Vicente del Bosque states Lionel Messi is the best player he has ever seen

By
Roy Nemer
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81

Vicente del Bosque has stated that Lionel Messi is the best player he has ever seen.

The former World Cup winning coach gave an interview to Radio Marca, in which he spoke about Lionel Messi, stating that he is the best player he has ever seen:

“Of all the players I have known throughout the years in football, for me Messi, for his consistency and his quality as a player, has been impressive. He has had fantastic seasons and has always lifted his team forward.”

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81 Comments

  2. Guys where is that arrogant All things selecao guy from twitter since Brazil Croatia? I know he would have came out from his hole if ARG lost their final, but now please somebody delete that channel!

      • Absolutely right rattle Head..where is that Annapurna..
        Always bashing Argentina and anytime telling France Brazil France Brazil..where is he now?
        If he was genuine fan of Argentina he should have been commenting here in this forum

        • Some people here just pretend to be Argentina supporters so they could post negative things about the team but all these clowns do is criticizing but disappear when we actually came out VICTORIOUS. I remember some of these clowns are bashing Scaloni when we won Copa America, I mean seriously?

          Anu was worshipping Varzil saying how they’ve found new fowards after Copa so it would be hard for us to beat them next time around, but they cant even beat Croatia lol

  3. Please allow me to digress a bit. Can anyone explain to me pictures of Mbappe with his penis looking horribly upright under his shorts? Is that natural or is he wearing protective gear?

  5. A concacaf country (now USA/Canada) is a perfect place historically for south americans to win the WC. Argentina or Brazil will win it imo. But i dont trust in this Neymar’s Brazil, not tough enough mentally. It will be ours again.

    WC winners in modern football (since 74):

    Argentina 3
    Germany 3
    Italy 2
    Brazil 2
    France 2
    Spain 1.

    Finals:

    Germany 6
    Argentina 5
    France 4
    Italy 3
    Brazil 3
    Netherlands 3
    Spain 1
    Croatia 1.

    Dont understand brazilians arrogance towards us with their prehistoric results.

        • Interesting –
          “As Jonathan Wilson explains in his influential history of tactics, Inverting the Pyramid(opens in new tab), putting such relentless pressure on the player in possession, “demanding as it did almost constant movement from the midfielders, required supreme physical fitness, which may explain why it had not emerged earlier”.

          However, there’s disagreement over who should be called football’s Tommy Gorman. Wilson credits the Russian manager Viktor Maslov with inventing the pressing game while in charge of Dynamo Kiev between 1964 and 1970”

  8. Macallister is the world most intelligent off the ball midfielder hands up! Unbelieveble defensive and attacking intelligence, third man runs from deep, the master of using the spaces. He is the Thomas Mueller of the midfielders. And a great retention dribbler, pressure resistence player too, not fancy with the ball, or utterly creative playmaker but he has his world class skills for sure.

    • So so true. He is truly a genius on the ball. He already proved himself in Brighton and I knew he would come tops here. It was a matter of time. Apart from his technical brilliance his tactical IQ is world class. He is at the right place at the right time, you cant take the ball from him with 2-3 players. In fact I feel we haven’t seen his ceiling yet. He played percentage football from what I understand which is shy he held back a little on the fancy stuff. Our midfield is stacked ! Super times !

  9. Go to Di Maria instagram and check out his insta story. There is a clip of Scaloni lifting up Di Maria way ahead his head (not just hugging) after we won the WC. That clip is more than a thousand words.

    Basically the meaning is, “I messed up big time by substituting you. Thanks God u scored that goal and made that PK, otherwise I would have been crucified by 45 millions of people by now”

  11. Any info regarding when schedule / format of next WC will be announced. Argentina have match in March still don’t know its WC Qualifier or friendly. With locelso. Nico are coming back i don’t see many changes in the squad. Maybe gio simone or garnacho.

  12. Man I’ve been racking my brain to come up with this ranking but here we go. This is how I would rank the MVP performances for Argentina this World Cup.

    1. Messi
    2. MacAllister (sorry for calling you Biglia 2.0)
    3. Julian Alvarez (his goals and constant pressing)
    4. Enzo (his game is so fluid and beautiful)
    5. Dibu (spectacular at times but could have done better outside of penalty shootouts)
    6. De Paul (though he was not in-form, the midfield lost its grit when he was off)
    7. Cuti Romero
    8. Otamandi
    9. Di Maria (he missed a few games)
    10. Lisandro

    I would be curious to see other people’s rankings. I know some will think I ranked Dibu too low. Ranking Julian, MacAllister and Enzo was tough because all 3 were incredible from start to finish.

