Hm, arguably the best player of all time, and people would have Zlatan over him... Yep, sounds about right.
This is not even close to an argument.
How can a forward of the current generation distinguish himselves from the all time greats, when the quality of defences worldwide is at an all time low ?
Physical power football created a generation that forgot how to controll space, keeping it small. double marking, intercepting passes and player runs, breaking down the build up.
The true greatest football players, were the ones that excelled during the late 80ties till early 2000. When defences were formidable, when the players excelled in tactical and technical ability to stop attackers, rather then the vicious fouls from the mid 80ties and before.
Maradona ? cool story bro, took 1 excellent italian to manmark.
Messi a good player ? cool story bro, took a 35 year old nesta to shut him up. Nesta, who was not even close to the brilliant defender he was a decade ago.
lets rather look at a player who went against these defences of kings, and came out on top as champion
Ronaldo. comes to big time chokers barcelona, scores 34 goals first season. he was 21.
Later goes to even bigger times chokers inter milan, a mediocre inter milan. carries them nearly past the arguably best ever juventus side, scoring 25, that is 40% !! of their goals in serie a. THE serie a teams, those that messi still failed to score a field goal against.
leads them to victory in the uefa cup.
Goes to world cup in france, one of the strongest world cups in history, if not the strongest. becomes its best player, despite zidane beeing also magnificent. Played the final despite beeing ill. would have been a diffrent game if he was fit. brazil surely missed his form.
Gets career ending injury. comes back as a fat man. a much slower man, not half the player he was. STILL was the best striker in the world. still made a diffrence at real.
Despite beeing fat slow and half the player he was, carried a magnificent brazil to world cup victory.
90ties pre injury ronaldo >>>> messi. why ? because no matter the team, no matter the opponent, he won.
In the current generation of football, ronaldo would outscore messi, beeing a more complete player, and better dribbeler. 25 goals against italian teams in the prime of the league, in one season, dont lie.