona in the final of the Champions League in Europe — the world’s most prestigious club tournament — to be played against Manchester United on Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London. He delivered both goals in Barcelona’s 2-0 victory in the first leg of the semifinal round against Real Madrid. This gave Messi a startling 52 goals in his first 50 matches of a season in which he also leads the Spanish league in assists. The first goal was merely outstanding in its timing and clever anticipation. The second was a masterpiece of acceleration, power, balance, agility, vision and darting virtuosity.

“I think this genius is impossible to describe,” Pep Guardiola, Barcelona’s manager, said. “That’s why he is a genius. He has instinct. He loves to live with pressure. He is one of the best ever created.”

That defining Champions League semifinal match was played April 27 at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. Nine months earlier, stars from Barcelona and Real Madrid joined to give Spain its first World Cup title. Together, they lifted the winner’s trophy in South Africa. But now they played for club, not country. Temporary brotherhood fissured. Blood rivalry resumed. Madrid, the capital, was once the base of Franco’s dictatorship and is now the seat of Spain’s constitutional monarchy; Barcelona sits in the heart of the autonomous Catalan region, with its own language and cultural (and soccer) identity.

An Argentine, Messi was not born into these tensions. He came to Barcelona at 13, when the club agreed to pick up the costs of treatment for a growth-hormone deficiency. As the story goes, his contract was written on a napkin. At the time, he was about 4 feet 7 inches. He now stands 5-7. If his lack of size made him shy and self-conscious as a boy, his low center of gravity made him spectacularly elusive as a soccer player.

“We thought he was mute,” said Gerard Piqué, the lanky Barcelona center back who played with Messi in the club’s youth academy. “He was in the dressing room, on the bench, just sitting. He said nothing to us for the first month. We traveled to Switzerland to play a tournament, and he started to talk and have fun. We thought it was another person. He was really good, but he was really small and thin. His legs were like fingers. One coach said, ‘Don’t try to tackle him strong, because maybe you will break him.’ And we said, ‘O.K., but don’t worry because we cannot catch him.’ ”

A decade later, Messi proved even more artful and cagey in the Champions League semifinals after the April match remained scoreless into the 76th minute. As Madrid sat and waited, Barcelona dominated possession with its elegant, patient attack, probing for an away goal that would serve as a tie breaker if needed in the home-and-home series. It was a format meant to encourage aggressiveness in visiting teams and to discourage them from turtling into a defensive shell.

An opening came soon enough. Madrid was vulnerable. In the 61st minute, it had been reduced to 10 men after Pepe, a defender, was red-carded for a cleats-up challenge on Barcelona’s right back, Dani Alves. Pushing into midfield, Pepe had been Madrid’s most effective marker of Messi in two earlier matches during the month, one a tie in a Spanish league game, the other a Real Madrid victory for the Spanish Cup (which was unceremoniously dropped under the team bus during the celebration). But this match was more important, a chance to play for the championship of Europe. Pepe’s eviction was a harsh blow that changed everything.

Madrid’s impulsive manager, José Mourinho, was soon banished, too. He clapped his hands mockingly at the referee’s notice of Pepe’s eviction and at what he considered Alves’s theatrically pained reaction to a nonexistent foul.

In 2005, while managing Chelsea in the English Premier League, a suspended Mourinho reportedly evaded a prohibition on contact with his players by rolling into the dressing room while hiding inside a laundry basket. Now, against Barcelona, he was reduced to a child’s classroom subterfuge of passing furtive notes to his assistant from the stands.

With 14 minutes remaining and the score still 0-0, Messi took what seemed an innocuous pass nearly 40 yards from the goal. It came from Xavi, Barcelona’s brilliant playmaker, whose oiled pompadour and wide eyes evoke a young Jackie Gleason, though Gleason’s comedy could be manic, even volcanic, while Xavi’s art is restrained and surgical.

Messi stabbed forward with the ball, and Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso tried to make a sliding tackle. Messi wobbled but shrugged off Alonso, keeping his feet. Still, he was not free. Madrid’s defense engulfed him like white blood cells trying to fight off infection. His shot ricocheted off a clot of defenders at the top of the penalty area, but Messi remained alert and flicked the rebound back to Xavi.