    • 1. Messi
      2. Emi
      3. Di Maria
      4. Enzo
      5. Cuti

      Without the first 3 we would not have won the WC for sure. The first 3 have no replacements. Enzo has been the best midfielder in the tournament. Only Amrabat could challenge him for the team of the tournament. Cuti for many experts make it to the team of the tournament. We can’t deny that.

      Di Maria played few but without him seriously, no way we beat France. The same thing as without him, no way we beat Brazil in Copa.

      I feel only the first 3 we have no replacements whatsoever. Others we can still replace and play good.

      • To me, Otamendi was equally important to Cuti, if not more. He was a monster in aerial duels, the highest success rate among all players in the World Cup, if I’m not mistaken. Think about playing with the tall Dutch players without Otamendi.

        When we think about Otamendi, the first thing we think about is his occasional lapse in concentrations or mistakes, such as the one that allowed France the second penalty. However, his ball distribution from the back and aerial superiority often is unnoticed. I don’t see yet a replacement for Otamendi when it comes to aerial duels.

  13. Transfermarkt updated market value of the players.
    Top 11 Argentine players.In Euro.. Millions.

    1. Lautaro Martinez -75m
    2. Cristian Romero -60m
    3. Enzo Fernandez -55m
    4. Messi -50m
    5. Lisandro Martinez -50m
    6. Julian Alvarez -50m
    7. Alexis Mac Allister -42m
    8. Rodrigo De Paul -40m
    9. Angel Correa -40m
    10. Paulo Dybala -30m
    11. Emi Martinez -28m

    Lautaro, Messi, Lisandro, Correa, & Dybala ..no change.

    • If I’m not mistaken he said before the game that you wouldn’t see him dribbling past three or four players but you still see him doing it sometimes. His tactical thinking and ball handling are excellent.

      • Yep even though i watch him regularly at PL i nver seen or thought who could dribble like this, i think the final was his best match ever in any professional game
        Its requires charcter to produce the very very best of yours when the team needs u most
        The future of albiceleste

        • McAllister was phenomenal against France in the final. Yes, perhaps, his best game in professional career. I am happy that I was wrong about him. Scaloni trusted him and gave him ample opportunities and look how it played out at the end- in a very important moment! Kudos to Scaloni on this regard.

          If it teaches me something – it is “patience” that I must learn.

  16. Can anyone tell me the reason behind after going 1 or 2 zero up we hit the defend button and kept inviting pressure from the opposition and let them get back into the game? It happened against Colombia both in the WCQ and the copa semi, against Australia, Netherlands and finally France. Why did Scaloni not learn his lesson? And why did he take off ADM?

    • I guess to avoid counter-attack, so we play defensive to avoid late goals and defending leads, but I think we should only do this if we have a world-class defense such as France98, Italy2000 defenses.
      The only team we succeeded in the WC for defending lead is Croatia and Poland. Poland is too weak while Croatia have very poor strikers.

    • Simply not as physically fit as at the beginning of the match. When the physical decline, the spirit also declines leading to lack of concentration. It depends on the player.

  17. Del Bosque on Busquets after they won the WC “If you watch the whole game, you won’t see Busquets—but watch Busquets, and you will see the whole game.”

    Guess who was such a player for us in this WC? Mac Allister, without any doubt.

  18. I love Angelito. Easily my favorite after Messi in the team now and maybe my top 5 for Argentina of my all time favorites. I agree with El Principe’s examples of athletes lowering their performances with age or becoming toxic. It’s a weird dilemma where an important win is used as an excuse for a player to continue even if it is the right time for them to take the off-ramp. “If we just won this, why shouldn’t I be able to continue?”, and then when they do continue reality hits and their level decreases, but they still think they have credit in the bank to continue and that’s where the drama starts. The whole world saw an embarrassing display of this with Ronaldo this year. He’s gotten rejected by countless clubs, and while some people will jump on the bandwagon to say that it’s because he’s not good, the truth is he still has it in him to score many goals for a Borussia Dortmund, a Marseille, an Atletico Madrid, a Sporting Lisbon, an AC Milan, etc. The reason that teams are denying him is because he is that toxic that it will just become a drama and spell disaster. All it takes is one game on the bench. The good thing is, I don’t think Di Maria is like this AT ALL. He’s been just fine sitting on the bench when he has to and shows up when we need him. He’s very humble and he’s introverted. Di Maria won’t have a hissy fit if he’s not a starter here or there. He’s fine being on the bench and part of the reason he said he would retire a few months ago is to give space to the young players, it’s not like he’s going to entirely eat up that space now that he stayed. He loves Argentina a lot which is why he said he would rather be criticized by 45 M but wear the shirt. I’m sure he wants the best for us even if it means letting a younger player start in his place, he knows. It’s really just a question of whether or not he’ll make it to the next Copa America. His decision to stay will allow him to show the magic he has left for us (plus, it’s not that he’s too old he can’t play, I mean he left the young 100M+ France defense dizzy the other day) and then receive a deserving goodbye and celebration he deserves, maybe some friendly game or something like that. I think it is totally fine, and I would have been heartbroken to see him gone already.

