When I saw Lionel Messi play for the first time, I regarded him as the new Diego Maradona. Fast forward about six years later and even Maradona thinks he shares the same pitch with Jesus Christ. I don’t know about Christ playing football but I can say without feeling sheepish that Leo Messi is no longer the new Maradona. If he was, as a young footballer like every promising Argentine footballer is referred to, he no longer is. He is the new legend of football. Messi is the object of worship if football is indeed a religion. If he has to be compared with Maradona then it is safer to say Maradona is the old Messi!

I have been thrilled to the genius of Thierry Henry at Arsenal, and sometimes it was difficult to find the right superlatives to define his exceptional combination of speed, power and skill. If that was a mental challenge, describing Leo Messi would be something of a divine challenge. His football is extremely-extraordinarily-stupendously-undescribably-out-of-this-world. His ability leaves his opponents discombobulated. Most times, Messi leaves not just the fan in awe of him, but his opponents in admiration and opposition coaches end up with such words as discombosomething above. You always feel you haven’t done enough justice at describing this mercurial magician. His size looks inconsequential like Adebayor said on meeting him at Thierry Henry’s home in Spain but even Adebayor was held spellbound by merely seeing him off the pitch. I bet the lanky African would be swooned on the pitch given the opportunity to witness the genius of Messi. I thought I had amassed enough adjectives and descriptive words for any superbly talented footballer until I saw Messi play Real Zaragoza and I saw him almost single-handedly dump Arsenal out of the UEFA Champions league. Arsenal’s Manuel Almunia would describe this better but I remember Messi completing an Almunia and Arsenal rout by scoring every possible goal a goal keeper could concede in a football match. He had one over Almunia’s head, he had one pass underneath him and he had others by his sides. I have had the privilege of watching some exceptionally talented footballers like Didier Drogba who I believe certainly bloomed a bit late but who nonetheless is a breath taker on his day. I saw Cristiano Ronaldo dump Arsenal out of the UEFA Champions League last season but the sincere person in me has overruled the non-partisanship of the writer as I think no one, absolutely no one comes anywhere close to Messi’s ability. Ander Herrera of Zaragoza thinks Messi is not human. Jose Aurelio the Zaragoza coach thinks he is interplanetary and unplayable. Arsene Wenger believes Messi is without doubt the best footballer in the world but I think that was laid to rest when he deservedly won the award at the last FIFA gala.

I almost forgot the title of this piece sought to do a Messi Ronaldo comparison. Forgive my getting carried away by the divinity of Messi when I could have digressed to the undeniable genius of Cristiano I-am-greater-than-Messi Ronaldo’s ability. Comparisons between two great phenomena is often very windy but for the sake of their abilities, I think it’s something we all should be granted once in a while. It is not like you have a choice though because I know Messi’s name will come up in arguments centuries from today. Ronaldo is said to be faster, stronger, bigger, more athletic, more handsome ( imagine that coming into athletic abilities!) but who cares about all that obvious obsession with physicality when you can do what Messi does. Talk about completed passes, use goal assists, use the unavoidable goals scored and Messi would still come tops but Messi is more than statistics. He is immeasurable. He is in a world of his own. He does not take penalties and he is never obsessed about na-me-score yet he has outscored every one in Spain and indeed every meaningful league across Europe. Two European cups, three league titles, the FIFA U/20 Championships where he wrestled Nigeria to submission, the Olympic gold medal in 2008 and the many impossible-to-score-goals clearly set Messi up as incomparable with anyone at the moment. If he does not win the FIFA World Cup with Argentina in South Africa this summer, it would be because of Maradona’s (the old Messi) technical inefficiency rather than Messi’s inability. The first time he got a full season i.e. 2008/2009 season he scored a massive 38 goals, this season he is knocking on 50 and no sane person would bet against that. In seasons past when injuries would not let him, we still were able to witness his mercurial ability and we just knew that all he needed was an injury-free season and has he proven us right?

I don’t want to say he is the best ever. It is easier to look into the past without the lens of nostalgia and truly ask who is better than Leo Messi without the obvious question of whether he has won the World Cup yet? I know he has to do a whole lot more to cement his legend through time but who would bet against that. The most exceptional thing about Lionel Messi is not the deft sublime touches, it is not the consistency of his hatricks, it is not even about his ability to single handedly win matches, it is more than his invincibility and the almost unbelievable way he leaves other players and goal keepers on their butt like he was invisible or like they were not there, it is about the fact that Lionel Messi is just 22. At 22, you’d say barring any career threatening injuries like Arsenal’s Eduardo and Marco van Basten’s, then it is safer to say we don’t know where Messi is taking us but who would not like to follow the unfolding tale of tomorrow’s most discussed football legend. Ronaldo ( not the real one) is good and he does score a lot of wonder goals (cue the one he scored against Zaragoza last weekend) but really and truly, Messi is in a world of his own and I would not want to offend the gods by comparing one of their own with a world class human footballer by name Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi is divine class. Of course, these are all my opinion and I know Madridstas and some Manchester United fans will argue this to death but then it is football and like life, we all see it differently. If there has to be a difference to how we see it, then it must be that atleast we all agree that Messi is currently the world’s best player. Followed by Cristiano Ronaldo? No! followed by Xavi. He is the uncelebrated Pippen behind Jordan. That is a tale for another day. Just keep savouring the divinity of Lionel Messi till then. Japheth Omojuwa © 2010 .