It was no surprise that Messi connected so assuredly with Xavi. The three players who drive Barcelona’s attack — Messi, Xavi and the industrious midfielder Andrés Iniesta — all graduated from the club’s youth academy. They are different ages, but they have been in one another’s company for a decade.

The heart of Barcelona’s defense, Piqué and Carles Puyol, also developed at the academy, which is symbolized by an 18th-century stone farmhouse, known as La Masia, that was remade into a dormitory just outside Camp Nou, Barcelona’s stadium. The generic term for the academy is La Cantera. The quarry. It has become the world’s model for mining young talent.

Messi grew homesick when he arrived with his father from Argentina, club officials said. He missed his mother and sometimes cried himself asleep. Quickly enough, though, he immersed himself in the Barcelona style, which demands flair and creativity, not mere utility. He played the keep-away game called El Rondo, in which one player stands inside a circle trying to steal passes made in tight spaces. He mastered the system known as tiki-taka, built around short, rhythmic passes and movement described by Iniesta as “receive, pass, offer,” triangular exchanges that form a spellbinding geometry.

As Barcelona dispatched Arsenal in the 2010 Champions League quarterfinals, Gunners wing Theo Walcott marveled, “It was like someone was holding a PlayStation controller and moving the figures around.”

In the first leg of this year’s semifinals, Real Madrid must have felt the same wonder and helplessness, especially down a man. Barcelona completed an astonishing 713 of 788 passes in the match. Xavi alone was 107 for 112. In the 76th minute, upon taking Messi’s short pass, Xavi turned his back to the goal and wheeled away from three defenders. Astutely, he played the ball on the right wing to the substitute Ibrahim Afellay. Messi took a few casual strides at the top of the penalty area, but this was a poacher’s deceptive saunter.

Alonso put a forearm in Messi’s chest for resistance, then backpedaled and turned his head to find the ball. Twelve yards from the goal, Alonso stopped, shuttling Messi off to the final line of Madrid’s defense. Space opened in the briefest moment of hesitancy and indecision. That was all Messi needed.

“I knew Afellay would wait until the last second to cross the ball, so I kept running,” he said.

He broke for the near goal post, sprinting past defender Sergio Ramos, a boy’s sprint, his short legs churning, his hands high and frantic. The cross from Afellay curled in low and precise. Before Iker Casillas, Madrid’s goalkeeper, could react, Messi ran onto the ball and jumped and clipped it between Casillas’s legs. Barcelona had a vital away goal. Messi jumped into his teammates’ arms and pumped his fists. He raised the Barcelona crest on his jersey and pounded his chest.

“No one plays with as much joy as Messi does,” Eduardo Galeano, the celebrated Uruguayan novelist and author of “Soccer in Sun and Shadow,” said in an e-mail. “He plays like a child enjoying the pasture, playing for the pleasure of playing, not the duty of winning.”

He plays like a child, and, away from the game, he still possesses a child’s reserve. Messi is seldom forthcoming. He even appeared distant last Sunday as Barcelona celebrated its latest Spanish league title with a belated festivity at Camp Nou. As confetti rained and his teammates danced and clapped and waved and threw peppers into the stands as a sign of strength, Messi mostly walked alone, his hands shoved into the pockets of his warm-up suit.

“Lio only wants to play,” said Thierry Henry, a French star and a former teammate of Messi’s at Barcelona who now plays for the Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

On occasion, Messi does break his reticence. On Thursday, he said he played with the same eagerness that he did in Argentina when he improvised soccer balls from stones and women’s tights and cans of cola. “I have fun like a child in the street,” he said. “When the day comes when I’m not enjoying it, I will leave football.”

Still, he is most often silent, leaving others to provide the soundtrack of his career. Watchers of the bilingual soccer channel GolTV are treated weekly to the cockeyed enthusiasm of the British commentator Ray Hudson. A blog, Hudsonia, was inspired by his ability to “coin phrases that defy both logic and belief” and by his unending quest to “invent a new language in English.”

In Hudson’s words, Messi has “chameleon eyes” and is as “slippery as an eel covered in Vaseline” and plays with the predatory appetite of a “zombie hunter looking for a Twinkie.” Somehow, out of incomprehension comes clarity. Even poetry.