    • Agree, let’s see how long Di Maria plays at the level he is playing now. If he moves to Rosario Central, without major injury for sure he would dominate the local league (the way Ortega did in 2001-2002). Di Maria never asks for being a starter. He is a good teammate. I think our Copa 2024 performance would answer everything when it comes to who still continue or who will quit.

      So I guess it is still possible to see Di Maria, Messi, and Garnacho playing together.

    • I agree with you, Olive, and agree to El_Principe. I think that Messi, Di Maria, Papu, Otamendi, and maybe Acuna, Tagliafico, Armani just want to play with Argentina’s shirt with ⭐⭐⭐ on that shirt in the friendly match or the qualification match on March 2023 (maybe) or whenever before the next Copa America and World Cup. Then they get the best goodbye celebration ever, because they deserve it.

      However, Argentina National Team must regenerate its team with the younger players. We, the fans of Argentina National Team, have to prepare that we will not watch Messi, Di Maria, Papu, Otamendi, Acuna, Tagliafico, and Armani on the next Copa America and World Cup.

      But, no matter what, no matter when, no matter where, no matter who, no matter why, and no matter how, VAMOS ARGENTINA! By the way, congratulations to Argentina and the fans, because Argentina National Team can achieve Copa America 2021 and World Cup 2022. Hopefully, Argentina National Team will be the champion of the next Copa America and World Cup.

      Go Tango! Vamos Argentina! God bless us all…

    • Totally agree. I don’t think ADM lacks self awareness and Scaloni wouldn’t let it become a problem. The group is harmonious and respects each other too much. I’m sure they’ll know when is the right time without it ever becoming a hindrance

  19. According to @brunoandrd #MUFC are overtaking Liverpool in the race for Enzo Fernández. There are already ongoing conversations between all involved. Red Devils are even willing to beat the 120 M clause € and avoid any competition.

  20. I dont understand planing of di maria countinue to playing with all respect and love for him(more than messi), i think its gonna cost the progression of Nico gonzales, occampose, grancho extra..
    Over depending of senior players cost many team this tournament also if these seniors cant make to 2026 its gonna cost the structure and chemistry
    I wish we could start new era and make plan for 2026

  21. Also, Gotze celebrated our victory with his son.

    Since Jules Rimet trophy replaced by the FIFA WC trophy, Argentina and Germany are the only two teams that has won it 3 times. Yet, European pundits would say Brazil is the best south American team in modern football….? haha

    • It’s bugged me so much how they treated them as if Varsil already got the trophy before even they start playing the tournament. Even though Varsil didn’t win shit or play a world cup final since 2002WC. They won 2019 copa by cheating.

      • Yep, at the end of the day Varzil lifted this modern day trophy twice , Argentina has done it thrice. Varzil can keep leaving in the past where they’re king of prehistoric football.

        The biggest irony of Brazil fans is that they always trash talk other team, especially Argentina but when they lost , they’re BEGGING to be respected. Like when they’re begging their dance to be respected saying its part of their culture. If they didnt lost to Croatia, I’m 100% sure they’d keep making fun of every other teams.

        I dont remember Argentina celebrating wildly when they beat Korea 4-1 in WC 2010. The first proper test came, and Brazil stumbled. Since 2002 , they’re just like England.

        Remember, they ALWAYS taunts Argentina in last 28 years… its only not long ago when Neymar mocked us saying “Did they just win the World cup?” after Finalissima. Now they’re asking to be respected? lol

  22. I don’t know if you guys aware of it although it was confirmed Scaloni will stay till next world cup however they haven’t signed anything yet. Hopefully Tapia doesn’t go cheap anymore and give atleast a good contract to our coaching staff because they are getting lower then any other NT coaching staff let alone clubs coaches. It’s in Ole too.. everyone concern about it. If carzy Sampa can get a bumper contract then so Scaloni deserves it too now after getting us 2 trophies out of 3 tournament.

  23. Piggybacking of comments in previous threads talking about Sampaoli.

    Sampaoli failed because of his arrogance, stubbornness, and atrocious decision making. Scaloni had years to test and gain trust and it was very painful for years.
    Sampaoli on the other hand, did not have same timeframe to implement his ideas properly but still insisted on changing tactics and players every game. Totally disruptive to player chem and confidence with such limited time.

