‘His vision is unbelievable’: Dean Saunders claims Lionel Messi is undoubtedly the best player of all time after Argentina’s World Cup success and says Cristiano Ronaldo has ‘left himself down’ with his acrimonious departure from Manchester United
Dean Saunders has claimed that Lionel Messi is undoubtedly the best player of all time after he helped Argentina to win the World Cup.
The debate over whether Messi is the greatest player to have ever played the game has raged for years, with comparisons frequently being made with Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, former Liverpool and Aston Villa player Saunders feels that Messi’s achievement with Argentina has ended the debate.
Dean Saunders believes Lionel Messi is now undoubtedly the best player of all time
Asked whether Messi is the greatest of all time, Saunders, speaking on talkSPORT, said: ‘I think so. Someone sent me a clip of Maradona’s greatest through-balls and he’s on a different planet, it reminded me, but Messi, he’s just a freak.
‘Part of the thing he can do that we can’t do, normal footballers can’t do, he can move the ball with the outside of both feet and the outside of both feet, so when you close him down if the ball’s on his left foot he can move it with the inside or outside of his left foot. He keeps it that close to him it’s like as if he’s on a bit of string, so if you stick your leg in he’s gone. And he’s got the low centre of gravity and his vision is unbelievable.’
Saunders says Cristiano Ronaldo let himself down with his Manchester United departure
Saunders believes that Ronaldo’s acrimonious departure from Manchester United, which came after he criticised the club in an interview with Piers Morgan, has hampered his claims of being the greatest of all time.
Saunders said: ‘Three months ago Ronaldo was in this conversation but he’s let himself down hasn’t he with the way he’s acted. The people who weren’t decided on who’s the best, Messi or Ronaldo, because we’ve always had this debate, they’ve all gone on Messi’s side now, just because of the way he’s conducted himself.’
Saunders believes that Kylian Mbappe, who hit a hat-trick in France’s World Cup final defeat, has the best chance of eventually challenging Messi for the honour of being the best player ever.
Saunders feels Kylian Mbappe is capable of challenging Messi to be the best of all time
In addition, Saunders stated that it is difficult to compare Pele with Messi as the Brazilian played in a different era.
Saunders said: ‘Mbappe looks like he’s got a chance. He’s 23, he scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, that’s a good start. He’s obviously achieved things as well. Obviously Pele never played in this era. There’s arguments because you could say Messi’s played in both eras of where you could tackle and you see people crunching him, and now you can’t tackle more or less.
‘Pele played in an era where it was like waist-high tackles every week. The rules have slightly changed but it’s going to be hard to get better than 775 goals.’
In addition to his myriad of achievements at club level, Messi has also now achieved glory with Argentina, winning the Copa America and now the World Cup.
Messi has stated that he doesn’t intend to retire from international football. He told Tyc Sports: No, I’m not going to to retire from the Argentina national team. I want to continue playing as a World Cup champion.’
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