Hot take.
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
I’m not talking shit here, I genuinely think Cristiano Ronaldo us more influential.
Football Player: The guy who won 8 Ballons d’or is good at football
That’s quality journalism
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.
Simple facts.
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.
Cruyff, Pele, Neuer, Yashin are all wayyy more infuential than Messi. Messi’s biggest influence was the short period of the false 9 in world football, apart from that, he really didnt change the way the game is played.
Arteta evidently disagrees.
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.
This sub just eats this stuff up
Messi might be the GOAT, but I don’t think he has influenced much because no one can replicate what he has been doing.
Ronaldo on the other hand has. I don’t wanna get into detail, but definitely around work ethic, taking care of your body etc And then you can definitely look at his positioning, how he is getting rid of defenders etc and take notes
I think Ronaldo can be also credited with popularizing the style of wingers pinching in and becoming strikers/center forwards at the ends of crosses from the attacking wingbacks rather than making crosses themselves - puts more pressure on wingers to finish.
Disagree, Messi is GOATy, but he isn’t the most influential player in the history of football. That is because there wasn’t a way of playing in that role prior to Messi and post Messi. Maradona did set the same precedent for the small attackers many years before.
R9 is more influential than Messi for example. There was a prior to R9 era where strikers played in one manner. And after R9 era where strikers played differently.
Ibra for example is more influential for the tall/big striker position than Messi for his position. Before Ibra the big CF were asked to keep the ball, fight the defenders and be good at the box. After Ibra, these strikers are asked to do way more, drop deep, progress the ball, set the tempo, be more technically able and so on. Haaland is asked to hold himself to a higher standard because of standards Ibra set to that category for example.
Baresi is also more influential for the CB position, considering his height.
The use of the word “INFLUENTIAL” is used in a wrong manner.
sadly for most r/soccer users all logic is lost when messi is mentioned
it’s crazy how every time a coach or figure praises him or ronaldo you have fanboys in the comment trying to downvote everyone into oblivion who make a good argument/case
Yeah clearly you guys are in the intelligent group of this sub. Don’t look down on us too hard big brains.
First of all, not talking with absolutes makes you more big brain.
Dude, saying this as someone who loves him and think that he rightfully deserved the Golden Ball. But this statment is absolute bonkers. In every way you look at this, he wasn’t THE MOST influential player.
It’s hard to define what “influential” means in this context. I kind of agree that Messi didn’t do anything not seen before, he just did a lot of already existing things, better than anyone and at an incredible speed, during 10+ years.
That said, one could argue that Messi was very influential in their rivals. All their rival coaches spent Messi’s career trying to figure out how to stop him and there was a lot of evolution in tactics around that, with some like Simeone and Mourinho basically building their whole tactics around the premise of stopping Messi first, then everything else.
About your first paragraph, i 100% agree. I think he was extremely influential towards coaches on how to defend him. Even IF, i think that we have seen similar patterns before with Maradona or R9. Something that you mentioned.
But, THE MOST ONE?! Hard pass for me genuinely.
Nuh uh messi better
why is this so downvoted? He’s the goat but absolutely not the most influential, they’re two completely different things.
In conclusion, Cheers Geoff
Cheers Geoff!
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.