    Prime example – What did Scaloni do against Croatia’s rock star midfield? 442 mid block defending…overload mid with 4 pressing energetic players supported by fullbacks.

    What did Sampaoli do against Croatia 2018? 343 High Block defending. Played 3atb when no player had any experience (many agree lengthy time is critical to implement 3ATB). Deployed 4 fullbacks Tag LCB, Acuna Left wingback, Mercado RCB, and Salivio right wingback with 1 proper Centerback. 2 aged mids Mascherano and Enzo and Meza instead of Di Maria. Anyone could see problems right out of the gates when we clearly had NO MIDFIELD. Salvio and Acuna were not mids, they kept pushing forward too much leaving slow poke Masche and Enzo totally isolated and outgunned by Croatia’s great energetic 3 – 5 man mid. They controlled the game and killed our chances.

    Scaloni focused on the midfield while Sampaoli did the opposite. Sometimes i wonder if he sabotaged on purpose. Given that we had NO TIME, all he had to was remain pragmatic. Play our best line up, stick to 433 mid block and i bet we would have made it to the finals. After the cup, it would have been fine to meddle but the timing was so poor. The team did look solid on paper, but Sampa destroyed all chances.

    Di Maria – Kun – Messi
    Lo Celso – Masche – Banega
    Tag/Acuna – Rojo – Ota – Mercado
    Armani (from the qual should have started)

    • I agree. Knowing Scaloni, if he had that small amount of time to prepare for a World Cup he would have done the opposite — been very conservative with his initial formations and not playing whatsoever to risk. The complete opposite of Sampaoli. Scaloni doesn’t play all out attack / changing formations unless the team has had time to bed in. We didn’t have an all out, beautiful attacking display in the Copa America for instance (the Bolivia game was to be expected and the 3-0 against Ecuador was slightly undeserved based on the runs of play). He remained pragmatic and didn’t mind winning by 1 goal margins because in tournament football in only matters to win. Then right after the Copa America, AFTER the team had a large streak of games to bed in and it was the RIGHT time to change things we suddenly started pulling out beautiful, dominant displays like against Uruguay 3-0 and even against a top team like Italy in the finalissima. In this World Cup, he knew when to play ugly (Mexico) and he knew when to play beautiful (Poland). Sampaoli not only would have tried to do that EVERY game in Copa or in the World Cup but he would have attempted that style with radical formations like the one you mentioned. I don’t even think it is possible to make the formation he used against Croatia work even WITH several games of preparation, it’s that crazy. For years on this site many people got mad that Scaloni took too long to select certain players, and while he is a manager with favorites he has been very fair in dropping first team regulars like Paredes for young blood like Enzo and Mac Allister when things didn’t fit. It’s still beyond me how Lo Celso got 0 minutes that World Cup, he might have even been able to have the effect Enzo/Mac did on this one. I think it gives WAY too much merit to Sampaoli to compare Scaloni to him and I think it is disrespectful to Scaloni

      I really like El Mongol’s phrase “But the foundation is built on grit, unity, preparation, suffering together as team. The beautiful phases are the icing of the cake”. Scaloni’s first goal is to win and form a solid base, even if it means starting out slowly. That’s also a testament to the mental toughness that helped us against France and the Netherlands. I’m sure if that 2018 Sampaoli team lost a lead like we did in both those games we wouldn’t have won the shootout. Honestly I hope the “Scalonista” doctrine stays forever in Argentinian football, I love it’s addition alongside Bilardista and Menottista. It’s a doctrine of slowly forming a machine that is ideal for tournament football, forming a group of people that will die for the shirt and for each other, one that will win at all costs and means necessary, and one that takes it game my game and adapts to the rivals in front of you. That is a recipe for winning tournaments. The group and grit first. The style of play second, because that will always come

      • Agreed. Very well put.

        In addition to Scaloni pragmatism and grit, he’s also a “players coach”. No way in hell the bald bowling ball would have gelled so well.

        > I think it gives WAY too much merit to Sampaoli to compare Scaloni to him and I think it is disrespectful to Scaloni

        100%.

    • totally, few coaches are able to sub 5 players in the 2nd match of the world cup and changed radically the tactics that was used by his team during the past 3 years. I like especially the last 3 games he switched to 532 against Netherlands for counter the winger backs, then 442 against Croatia to contain the midfielders and finally with Di Maria in final to attack the weak point Kounde/Varane. No doubt the best coaching of this competition, he knows very well his players and the opponents.

  24. Cristiano Ronaldo fan base are fled from social media Even toni kroos have admitted messi is goat, What I like about messi above his genius is how humble and good guy he is, that is why all the natural football people wanted him to win world cup

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