Wayne who? Tiger who?
But after most of a season in this neck of the woods being repeatedly told that Wayne Rooney is the best player in the world, Lionel Messi’s virtuoso display against Arsenal should ensure that we won’t be hearing that line again for a while.
Not that the Roo should be too downhearted.
He might even be the second-best player in the world just now or at least vying for the silver medal with his old mate Ronaldo, but the man clutching the gold is, as Arsene Wenger admitted, ahead by some distance.
So far ahead, indeed, that you feel you have to abandon the present day and reach into history to locate his true place in the pantheon.
Until now, my all-time top five – Pele, Best, Maradona, Cruyff, Zidane – has remained the same for about the last 10 years. But that could all change in a couple of months, if the 22-year-old Argentine carries his current irresistible form into the World Cup finals in South Africa.
It’s not that he needs the world stage to confirm his talent – Georgie never got that chance and only the foolish would argue with his place in the pantheon – but if Messi can do for Argentina what Maradona did in 1986, then someone will have to give at the top.
It might seem that we’re all suddenly now living in a Messi world but the 22-year-old has been outstanding for four years and more already, his demolition of Arsenal scarcely the first time the wonder boy has exhausted all superlatives.
This season he has been scoring hat-tricks – and more – for fun but, go back three years, and you’ll find him notching up one of the greatest individual goals ever in a Spanish cup match against Getafe.
This was the goal which was almost spookily like Maradona’s against England in 1986, with the heir to the throne destroying the opposition with a solo run which, the lesser opposition notwithstanding, was every bit as sensational as that so-called ‘goal of the century’ at the Mexico 86 World Cup (and if you want eerie proof, go online where you’ll find some enterprising person has put up a split-screen presentation of both goals).
Comparisons are not odious in the case of Messi, a footballer who combines Maradona’s slaloming thrusts and muscular strength with an ability to wrap his left foot round the ball and change direction at speed in a way which reminds you of why it was sometimes said that George Best must have had double-jointed ankles.
And as was also famously said of the Belfast Boy, the outcome for defenders is that they are invariably left with twisted blood.
Another striking thing about Messi, which was evident in a lot of his play against Arsenal, is that he doesn’t feel the need to prove he’s the best every time the ball lands at his feet. Messi might bring the grandstands to their feet but he is no grandstander himself.
Like all the Barca men, he’s a team player schooled in the art of keeping possession, and if the right thing at the right time is to make a simple pass to a team-mate, he’ll do it.
Nor does he shirk the unglamorous stuff: you might have noticed that, late on in the game on Tuesday night, Messi was the one rushing across to block Gael Clichy’s attempt at playing a relieving ball up the line.
So here is that rarity in the modern game: a supremely gifted individual whose talent is always in service to the greater good; a superstar who appears not to be weighed down by excessive ego; and a steely competitor who, when he gets chopped down – that’s if anyone can get close enough to do the damage – tends to get up and get on with it.
All this and he still plays top level professional football with a schoolboy’s smile on his face.
Actually, I’ve just thought of another question of sport: Tiger who?
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