• Adidas: "When you've won 4 Ballon d'or awards, #therewillbehaters."
• Pep Guardiola: "Don’t write about him. Don’t try to describe him: watch him."
• Pep Guardiola: "He is only 27 years old and he has already beaten the record. His record will not last for 60 years, but 600 years.''

• Pep Guardiola: “It was an honour to be the coach of the best player I have ever seen and probably the best I will see.”

• Pep Guardiola: “The numbers speak for themselves. One day he'll score six — we'll never see a player like him again.”

• Pep Guardiola: "There is no defence that can stop Messi. It is impossible."

• Pep Guardiola: "I didn't see Pele, but Leo is the best player ever. He's unique."

• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar: "Who’s better, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? Messi. Ronaldo is good, but Messi is 10 times better."

• Andrés Iniesta: “His skill, the essence of him as a player has always been there for all to see, but he’s got better with every season.”

• Andrés Iniesta: "Leo Messi does things that nobody else does. We are lucky to be able to enjoy having him... I take my hat off to him once again. He makes us happy."

• Xavi: “If you can't link up well with Messi, then football's not for you.”

• Diego Maradona: "I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi. Messi is a genius."

• Pelé: "I like both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but I don't think there is a fair comparison here. Messi has been the best player around for the last 10 years and he is a guy who is much more present in the game overall. Cristiano reminds me a lot of the Brazilian Ronaldo. He's a great goalscorer and I had the pleasure to hand him the Ballon d'Or last year, but his passing is not a good as Messi and he is not as involved as Messi."

• Wayne Rooney: "Messi is a joke. For me the best ever."

• Gary Lineker: “Messi always makes the right decision, whether it's a pass or a finish — he's a little genius.”
• Gary Lineker: “He should be fined for bringing the game into disrepute. It ain't that easy!”

• Gary Lineker: "Fella’s a genius. Best ever by a distance in my life time. Never really saw Pele… Souness, Gullit, Venables and now Rooney agree Messi is the best they have seen. He plays a game with which we are not familiar."

• Gary Lineker: “A guide to how good Messi is, is that by comparison, Luis Suárez looks average.”

• Gary Lineker: "Anyone still arguing? He's the Messiah. I should know, I've followed a few."

• Gary Lineker: "[Messi is the] best passer, best dribbler, best finisher I've ever seen."

• Gerard Piqué: "It feels good to be in the same generation as him. I believe he’s the best player in the history of the sport."

• Gerard Piqué: "Messi is the best player in history. He's very important in my career. Thanks to him, I've won everything. And as person, he's a 10"

• Gerard Piqué: "If he's inspired, nobody can stop Messi"

• Sor Lucía Caram: “He is so perfect when he plays football — it seems divine.”

• Sor Lucía Caram: “One looks entranced, like by a beautiful painting or a sunset, when one faces Messi.”

• Harry Redkapp: “You couldn't put a value on him, he's on another planet. For me, Lionel Messi is undoubtedly the №.1 player in the world.”

• Hristo Stoichkov: "Once they said they can only stop me with a pistol. Today you need a machine gun to stop Messi."

• Tostão: "Messi is better than Maradona; he is more complete, more consistent, more spectacular. He is reinventing the game – a mix of the real and the virtual."
• Adriano Galliani: "Messi is the best player ever. And this is said by someone who has seen Maradona and Pele play."

• Bacary Sagna: "He is the best in the world. Football seems easy when he plays it."

• Kobe Bryant: "I wear the number 10 Jersey for the US National Team in honour of the Greatest athlete I have ever seen: Messi."

• Radamel Falcao: "Is Messi a real player or a PlayStation character?"

• Gheorghe Hagi: "Messi or Cristiano? Cristiano Ronaldo is very good, but I prefer Messi. He’s incredible."

• Raúl González: "The other day I saw one of his games. He was running with the ball at a hundred percent full speed, I don’t know how many touches he took, maybe five or six, but the ball was glued to his foot. It’s practically impossible."

• Raúl González: “I was lucky that I play[ed] with Zidane, with Cristiano Ronaldo, with Ronaldo, with Figo... but against, I think Messi... [he] is very different; he makes everything look so easy, so effortless – even the impossible.”

• Sid Lowe: "If he is so good, how can you express that? The superlatives ran out ages ago. On these pages, swearing has been tried. Or perhaps a symbol, something to signify that we have gone beyond words now."