Robert Lalasz, the editor of the Web site Must Read Soccer, has assembled Hudson’s verbal improvisations into verse, the way others previously did for the Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. One of the poems, “He Doesn’t Live There,” opened this article.

Here is another:

“Neither With Net nor Trident”

The genius, the genius of
Football
In our modern-day life
Utterly
Unpredictable
He doesn’t know
What he’s going to do
So how the hell
Do the defenders
You cannot contain him
With a net
Or a trident
He’s got pace
He’s got power
He’s got vision
Technique!
And he’s got
Finishing power
His cup
Runneth over ...
Magnificent Messi
Wild man
He doth bestride the Earth
Like a Colossus

A second goal by Messi followed in the 87th minute, this one with a slalom skier’s pivoting and carving and shoulders squared to the fall line. The play began innocently enough, with a bland pass rolled out of the center circle from midfielder Sergio Busquets to Messi. Four Madrid midfielders and four defenders spread across the field ahead of Casillas in goal, an apparently safe but illusory deterrent.

What happened next is why players from the Costa Rican national team had lined up a month earlier for Messi’s autograph in an exhibition against Argentina, reduced to mere fans.

Tall and lean, Busquets jogged languidly from the circle into the space between Madrid’s central midfield and defense. Messi’s return pass was sharp and direct. Busquets received the ball, pivoted and tapped it lightly. What seemed unthreatening a few seconds earlier now became a menacing give-and-go.

“I saw some options,” Messi said. “I always try to create danger.”

During the careers of the greats to whom Messi is most often compared — Pelé of Brazil and Diego Maradona, a fellow Argentine — the pace of the game was slower, with more space to operate and more chance for flamboyant playfulness in the flowing dribbles known as gambeta.

Today, soccer increasingly relies on size and muscle and speed. The best players must be able to operate in claustrophobic spaces. That is the mesmerizing skill of Messi, slithering through these airless openings in top gear, changing direction, providing as well as scoring, his left foot tapping the ball on each stride with blurred and evasive touches. At such moments, the ball becomes an extension of his foot.

“You think of Gretzky playing hockey,” said Bob Bradley, the coach of the United States national team, who sat in the stadium in Madrid, watching the play unfold. “It sticks with you. Everybody who watches Messi knows he is pushing the highest level of the sport ever.”

Earlier in his career, Messi preferred to slash inside from the right wing, taking the ball on his dominant left foot. Now he is considered a center forward in Barcelona’s 4-3-3 formation, but the position as he plays it is sometimes described as a “ghost center forward” or a “false No. 9,” a reference to the traditional jersey number worn by a striker. Instead, Messi wears No. 10, the classic playmaker’s number. He is free to drift and roam and handle the ball, to combine with Xavi and Iniesta, to seek out openings that he can exploit with his passing or his dribbling, with his chameleon eyes.

This puts enormous stress on central defenders. Do they stay put? Do they go with Messi and leave yawning holes on the back line? On this day, with Madrid short a man, every decision was precarious.

“Alarm bells didn’t go off fast enough,” Bradley said. “Everybody took for granted that they could get there.”

Messi took the ball from Busquets about 45 yards from the goal. Four Madrid players surrounded Messi, but he deftly escaped. First, midfielder Lass Diarra was screened by Busquets. He caught up to Messi’s right shoulder and reached for the ball, but Messi sensed Diarra’s presence and touched it left. To keep from fouling, Diarra retreated with a dainty hop. Alonso quit after a few strides, also hopping in surrender.

Messi gathered speed and intent. Sergio Ramos charged at him, but Messi shielded the ball with the inside of his left foot, pushing it safely to the right. Taking the ball from him had become a blundering game, reaching for a dollar bill attached to a string.

“With someone like that, you want to move them one way, make them predictable, so if they do have a bad touch, you can win the ball,” said Landon Donovan, the American star who has twice played against Messi and Argentina’s national team. “The problem is, the ball is attached to him. Every stride, he’s touching the ball. It’s almost like a magnet is pulling it back in. You’re waiting for the ball to get away, but it doesn’t. If you foul him, his balance is so good, he keeps going. And he keeps going at speed, so you can’t catch him. Sometimes, you run at him like, ‘I’ve got him now,’ and he’ll make a one-time pass. You turn around and the ball comes back, and then he runs by you. There’s a constant mind game that he’s good at.”

