Lionel Messi is the best player of all time, says Guardiola

INA – SOURCES
 
Manchester City manager and Lionel Messi’s former coach Pep Guardiola has reiterated his belief that the Argentina captain is the greatest player of all time.
 
He coached Messi at Barcelona from 2008 to 2012 – a team widely considered the greatest of all time – winning a remarkable three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues in that four-year spell.
 
“Everyone has [an] opinion, but nobody can doubt that he’s there with the greatest of all time,” Guardiola told reporters ahead of Thursday’s Carabao Cup match between City and Liverpool.
 
“For me, I’ve said many times, he’s the best. It’s difficult to understand that a player can appear and compete what he has done in the last 50 or 70 years,” asserted Guardiola.
 
He noted, “The people who saw Pele, for example, or Di Stefano or Maradona … they can say they’re my favorite because often these opinions are sentimental.”
 
“But, on the other side, if Messi wouldn’t have won the World Cup, the opinion of what he has done for the world of football, in my opinion, of how he is as a player wouldn’t have changed absolutely anything,” Guardiola added.
 
“For him, it is the final cherry on an incredible career,” he included.