The eulogies came cascading down after Lionel Messi’s four-goal Nou Camp salvo which destroyed Arsenal in the Champions League. At 1.69-metre Messi is no physical giant, but like fellow Argentine Diego Maradona before him, his low centre of gravity and lower body strength make him almost unplayable on current form and Tuesday’s showing made him the first player to score four times in a Champions League knockout round. Marco Van Basten, Simone Inzaghi, Dado Prso, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Andrei Shevchenko had all performed the feat – but only in group matches.
Barca’s honorary chairman Johan Cruyff also eulogised the Argentine in his column for El Periodico newspaper. In Cruyff’s view what makes Messi great is that he keeps it simple – but does the simple things with panache. “You see Messi and you think he’s doing impossible things. You seem him move, run, dribble, score and you think – he’s a genius, he does the most difficult things. “But that’s not it. What’s great about Messi is he does very simple things. Or that he does what appears to us to be difficult simply and coolly,” said the Dutch maestro, who led Barce to their first European Cup in 1992.
“Why is he the best player in the world? Because he has the ability to do difficult things without suffering, without getting in a flap. “Leo floats around the pitch. Sometimes you think he isn’t there, that he is hiding. “But he is there. And his opponents know it.”
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