Just what more can you say about Lionel Messi?With each passing week, the Barcelona wizard makes it harder and harder for football fans to consider anyone else the greatest player of all time.That includes Pele, Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi is better than the lot.The Argentinian scored the 600th goal of his incredible career in Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid, and what a goal it was.From 25 yards out, Messi curled home a wonderful free-kick to beat Jan Oblak.It was an important goal and not just for Messi’s established career. Barcelona’s win means they now have an eight-point lead at the top of La Liga with 11 games remaining - Ernesto Valverde can begin to dream about his first league title.He’s been helped, of course, by another extraordinary season from Messi, who stats against Atletico were ridiculous.Per WhoScored, he completed five dribbles and made the same number of key passes. Where would Barcelona be without him?
Lineker posted a brilliant tweet about Messi
The tributes came pouring in and perhaps none were better than the one offered by Gary Lineker on Twitter.
The Match of the Day host has never failed to hide his appreciation for Messi and has called him the greatest of all time on several occasions.
And his tweet about Messi in the aftermath of his latest accomplishment is brilliant.
“Messi scored his 600th goal to beat Atletico and surely clinch La Liga for @FCBarcelona,” Lineker wrote.
“If he were just a goal scorer it would be astonishing, but the fact he’s also the best dribbler I’ve ever seen and as good a passer as I’ve ever seen makes him the best I’ve ever seen. ðŸ”.
That’s how you do it.
Lineker on Messi v Maradona comparisons
One thing that Messi’s critics will use to bring him down is the fact that he’s never won the World Cup.
Yet that’s a ridiculous argument in Lineker’s eyes, who pointed out that his number of Champions League victories counts for a lot when you compare him to, say, Maradona.
“I never thought that I'd see someone better than [Diego] Maradona,” Lineker told Mundo Deportivo last month.
“They say that Maradona won a World Cup and Messi hasn't, but Leo has four Champions League titles and Maradona has none.”
Whichever way you look at it, there can be no arguing that nobody does it quite like Messi does.