Is Messi the best of all time?

Someone has finally said it. Antonio Cassano the gifted Italian footballer has been the first one to come out and say it. I know that one of the recent entries to this blog has tried to identify some flaws in Messi-dona, but the truth of the matter is that he is a a phenom.

I have speculated on this subject before Cassano, but when his comments came out recently they did not even raise too many eyebrows. Of course it is impossible to know who is the best - Pele has been retired for many years as has Maradona. Messi has not even won anything, no world cups, no Champions leagues (barring the one that he was injured for), however his level of performances may be of a greater level than we have ever before seen.

When Mill House rose to prominence in the 1960's - people had never before seen a horse like him, he was massive and dark, and was miles better than all the other horses at the time. There is little doubt that he would have probably gone down as the greatest chaser of all time. Sadly for his legacy, Arkle emerged very soon after. They had many titanic battles that were contested miles ahead of the field - but Arkle always won.

We will never know how Messi would have done against these great football players of yesteryear. People say that Roger Federer is arguably the best tennis player of all time. He doesn't look like it now that Nadal has arrived. And they say that he has to win more titles than anyone else. So people say that Pete Sampras is still the greatest. But at some point in his career Sampras had only won a few grand slams, we didn't know he was 'the best ever', someone may have speculated it at the time though.

And so this is me speculating that Messi may be the best ever. I personally dont believe it, but I have never seen such close control. Messi attributes it to when he was a child he was so small that he had to keep the ball close at all times.

For those of you who don't even know who he is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLW4DKoncvM&feature=fvst