Raul Albiol now had his chance in the Madrid defense, but he is 6-2 with a high center of gravity. He backpedaled and crouched, but his balance was all wrong and Messi was coming too fast. Futilely, Albiol thrust out a leg. Messi blew past and Albiol spun around and bent over, all his weight on his right leg. For a moment he seemed to be playing the wrong sport, appearing less a soccer player than a man who had just hurled a javelin.

With another touch, Messi pushed the ball five yards ahead into a vacant spot and sprinted into the penalty area. Marcelo, a defender, desperately rushed from behind, but a foul would have given Messi a penalty kick, so Marcelo pulled back, hands thrown up and knees bent as if parachuting from a plane.

Messi touched the ball with the outside of his left foot, once, twice, and Ramos made one last hustling charge, but he was too late. Sliding to the turf, Messi cuffed the ball with the inside of his right foot. A final drip of the honey, as Hudson sometimes says in his excitable commentary.

The ball seemed to roll under Ramos’s foot, or between his legs. Beaten again, Ramos became tangled with Messi and tumbled in exasperation. Casillas moved to his left in goal, but the shot went to his right, squirting inside the far post. Real Madrid was all but finished in the Champions League. Casillas went to the ground on his backside and rose with his gloved hands upturned in a way that signaled disbelief and anger and resignation. And maybe awe.

On television and radio, Spanish-language broadcasters began their prolonged, ecstatic screams, “Gooooooooooooool!” extending the sound for an entire breath, but this was more than a goal, it was a supergoal, and so the shrieks became “Gooooooooooooooolazo!” as Messi again jumped into his teammates’ arms.

“It was all instinct,” Messi said. “Only when I watched it later on television did I know what happened.”

“Vintage Messi”

How many angels
Can dance on the head of a pin?
How magnificent
Is Messi?
There is no answer
It’s like counting the bubbles
In a bottle of Champagne

With that goal, the question came again. Was Messi the best player ever? The novelist Eduardo Sacheri watched from Buenos Aires and knew that in Argentina, the answer was no. He wrote often about soccer because it reflected the joy and pain of daily life. He loved Messi. He took up for him when his own 14-year-old son, Francisco, asked, “Why is Messi never as good for Argentina as he is for Barcelona?”

But the fact remained: Messi had never won a World Cup, as Maradona had in 1986. And although Messi was influential at the 2010 World Cup, he did not score as Argentina exited meekly to Germany in the quarterfinals.

“Until Messi wins a World Cup, he doesn’t stand a chance of being compared to Maradona,” Sacheri said.

He still has plenty of time. Messi turns 24 next month. But his relationship with Argentina is complicated. He left when he was a teenager. For many, he is a remote figure.

“Maradona was born in the slums; he has had a chaotic life, anarchic,” Sacheri said. “Failure and success, shadowy and brilliant. Those are things Argentines can relate to and empathize with. If Messi wins a World Cup, he will be an idol. But it might be more difficult for him to have a passionate relationship with the public.”

The debate will never end. That is the beauty of soccer. It demands argument, abhors understatement. Goals are too few and too precious for restrained scrutiny. Entire nations swell and deflate at the sight of ball going into a net. But the next World Cup is not for three years. What to do until then?

“With Lio, the best thing is not to talk about him,” Henry, his former teammate, said. “It is to watch him.”

“Covered With Eyes”

What he is
He’s like something
Out of Greek mythology, man
Little short-legged bull
Lionel Messi
Covered with eyes!
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Offline fitzinho

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Re: Lionel Messi: Boy Genius
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2011, 05:36:09 AM »
article was clearly written by a Barca fan....interesting read tho

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Re: Lionel Messi: Boy Genius
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2011, 06:55:58 AM »
article was clearly written by a Barca fan....interesting read tho


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Offline asylumseeker

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Argentina v. Venezuela: Kolkata, India Eagerly awaits Messi
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2011, 09:02:10 AM »
Kolkata Eagerly Awaits Messi Show
By Will Davies

Source

Kolkata, West Bengal, is India’s soccer heartland. Forget about team India and European countries: fans in this part of the world are most passionate about Latin American sides, in particular Brazil and Argentina. It all stems back to Pelé and then Diego Maradona, who both wowed soccer watchers in India (and the world over) with their sublime skills. Maradona of course won millions of extra Indian fans when he single-handedly (ahem) destroyed England in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.