• Franz Beckenbauer: "Messi is a genius. He has everything. When I watch him, I see a player who is very, very, skilful, very clever and his left foot is like Diego Maradona’s."

• Miguel Angel Lotina: "Comparing CR7 to Messi is an exercise of ignorance in football. Messi is Messi and others, footballers."

• Roy Keane: "I was a big fan of Maradona growing up and of the current crop Ronaldo is good but Messi is the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t dish out praise lightly but Messi deserves it. I look for weaknesses in his game and I can’t find them."

• Mario Gomez: "I am not crazy enough to compare myself with Messi because he is the best there ever was and the best there will ever be."

• John Terry: "Lionel Messi is quite clearly the best player ever. It’s a pleasure to pit myself against him and when I finish my career it’s something I can look back on and know I’ve tested myself against the very best."
• Barack Obama: “Me and Messi, we're right up there.”

• Radomir Antić: “Lionel Messi is the Mozart of football.”

• Sacha Kljestan: “Messi is the king of team sports. You know how much I love basketball, but Messi is on another level.”

• Ken Earlys: “Messi is an impassive minimalist whose face barely changes even when he's bouncing on the ground after getting kicked.”

• Deco: “A football genius and a personal friend of mine. Simply the best I ever had the pleasure of playing with at club level.”

• Jordi Alba: “We're talking about the best player in the world. For us he doesn't have a price. He is No.1 — no player can stand up to him.”

• Mia Hamm: “He makes you hold your breath every time he touches the ball. It never seems to leave his feet.”

• Mia Hamm: “He certainly has the potential to be remembered as the best player of all time.”

• Marcial Pina: “Messi is the best player I've ever seen — better than Maradona and Johan Cruyff together.”

• José Mourinho: “The only way to stop Messi is to double mark him. One player to stay on him and the other to help out.”

• José Mourinho: “I am saying that a team with that boy is a different team, is a different story.”

• Juan Román Riquelme: “Messi is the greatest, the best in the world.”

• Javier Mascherano: “He competes against himself. He seems more like a golfer than a footballer — every day he is trying to lower his handicap.”

• Javier Mascherano: "He is just a player who is impossible to describe. You have to watch him."

• Javier Mascherano: "It's not easy, considering he's the best at what he does, to stay as humble as he is and be such a down-to-earth, approachable person."

• Ray Hudson: “He arrives like a ghost in the night. There ain't any tracking of him....X-rays couldn't track this guy down.”

• Ray Hudson: “He abides in the magnetic spectrum of genius with the ball. Pure footballing magic.”

• Ray Hudson: “Messi invents passing lanes, he doesn't look for them.”

• Ray Hudson: “Angles mean nothing to this man — he could decorate a rose and make it look better.”

• Ray Hudson: “Footballing's bird of paradise is fluffing his feathers beautifully.”

• Ray Hudson: “He soaks up the defenders just like a paper towel soaks up milk.”

• Josep Bartomeu: “He’s not interested in stats or personal records, he plays for the team.”

• Fran Escribá: “Messi is so good that he can even get around the 3 players you send after him & still notice the 2 teammates he has in space.”

• Alan Shearer: “He creates his goals from absolutely nothing — more so than anyone that I've ever seen.”

• Gennaro Gattuso: “He seems to toy with his opponents. He is faster, has more class and scores when he wants to.”

• Andrea Sosa: “He was the smallest boy in class — but when it was time to play football, he was a giant.”

• Francesc Fàbregas: “His individual efforts are so big that they contribute to the whole team and the club in general.”

• El Langui: “Messi's playing style is a lot more attractive than Cristiano's. Messi flows like rap, whereas @Cristiano is more heavy metal.”

• Andrea Pirlo: “He has achieved so much, but I'm sure he'll achieve so much more. Everybody knows he's one of the greatest ever already.”

• Jamie Carragher: “I haven’t kept many shirts but this is taking pride of place. I'm still in shock he remembers me.”

• César Luis Menotti: “Never before has there been such a difference between the King and the next.”

• César Luis Menotti: “I still believe Messi is the best in the world. He has a special magic and is more of a team player than Cristiano.”

• César Luis Menotti: “We should take care of Messi, not criticize him. Take care of him otherwise we won't make it to the next World Cup.”

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic: “Who's better, Messi or Zlatan? — After what Leo has done in recent years, there's no debate.”

• John Carlin: “Messi is much more than being clever. He is a genius who reserves all his expressiveness for football.”

