I have come home to roost: Messi is the best of all time – Napoleon Ato Kittoe writes

With the exception of God, everybody and all entities have limitations. Therefore, Lionel Messi too is limited. That is why Egypt’s goalkeeper read him so well and punched away his penalty kick. Messi is left-footed so the natural tendency and by his positioning around the spot kick, Shubir anticipated his kick will be directed to the right which was to the left of the goalkeeper.

In 2022, a story I wrote for The Ghana Report website was titled, “Forgotten because of Messi.” I felt most of Argentina’s great players had been eclipsed by the single phenomenon called Messi. People who follow football will agree with me the Argentine stock is replete with skills that cannot be easily delineated.

In US ’94 World Cup, there was a certain Marcelo Gallardo. Shortlived on the pitch but was a football genius. Let’s not forget Claudio Caniggia, Hernan Crespo, Gabriel Batistuta, Ariel Ortega, and others. They run through that nation’s soccer academy but has escaped memory. When he surfaced, Diego Armando Maradona easily caught attention and by 1986, when he peaked, the pundits were already shuffling their cards thinking he could be better than the Brazilian Legend, Pele.

For a very long time, the debate had remained who is better of the two. I argued with those who chanted Messi, thinking despite his achievements it was a fallacy of hasty conclusion to speed him to the summit of individuals considered the best the world had ever seen. I was fine with the school of thought which felt Messi was the best within his generation and not necessarily across time.

There were players like Brazil’s Ronaldinho, Ronaldo Nazzario, Garrincha, Socrates, Zico; Germany’s Karl Heinz Rummenigge, Igor Pierre Littbarski, Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann; the French’s Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Kylian Mbappe; English Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer; the Dutch quartet of Dennis Bergkamp, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Italy’s Paolo Rossi and Roberto Baggio, to name but a few. They were in class of their own.

Following the 2026 world cup, my view of footballers is changing, despite the fact that I was not born in the time some footballers were in vogue.

First, I will talk about the hot topic in town – Messi’s goal against Egypt. People are confused and I am confused as well about how in that little space in the boiling goalmouth melee he was able to shoot at goal. Against African tough customers, Cabo Verde, he scored a classic goal many would have fluffed. Receiving a high ball and chased by a defender, Messi used his left foot effectively to control the ball, and with the dorsum of the foot, squeezed a shot past the goalie.

Other goals scored from the precious boot of Messi were equally dazzling. However, what beats my imagination is how he is able to accurately kick the ball into the net, at times to the top corner or near the poles of the goal post. He is also able to send grounders, the type called pile drivers, “wickedly” to deceive goalkeepers who late reactions have made the Messi magic even more pronounced.

Messi is an art of football who must be thoroughly studied, not just for strategies to contain him should he see more playing days, but his total artistry, some of which fits only the gods for interpretation. The attacker that he is, Messi is not over-awed by any of the opponents strategies and moves upfront with the ball to dare defenders. He is so quick with the ball. His darting runs around the penalty box, and quicksilver actions in the hunt for goals, have smashed defensive setups, who may long after matches, keep scratching their heads to try to understand the uncanny sixth sense and the common sense put on display by the soccer mitzvah called Messi.

I hereby join the multitude to crown Messi the all time best footballer of the world, Pele and Maradona notwithstanding.

Mr Richard Delali Akpakli, former Head of GBC Training School, I have come home to roost. I have fallen in line with your argument.

Indeed, Messi is the best.