When it comes to sport in India, it’s rare for any individual outside of cricket to generate the type of hysterical hero-worshipping usually reserved for the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. But Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi does just that and his arrival in Kolkata for a friendly match against Venezuela has sent the eastern Indian city into a spin.

Despite still being in the relatively early stages of his career, Messi, 24, is already expected to join Pelé and Maradona at the top of the list of all-time greats. His arrival in India is a big deal for a country starved of soccer stars, and FIFA knows it. India remains a huge and largely untapped market for the sport. What other reason would there be for two South American countries, whose players either ply their trade there or in Europe, to fly all the way to India for a one-off match? This is sport at its most commercial, and Messi is the rhythmic, money-spinning cog at its center. Sports shops selling the blue-and-white strip of Argentina should enjoy a healthy few days of trade.

Friday’s match at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata will be Messi’s first as Argentina’s captain, as well as Alejandro Sabella’s debut as coach of the national team. Venezuela hasn’t beaten Argentina in 17 attempts, but will be a tougher proposition after reaching the semifinals in the recent Copa America. Argentina crashed out of that tournament in the quarterfinals after losing to Uruguay on penalties, prompting the departure of coach Sergio Batista.

Argentina is in a rebuilding phase, while Venezuela is on a rare high. Friday evening’s match in Kolkata, whatever the result, will have little impact on the teams – international friendlies are, frankly, pretty meaningless. But it will still mean a lot to the people of Kolkata, especially the 120,000 who fill Salt Lake Stadium to see Messi & Co. play first hand.

That’s a huge crowd even for Messi, who plays week-in, week-out at the enormous Nou Camp in Barcelona, which has a capacity of about 100,000. Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium, also known as Yuva Bharato Krirangan, is the world’s second-largest stadium that hosts soccer matches, after the 150,000 seater Rungrado May Day Stadium in–yes, you guessed it–Pyongyang, North Korea.

Of the thousands in Kolkata tonight, four children will have a particularly memorable experience. Save the Children has picked four youngsters from the most marginalized communities in the city to walk out on to the pitch with the players, so not only will they be able to say they watched Messi play, they’ll also be able to revel in the fact that they held the great player’s hand.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Argentina v. Venezuela: Kolkata, India Eagerly awaits Messi
« Reply #15 on: September 02, 2011, 09:20:07 AM »
Game in progress. Something off the field caught my attention ... Herbalife sponsors several teams:
Aris in Greece, LA Galaxy in the US, Coimbra in Portugal, Barcelona, Valencia, Schalke, Spartak Moscow, Pumas in Mexico, Maccabi Haifa ... list cyah done ... during this game a section of fans are all equipped with Herbalife tee-shirts and a big Herbalife banner.

The thing that struck me is that the cameras turned to them on more than one occasion ... Not sure but this could have been "ambush marketing" ...  the ppl running transmission feeds at sporting events typically do not allow for the recognition of unofficial sponsors ... so for instance if you are company X and it's the Olympic Games and you're not an official sponsor, great effort is taken to prevent you entering the stadium with paraphernalia pushing an unrecognized product/brand. Somebody may have slipped up ... or maybe there's a link to Messi playing?

If it was, somebody geh way with some "free" publicity and marketing.

Offline Jayerson

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Re: Argentina v. Venezuela: Kolkata, India Eagerly awaits Messi
« Reply #16 on: September 02, 2011, 09:43:30 AM »
Argentina won 1 - 0. Otamendi.

Offline Trini

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Romario disses Messi
« Reply #17 on: October 19, 2011, 08:30:42 AM »
As much as I am always in awe of Messi, Romario have a point, although he somehow sees himself as one of the top 3 of all time, LOL. I think Rivaldo will have something to say about that!

