Why Messi is Not My Kind of Super Star
I never rated Ronaldo, the former United winger, as someone worthy of winning all the accolades he did win. He is too much of a show pony for my liking. He never played his best against top teams, the only better performance coming against Chelsea in the 2008 champions League final.But perhaps the 80 million pounds Real paid for him would not be considered a mammoth sum considering the money the club would generate selling his shirt. But when I look at it from a pure football mind, I often cringe.
After last season's second leg clash of the El Classico, Spanish media ran a headline "Too much Messi for CR9" in their comparison with Messi. Ronaldo was lost on the pitch, he was turned into a roadrunner chasing shadows.
Rooney is the second best footballer for me at the moment. Let me say I have not counted Messi as first. Rooney is a workaholic. He has unbelievable energy. A bull of a player who runs from post to post, tackles fearlessly, and fights like a warrior. He is a genius in the making. Yes, still not there. I think it will take just one more year for him.
Messi is a magician. He certainly, plainly, clearly is a better player than Ronaldo. But why he is not my kind of super star is simply because of his less involvement in the overall play in any given game. He may have scored some unbelievable goals, may have done some weaving solo runs, but that does not impress me much (in the lines of Shania Twain). He goes missing for long periods in the game, then like one possessed spirit, he haunts the opposition goal post, makes a quick-fire goal, and goes missing again. This has added an unpredictability aspect to his play. He may produce a magic, or go lost completely. All the good things Messi has done so far have had its origin in the midfields of Barcelona, where the imperial Xavi Hernandez rules. This can be further illustrated by the fact Messi has not yet showed his true potential in the blue and white strip of Argentina.
I guess by now you should have picked hints to who I think the greatest player on the planet now. Yes, it’s Xavi Hernandez. He is the heart beat of Barcelona, not Messi. One day I set out to count how many times he would lose the ball, but the bloody guy never lost the ball even once. For many, he is already in the same bracket with Zidane. But the only flip side is he is not marketing himself like Ronaldo and Messi does. And this is a sin in today's world.
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