Simply the Best?

"Football, bloody hell!" Famous words spoken by a man who may have had stronger things to say almost 10 years to the day later. It sounds stupid, almost hopeful from a United fan to say, but before that most incredible of leaps by that most incredible of 5"7 Argentinians, we may have been heading for an exact replica of the scenes we had on Sir Matt's 90th birthday this time the day after his 100th.

OK just bear with me, I know you're about to click away from the babbling United fan's blog but I'm fighting through tears here. United were well and truly hammered, as they had been that night in the Nou Camp, Barcelona had hit the woodwork, as Bayern had and Barce had failed to kill off United much like Bayern had. But Munich did not have Lionel Messi.

The thing here is that during the match, and even now, I'd be pushed to say that Messi is the best player in the world, I mean we're led to believe it's someone new every year, in fact some people spread it round every month or two. On the night we were led to believe it was Messi vs Ronaldo the show down! Messi won, but he didn't really. I'm not being biased here I just think it's difficult to believe a) it was really Messi vs Ronaldo and b) Messi himself beat Ronaldo.

The English champions were well below par, Barcelona were brilliant. Had both teams been brilliant we may have still had the same result but at least we'd have a better picture of who really was the better player. For me the man of the match, and possibly the best player in the world, was and is Andres Iniesta. Messi has flair, innovation, the ability to make the ball stick to his feet, but Iniesta has all these plus the best pass in the world and a footballing mind better than most. In any other era, and I say this whilst hearing the chorus of boos from those who remember "back in the day", Iniesta would be mentioned as a true great. These days though, we like the trickery and flair of a Messi and Ronaldo. We like the celebrity of Gerrard or Kaka. The famous names on football management games, who usually don't make it as big as their virtual selves like Rafael van der Vaart and Kim Kallstrom (thank you to the Football Manager Live boys for those examples.)

The best players are often those who sit in the background doing the hard work. In the world of Sunday league the newly crowned league champions had the top goalscorer by a mile, they also had the player of the season. This was not the same person. Even in the Sunday leagues it's often the quiet man, the left back or central midfielder doing the work, pulling the strings, making a team really tick. Goalkeepers are also undervalued a lot of the time. I have mentioned these 3 positions as coming up to the team awards I hope it's these players who pick up awards.

But maybe, after all this, I've missed the point! Maybe the little Argentinian is the world's best player, although it was Xavi who laid it up for him, that moment, that leap, that's what makes a player great. Many have said it was Eto'o's goal that changed the match, but with United's past of great comebacks it was really Messi's goal that changed the game. And that ability to change a match, in fact make history unimportant perhaps just makes Messi the best player in the world. Now I'm off to console myself with a DVD of the Champions League final of 1999, it still gives me goosebumps. Football Bloody Hell