But seriously, Messi is the best in the present day.
But I still will not put him on the same level as Ronaldinho at his prime or the original R9 Ronaldo pre-injuries.
He still in the same class to me as Kaka at his prime, or Cristiano final year at Man U.

I wont even mention him in the same breath as Zidane either, muchless Maradonna or Pele.
NOT YET .....


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/971357/romario:-lionel-messi-has-a-long-way-to-go-to-be-great?cc=5901


Romario: Messi has a long way to go
October 19, 2011

By ESPNsoccernet staff

Former Barcelona striker Romario says that World Player of the Year Lionel Messi has a long way to go before he can be considered the greatest of all-time.

Romario
GettyImagesRomario has placed himself second in the all-time list.

Messi stirred the debate himself last week when he claimed that he had never seen Pele - considered by many to be best player in history - play, with the great Brazilian promising to send him a copy of his film so that he could study up.

However, 1994 World Cup winner and former Barcelona striker Romario has now added his voice, claiming that Messi must first overcome Diego Maradona, and himself, before thinking about Pele.

"If Messi sees the video, he'll probably learn some things," Romario said at a press conference. "You simply cannot compare him with Pele. You cannot say he is the same when he has never won a World Cup.

"Messi has all the conditions to be the best one day, but first he has to overcome Maradona, Romario and then eventually Pele."

Romario played for Barcelona for two years between 1993 and 1995 and won one La Liga title with the Catalans before a journeyman career ended in 2009 and he took up politics, becoming a member of the Brazilian Parliament.

Offline weary1969

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Messi convinced he'll lift World Cup with Argentina
« Reply #18 on: December 28, 2011, 01:31:47 PM »
AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Barcelona star Lionel Messi says he is convinced he can lift the World Cup with Argentina, the forward said in an interview published yesterday with the Argentina Football Association.

Messi has won a host of top honours with Barca but has yet to taste major honours with the Albicelestes, who are without a top title since 1993 and who flopped at the Copa America on home soil in July with many observers puzzled as to why his club form rarely appears at international level.

"I still have this dream and that is to be a world champion and lift the Copa America with the national side. And I know I'll do it, I am convinced I shall," insisted Messi.

"I don't have to demonstrate anything to anybody. I would love to win a title with the national team but I am just another one in the group who wants to do the best for Argentine football, nothing more," added Messi.

Under new coach Alejandro Sabella, Argentina got off to a mediocre start to their World Cup qualifiers with an embarrassing loss to Venezuela but their recent win over Colombia put them on a more even keel and they are now level on points with regional group leaders Uruguay — albeit having played a game more — and Venezuela.

"The group are doing fine. But we needed a win like that to strengthen ourselves. It has revitalised us," Messi said, recognising that "sometimes we don't quite get up to the mark either in terms of performance or the result. We are aware of that."

On the difference between playing for his country and Barca, with whom he has just won the world club title, Messi said: "They are two different things. Barcelona are the best team in the world -- even non-fans admit as much. That is the result of years of hard work with the same teammates.

"It's more difficult with the national side and we've been through a lot of chopping and changing of coaches in recent years," he said pointedly.

"But we are growing and I know we are going to achieve a lot," Messi concluded.

Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

Offline Blue

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Barca / Messi
« Reply #19 on: January 04, 2012, 04:34:49 PM »
Merge this to the right thread please...

Barca vs Osasuna on at the moment. Messi came on 15 minutes ago, and it has been one of the most beautiful spells of attacking football I have ever seen. It was 2-0 before he came on, he just made it 3-0 with a fantastic header....but some of the chances that have gone begging have been breathtaking. I know is just Osasuna but still...this is the best team ever, and he is the best player ever...I dont think Maradonna was ever as good as this.

Offline palos

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2012, 04:51:28 PM »
Merge this to the right thread please...

Barca vs Osasuna on at the moment. Messi came on 15 minutes ago, and it has been one of the most beautiful spells of attacking football I have ever seen. It was 2-0 before he came on, he just made it 3-0 with a fantastic header....but some of the chances that have gone begging have been breathtaking. I know is just Osasuna but still...this is the best team ever, and he is the best player ever...I dont think Maradonna was ever as good as this.

