Barcelona served notice tonight that they are not only are the best team on the planet, but that they may well have the best player in the entire game. Ever.
Lionel Messi made history when he became the first man to score five goals in a single Champions League game as the Catalans swept aside Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. It was a crushing display: 7-1 on the night, 10-2 overall, and it came against a pretty good Leverkusen side.
It wasn’t just one night. This was another step in a continuum. Barcelona are changing the way we think about club soccer, and they are doing it behind a man who is changing how we perceive the sport itself.
We’re simply running out of adjectives to describe Messi’s brilliance. His gifts transcend the game as well as the English language. His record-setting performance tonight bordered on the mystical.
Two of Messi’s goals came from chips over Bayer `keeper Bernd Leno that, if attempted by any other man, would have ended up in the seats. Two goals were conjured by Messi’s unparalleled ability to turn solid, grown men into ghosts. And one, perhaps cruelly, came when Leno was unable to perform at his very best. You cannot be anything less than perfect if you hope to stop this Messi.
Week after week, game after game, the Argentine is making the case that he has to be considered as one of the greatest players ever. Many of us who were lucky enough to see the only man that possibly can exceed Messi — Pele — have been converted by the same attributes that were evident in the great Brazilian.
And there can no longer be any argument that Messi's greatness is merely confined to this game.
As with Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, and, yes, Pele, Messi has become bigger than the sport he plays. He deservedly belongs in the elite, the pantheon of sportsmen who make athletics art, and transform thought into action.
It is almost a bit silly to argue whether or not Messi is the greatest player of all time. Isn’t it enough to acknowledge that Messi forces entire teams to defend one man? Isn’t it evident that the young Argentine has the rare ability to see the game in four dimensions, using time as well as space to unlock opponents? It has to be obvious that he brings an untouched charisma to the game itself. How did this humble, unassuming, almost fragile young man, become the fiercest predator of all?
These are the same questions we once asked of a man who, for this writer, still ranks as the greatest. Pele was a different animal than Messi, stronger and physically harder to handle, with a remarkable vertical leap, but he had the same vision, the same craft and the same magnetism as Barcelona’s talisman. It was indeed a different era, but so gifted was he, that it’s not sound to argue that Pele couldn’t work the same magic today.
The tug of war between the two has raged for a while. It’s too easy for Messi’s detractors to point out that Pele has done what Messi has not, which is win the World Cup, and three times no less. That’s not entirely fair, for Messi has not had the fortune to be surrounded by the same talent at the national level. And lest we forget, Pele was injured and could not play in the 1962 final. That team was led by Garrincha, Didi and Zagallo. In 1970, Pele led a line that had Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, and Gerson — hardly slouches.
But the converse is also true. It is false to presume that because Pele never played in Europe, today’s Barcelona striker has to be the superior man. Anyone who thinks that Santos wasn’t the equivalent of today’s Barcelona is fooling themselves. From 1958-1965 they were as dominant a team as any that has ever played the game.
Pele was also better in some respects than Messi. Like Messi, Pele could create goals out of nothing, but Pele relied less on the men around him to set him up. Yet Messi, with his speed and incredible passing, has proved himself to be equally gifted at creating goals for his teammates. There’s no denying that he unbalances an entire field, just as Pele once did.
The truth is that both men deserve their accolades, and for the simplest reason of all. Both display a remarkable love of the game. Neither has ever taken a half off, much less a full game. They seem driven by something we cannot understand, and can just barely perceive.
And, if we get right down to it, we’re lucky. We are privileged to see this history made. I have never forgotten Pele’s final game in a sweltering Meadowlands Stadium in 1977. I will dare to say that when the time comes for Messi to hang up his boots, we won’t forget him, either.
