In general, it’s sad that Messi could have gone down in history as a great athlete even from “one team,” (far from the best, but at the level of Thomas Müller, Totti, etc.) but he went down as a great thief.
This is quite the take on arguably one of the greatest players that football has ever witnessed. Putting Messi at the level of Totti and Muller clearly shows that you do not watch the sport at all or you support a rival club/player which makes you blind to what goes on in it.
I am not even a fanboy, I just watch football neutrally and call what I see. It is debatable whether Messi won this Balon D'or just as the one that Modric one and some Ronaldo won as well. That is football, fans have their opinions and can go extreme with it, but saying he "could" have gone does as a great athlete... is ridiculous.
- Jay -
All these are words, but in fact Messi without Barcelona is an ordinary average player. If you watch football, then you must have heard about Iniesta, Xavi and others who were consistently better than Messi (and achieved the greatest achievements without him, while he failed without them) but did not win a single Ballon d'Or.
And yes, one thing most bright is always memorable, Messi was good, but one of the brightest “threads” in his career was being a favorite of football officials (you understand what kind of scum these are, you follow football, hehe?) and a thief.