The present seems to impact most people more forcefully hence statements as the one in bold...and the best team ever talk too.

Certainly Barca plays heavenly football and I'm tempted to say I have never seen football like theirs before...especially when they're on song.  But I've been fortunate to see Brazil 82 with Socrates, Eder, Falcao, Zico, Junior etc (who up to Barca was the best football I've ever seen), and Milan of Baresi, Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Donadoni etc.  Even Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Zizou etc were majestic in their prime.  I remember them DESTROYING Man U home AND away in CL.  Just breathtaking football.  But I see Barca and I tend to forget about them....but if I go back to those games...the memories flood back.

Diego was not of this world with regards to football.  Neither was Pele.  Messi IS great.  Better than either of those 2?  I tempted to say yes....but DAMN.....this is club football.  He's yet to do it for country although he has TONS of time to do so.  But he heasn't even come close for country.
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Offline Blue

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2012, 04:55:39 PM »
Merge this to the right thread please...

Barca vs Osasuna on at the moment. Messi came on 15 minutes ago, and it has been one of the most beautiful spells of attacking football I have ever seen. It was 2-0 before he came on, he just made it 3-0 with a fantastic header....but some of the chances that have gone begging have been breathtaking. I know is just Osasuna but still...this is the best team ever, and he is the best player ever...I dont think Maradonna was ever as good as this.

The present seems to impact most people more forcefully hence statements as the one in bold...and the best team ever talk too.

Certainly Barca plays heavenly football and I'm tempted to say I have never seen football like theirs before...especially when they're on song.  But I've been fortunate to see Brazil 82 with Socrates, Eder, Falcao, Zico, Junior etc (who up to Barca was the best football I've ever seen), and Milan of Baresi, Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Donadoni etc.  Even Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Zizou etc were majestic in their prime.  I remember them DESTROYING Man U home AND away in CL.  Just breathtaking football.  But I see Barca and I tend to forget about them....but if I go back to those games...the memories flood back.

Diego was not of this world with regards to football.  Neither was Pele.  Messi IS great.  Better than either of those 2?  I tempted to say yes....but DAMN.....this is club football.  He's yet to do it for country although he has TONS of time to do so.  But he heasn't even come close for country.

Personally, I think club football is where it's at nowadays, that's where the money is and that's where the best football is played. But I agree Messi has yet to perform on the international stage.

And by the way, the final score was 4-0, Messi scored again.

Offline Observer

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2012, 05:01:07 PM »
Merge this to the right thread please...

Barca vs Osasuna on at the moment. Messi came on 15 minutes ago, and it has been one of the most beautiful spells of attacking football I have ever seen. It was 2-0 before he came on, he just made it 3-0 with a fantastic header....but some of the chances that have gone begging have been breathtaking. I know is just Osasuna but still...this is the best team ever, and he is the best player ever...I dont think Maradonna was ever as good as this.

The present seems to impact most people more forcefully hence statements as the one in bold...and the best team ever talk too.

Certainly Barca plays heavenly football and I'm tempted to say I have never seen football like theirs before...especially when they're on song.  But I've been fortunate to see Brazil 82 with Socrates, Eder, Falcao, Zico, Junior etc (who up to Barca was the best football I've ever seen), and Milan of Baresi, Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Donadoni etc.  Even Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Zizou etc were majestic in their prime.  I remember them DESTROYING Man U home AND away in CL.  Just breathtaking football.  But I see Barca and I tend to forget about them....but if I go back to those games...the memories flood back.

Diego was not of this world with regards to football.  Neither was Pele.  Messi IS great.  Better than either of those 2?  I tempted to say yes....but DAMN.....this is club football.  He's yet to do it for country although he has TONS of time to do so.  But he heasn't even come close for country.

Brazil 78 bro?? You sure about that. I would like to believe you meant Brazil 70.

Ajax early 70's, Santos in the 60's, come to mind as well.

