The Messi Bandwagon
Anyone who follows these posts would know that I'm a Messi fan from wayback. He's now indubitably the best footballer on the planet and has been for at least three years. Yet claims about him being the "best ever" based on his recent scoring exploits get up my nose and go to the heart of the quest to determine if Don Bradman has any equal in any sport.
Messi is rolling up goals galore in the Spanish league. But then, so is Christiano Ronaldo. The era and the nature of the competition are key in making "best ever" comparisons.
The black mark against Messi is his record for Argentina which is nowhere near his Barcelona feats either in terms of goals or wins. The 2014 world cup will be key in setting Messi's place in the firmament. At this point my view is that he's the third best Argentine, behind di Stefano and Maradonna. The former scored more goals than Messi but never played in the World Cup due to a series of accidents and unfortunate FIFA rulings. He scored at almost a goal-a-game clip for Spain when he was past his prime. Look on Youtube at videos: he was a magician with the ball. Maradonna came up big for his country, perhaps more so than any player.
We're now in a high-scoring era - comparable to when di Stefano played - but a lot of it, in my view, is due to the modern ball. I suspect that di Stefano would have averaged more than a goal a game with the ball they use now. Paranthetically, di S's Real Madrid compadre, Puskas, I think, would have been ridiculous with the modern ball. The challenge would have been to keep him to a goal, not on the average, but per game.
Back to Bradman and, era or competition independent, he's incomparable.