Soccer is a hard sport to when it comes down to determining which player is “The Best” in the world. The reason for this is simple: in a game where goals are at the premium, it’s not a game where you can just judge based on “Who scores the most goals”. When David Beckham was signed by the Los Angeles Galaxy, American fans were flummoxed on why the team would spend all this money on a player that rarely scored ( it took them a while until they realized that he was one of the best set up players in the game). Didn’t catch that? This explains it.

There are people out there who call Lionel Messi or Barcelona “The Best Player In The World”. Why? Because of the small intangibles that he brings to the game. Namely, if you give him the ball he will find a way to get it to the net, whether it’s dribbling between defensemen, doing a trick move with his feet, or by putting through the perfect pass to his fellow forwards. There is no one on the soccer pitch who can do what Messi can do with the ball. Regardless of whether he scores, he is always a threat when he controls the ball.