You will have to say done it for his country at a Senior WC. He was outstanding at U20 and the Olympics  ;D

Having watched him on an almost weekly diet against some of the best players in the World at club level, I must admit he is remarkably consistent. Though it makes good rum shop talk, you really cannot compare era's. I just grateful I get to see him play and he will go down as the best of his generation.
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Offline palos

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #23 on: January 04, 2012, 05:07:20 PM »
Brazil 78 bro?? You sure about that. I would like to believe you meant Brazil 70.

It was a typo and I changed it.  I meant Brazil 82.  Never really SAW Brazil 70.  Was too young at dat time but I'll take your word for it tho  ;D
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Offline Raul

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #24 on: January 04, 2012, 05:33:30 PM »
Yawn... Wake me up when Messi does some noteworthy for Los Albacelestes...and when he doesn't have La Furia Roja passing the ball to him...

Offline Sam

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #25 on: January 04, 2012, 06:18:49 PM »
Brazil 78 bro?? You sure about that. I would like to believe you meant Brazil 70.

It was a typo and I changed it.  I meant Brazil 82.  Never really SAW Brazil 70.  Was too young at dat time but I'll take your word for it tho  ;D

Yuh lie Palos..... man say yuh ole like long time.  :rotfl:

I would say Maradonna is better that Messi.

Maradonna did it with both club and country and was basically a one man show, he alone could have changed an entire game and played even though he was surrounding back regular or basic type players especially for Argentina.

Messi is great too and his entire Barca teammate is great to, so he becomes better, they are strong and it gives Messi breathing space, same cannot be said when he plays for Argentina.
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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #26 on: January 04, 2012, 06:26:56 PM »

Yuh lie Palos..... man say yuh ole like long time.  :rotfl:

I would say Maradonna is better that Messi.

Maradonna did it with both club and country and was basically a one man show, he alone could have changed an entire game and played even though he was surrounding back regular or basic type players especially for Argentina.

Messi is great too and his entire Barca teammate is great to, so he becomes better, they are strong and it gives Messi breathing space, same cannot be said when he plays for Argentina.

Messi could go to any side in de world and instantly make them much better... but could he go to an average team and win titles for them. I doubt it.

Maradona did that...
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

Offline palos

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #27 on: January 04, 2012, 06:39:49 PM »
Yuh lie Palos..... man say yuh ole like long time.  :rotfl:

Ssssssshhhhhh!!!  ;D

Happy New Year bro!
Carlos "The Rolls Royce" Edwards

giggsy11

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Re: Barca / Messi
« Reply #28 on: January 04, 2012, 06:42:00 PM »

Yuh lie Palos..... man say yuh ole like long time.  :rotfl:

I would say Maradonna is better that Messi.

Maradonna did it with both club and country and was basically a one man show, he alone could have changed an entire game and played even though he was surrounding back regular or basic type players especially for Argentina.

Messi is great too and his entire Barca teammate is great to, so he becomes better, they are strong and it gives Messi breathing space, same cannot be said when he plays for Argentina.

Messi could go to any side in de world and instantly make them much better... but could he go to an average team and win titles for them. I doubt it.

Maradona did that...

Agreed. Maradona just played his game no matter who he faced, who he played with and whatever the circumstances. He was always the dominating figure on the field. Doing so in the times when defenders were given the freedom to kick and chop down and refs letting most of it go. I didn't like some of his antics on the field but I truly respected how he refused to be denied when he played. Messi still young and that is what he has to aim for as he has lots of football left to play.

Offline 100% Barataria

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Re: Lionel Messi Thread.
« Reply #29 on: January 04, 2012, 07:03:05 PM »

Yuh lie Palos..... man say yuh ole like long time.  :rotfl:

I would say Maradonna is better that Messi.

Maradonna did it with both club and country and was basically a one man show, he alone could have changed an entire game and played even though he was surrounding back regular or basic type players especially for Argentina.

Messi is great too and his entire Barca teammate is great to, so he becomes better, they are strong and it gives Messi breathing space, same cannot be said when he plays for Argentina.

Messi could go to any side in de world and instantly make them much better... but could he go to an average team and win titles for them. I doubt it.

Maradona did that...

CR stop posting on this site!  :devil:

Joke aside, dais good talk w/Maradona, I think all this Messi talk will stop when he mash up wid Argentina, which is probably that far away
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