Originally Posted by Fluffy Kittens

By people our age he is but I post on another forum full of mostly match going older football fans and I'm talking the vast majority regard Maradona to be the best, as do all my friends' dads, "if you saw him play you'd realise why Maradona is the best" etc... like I say just seems like elitism and nothing else. I mean one stick you see people beat him with is "he needs to do it for Argentina", but how many people watch Argentina's games? Messi has been playing in the playmaker's role for them for years, clocking up the assists. It's only been within the last year he's played further up and his goal stats for Argentina now replicate his Barca stats. This is what I mean by underrated. Messi could easily play in midfield imo, in fact I think he will do once his physical attributes start to decline, he'll play further back and dink balls over to the forwards or slice defences with through balls. His free kicks are underrated too, he is one of the best in the world now. Yet Ronaldo is regarded as better even though the majority of the time he can't even clear the wall.

Messi's shooting is unreal as well, it is always in the corners whether he's inside the box or outside. Like I say the majority of people don't appreciate or realise how good he actually is.

Messi is still underrated for me. Busquets is underrated possibly, but that's most because he is a little shit who does himself no favours at all.