I can see Messi being in the GOAT discussion, but influential per se? Not talking about inspiring, but creating a pattern, something to copy. CR7 or Neymar are better in that regard. Messi does Messi things.
this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)
Soccer (Closing)
157 readers
1 users here now
This community is being retired in favor of [email protected].
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
GOAT but ...idk about influential... Let's just look at Haaland scoring a billion goals by being a world class poacher.. kind of like CR7 and being Haalands inspiration for how to move and get free space inside the box... How do you even get to what Messi does ? You look at Neymar skills and think ...I can try that... But how do you weave and wriggle in between 5 players with just body feints and make passes that splits the whole team in half ....every...single...match...
Respectfully if you think CR7 is just a poacher you have never seen him play. Agreed with your other points though.
Obviously there's many ways to measure influence, but Franz Beckenbauer is worth a shout:
- As a player, one of the all-time greats
- Invented the libero position
- Also played in midfield with great success
- Captain of the first national team to win the Euros and the World Cup consecutively
- Captain of a Bayern team that won three consecutive European Cups
- Manager of World-Cup winning West German national side
- One of three people to win the World Cup both as player and manager
- Chair of Germany's winning bid to host the World Cup (yes, tainted by corruption)
I'd still give the nod to Cruyff, though.
"In the 1970s, I was a teenager in a country (Germany) that loved football – and in that country, there was no argument about who was the best player of all time. There was no contestation, no hierarchy, although there were many good players at the time. Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff were out of the ordinary. But even they never thought they could be the No. 1 player in the world. It was a time when the Ballon d'Or was reserved for players in Europe, so there was a very clear hierarchy: there were the very good ones, and there was the superstar. This is something we no longer have when discussing who is the best among several great players. None have the impact that Pelé had at the time."
load more comments
(3 replies)
Wouldn't that make him the least influential?
Pele is the most influential player ever. It’s not even close. He made the game truly global. Ffs they had ceasefires during wars to watch him play. Cruyff is the next because of play and managing. Then it’s Messi.
All that while black and born in a country where there were people who had been enslaved still alive when he won his first world cup.
The most entertaining and pleasing to watch sure
but most influential? what did he influence lol how to make half a team look like fools? nobody does that but him nobody else does that like messi does
Higuita is the reason keepers play with their feet nowadays, much more than Neuer. The rule that prohibits a gk from grabbing the ball from a back pass was created thanks to him.
Sorry Maradona is the OG
Hot take.
If Messi does things that no one else can, then he is certainly the least influential player ever in the history of football.
Do people only have one understanding of the word influence? I see a shitload of the discussion here saying that Messi hasn't been influential in regards to the sport as a whole, I don't see anyone discussing Messi's ability to influence what happens on a football pitch in any given game. He's easily one of the most influential players in the history of the sport in that sense.
Messi is the goat but I'd argue Pelé and Cruyff were FAR more influential to the sport than Messi. I don't think it's even close really.
This is great and enlightening information and I'm glad this was upvoted by almost 1000 people already.
Do upvote bots just instantly upvote anything that has Messi in the title? There was a post last week that was top where they totally mispelled his first name.
I just want a coach/footballer to come out and say "Who? Messi? Never heard of him" or even a "Ye I could 1v1 that scrub, no talent" and farm clicks like crazy
Well this is an absolute shit post.
Tapping him up? I like it
Aye.
I'm not talking shit here, I genuinely think Cristiano Ronaldo us more influential.
In my own personal experience, I’d say ronaldinho. I remember being a kid when he blew up and all of my friends wanted to juggle and dribble like him. The joy he had on his face when he played is something I’ll never forget.
OK, for the sake of discussion, and this is something I’ve thought about: can we really say Messi is all that influential if what he can do cannot be replicated by anyone else? Not just the level of his individual skills, but having so many and how he combines them.
Then it wouldn't make him influential. It just makes him one of a kind becuase of his playing style. There has never been a primary playmaker who also scores a lot of goals like he did, the only player who could have done that was Neymar. Ronaldo is also one a type given how much he scored playing from the wide position and only Mbappe does that, the early Liverpool version of Salah was a bit like that but he is much more playmaker these days. Its very hard for any teams to find another Ronaldo/Messi its not like basketball where Steph Curry revolutionized how teams thought of the 3 pointers and tried to play that way.