• Henk ten Cate: “Ronaldo is a top player, it's a shame that he's in Messi's era — he'll always be 2nd best regardless of the Ballon d'Or.”

• Ronaldo (O Fenômeno): “Messi seems more complete than Cristiano to me — at least more decisive. In the important moments, he appears and scores.”

• Ronaldo (O Fenômeno): "Does Messi deserve to be called the greatest player in the world? Yes, for sure."

• Fabio Capello: “Ronaldo is so strong physically, so powerful, but Messi has more creativity.”

• Fabio Capello: “Messi is more of a genius than Ronaldo.”

• Mario Balotelli: "There is only one player who is a little stronger than me – Messi. All the others are behind me."

• José Mari Bakero: “Messi is unpredictable. When he sees opponent's move, he can decide in a millisecond to do something else.”

• Javier Espinosa: "Messi never stopped being the best player in the world. He's above the rest."

• Mario Götze: "Messi is at another level. He has set the bar very high, it's almost impossible for anyone to get there."

• Eduardo Galeano: “I like Messi, because he doesn’t think he’s Messi.”

• Quique Domínguez: "His opponents tried to hide the effect he had on them, but would eye him up and down with a bit of fear. He generated something inexplicable for a kid of 10 or 11 years old."

• Gabriel Digerolamo: "Technically he was gifted like no boy I have ever seen. He was so good that a lot of times I changed his position so he could adapt to all aspects of playing on the pitch. On one occasion I played him as sweeper, and, yes, it looked like he had been playing there all his life."

• Diego Rovira: "The conversations between the opposing defenders were wonderful: – We can’t stop this kid. – No. – So what we going to do? – How should I know? Didn’t you just say that he can’t be stopped?"

• Nestor Rozín (former director of NOB): "For every 100 touches, sometimes he got an ice cream and I think he made 1,100 touches and they gave him 10 ice creams."

• Gerardo Grighini: "Once he performed five flick-overs against one player. The player threw himself to the ground and grabbed his feet! Five flick-overs, one after the other. On top of that he was 1.40 metres, while the other boy was 1.70."

• Gerardo Grighini: "Leo was also very strong. Lots of people would throw themselves at him to try to bring him down, but he was strong, he took it. He fell, he got up, he fell again, and he got up again. Incredible. If any of us fell, we stayed down. And probably started to complain. But not him, he fell and still carried on with the ball. I don’t know where that comes from, one in a million must come out like that."

• Jürgen Klopp: "Messi is the best. There must be life out there somewhere, on some other planet. Because he is too good and we are just too bad for him."

• Josep Maria Minguella (Messi’s former agent): "I believe Leo comes from a marvelous planet, the one where exceptional people like violinists, architects, and doctors are created. The chosen people."

• Terry Venables: "Messi best player I ever saw? Yes, he is! He's even better than myself (laughs). One word summarizes him: genius."

• Antonín Panenka (on Messi's 'Panenka' penalty): "The execution was the best I've ever seen - not too powerful, central, good elevation... Technically the goal was impressive. It is a further demonstration of (Messi's) quality."

• Thiago Alcântara: "If he played in goal he’d score 25. There’s no comparison; he’s the best, a competitive animal."

• Santiago Segurola: "Messi es Maradona todos los días"

• Jorge Valdano: "Si hablamos sólo de fútbol, Messi ya no tiene discusión."

• Luis Enrique: "We are used to Messi showing us that he is a player from another dimension."

• Josep Bartomeu: "When Messi plays at this level he is unstoppable. The second goal speaks for itself"

• Sergio Busquets: "Having Messi in the team guarantees everything. He doesn't just score, he gives assists, he works and wins the ball. He's the best player in the world."

• Neymar: "It's impossible to beat him. He is the best and I am always at his side to learn from him."

• Antonio Cassano: "Messi is the greatest in the history of football."

• Gary Neville: "The only time when I have ever watched a performance where I have been genuinely mesmerised by a player was Messi for the 20 minutes before half-time in the Nou Camp against Manchester City."

• Paolo Maldini: “I think he reached and surpassed the level of Maradona. He does incredible things, at a speed that is insane."

• Gianluigi Buffon: "I just wanted to make sure that he's a human being like us."

• Diego Simeone: "Messi is the number one [player in the world]. No other player today is even close [to him]."

• Ángel Di María: "My friendship with Leo is very good and it makes me very happy to wear the same shirt as the best player in the world, to be able to play alongside him and be his friend. It is something I will never forget."

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