It looked to be business as usual in LaLiga on Wednesday after leader Barcelona took a 12th minute lead against bottom-of-the-table Leganes thanks to a wonder goal orchestrated by Lionel Messi and finished by Philippe Coutinho.
What a run by Leo Messi leading to a beautiful Coutinho goal!
Donald Trump becoming president of the U.S. was unexpected. Leicester City winning the EPL was unexpected. Croatia making it to the World Cup final was unexpected.
But Lionel Messi ranked in fifth place for FIFA The Best Awards is just crazy. Fifth place? Are we serious right now? WTF?! Let’s pack our bags people; the apocalypse is coming: the white walkers or an "Independence Day" type of alien invasion. Or worse, we humans will manage to blow up the planet.
Lionel Messi is only the fifth best player in the world, according to FIFA. At least one LaLiga club would probably beg to differ after the Argentine set up this Philippe Coutinho goal vs Leganes on Wednesday.
As captains of their respective national teams, both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were given votes in deciding The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2018. It’s an award that the two have dominated — in it’s various guises — ever since Kaka was named FIFA World Player of the Year back in 2007 (Messi finished second and Ronaldo third that year).
It is pretty safe to say Luka Modric is living his best life right now.
You can take Cristiano Ronaldo out of LaLiga, but you can’t take out the brilliant symmetry that’s conjoined the fortunes of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since the day they were born. Days after Ronaldo saw red in the UCL, Messi’s Barcelona will have felt hard done by a red issued to defender Clement Lenglet — this one coming after the referee had gone to the monitor on the advice of the VAR (something still missing from the UCL).
Whether we like it or not, time passes by for everyone — even for the greatest footballer of the XXI century, Lionel Messi. Being aware of this, he's changed his playing style, adapted to new tactics, new rivals, and mostly to his own physical changes.
Remember Ødegaard? Martin Ødegaard, the 16-year-old Norwegian wonderkid Real Madrid signed back in January 2015. He was all anyone in the soccer world could talk about for a brief moment. Everyone kept talking about how he was going to be the new Messi. Both lefties. Both on the right wing. Both showcasing a similar playing style of cutting in with their left.