Whatsoever may it be. ROONEy still is GOD

Ozzy, Bristol,

All well and good as far as football ability is concerned, but the trouble with the view of the awe-stroked fans with Messi is the much more important factor of character. Messi is a fantastic Football player, but he is also a cheater and a conniver. He was very willing to give Barcelona (he almost made it by 13 minutes) the championship of La Liga with a cynical goal with his hand. Not only he made the goal with such infamous cheating but he turn and celebrated it as the greatest accomplishment of mankind. He also dives inside the penalty box unashamedly looking to deceive the referee. Fine, he is a very good footballer, do I want my child to emulate him? Hell, no.

Eduardo Pierce, Atlanta, USA

To John from Gib ... so Messi's won the Americas Cup has he? So in addition to being a professional footballer he's also a talented yachtsman - blimey he must be busy!

JM, London, UK

And how many times do you see him tackling back? Waste of space in my opinion...

Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona,

aarya

u seem to be manu fan..messi at his age is greater player than rooney any time..and most would rate him even better than ronaldo..he has skills which are far better than these..and is great to watch when he makes those runs and converts them fantastically....i wud rate him at par with ronaldinho and kaka...who i rate as best 3 players on planet today..this we are discussing in england..trust me now one bothers abt rooney other than en glish..wake up

adc, mumbai, india

hes soooo good needs to come to tha premiership
come on liverpool spalsh the cash on him :)

leroy, notts,

How do your friends at Skysports feel about you providing links to clips on YouTube that are, I can only assume, not there legitimately?

Andreas Hunter, St Albans,

Only Kaka compares......

Rory, Aberdeen, Scotland

The goal against Getafe easily one of the most overrated goals ever.
The defence was atrocious, only the jink to the right of the keeper and the finish were quality. Maradona on the other hand waltzed round England, actually avoiding tackles from a number of a quality players; including two excellent defenders in Butcher and Fenwick.
Who can name a Getafe player without looking it up? The attempts to tackle arent even there, the sliding tackle is more of an attempt to road block a determined run than win the ball.
The chip against Mexico however has almost unbelievable quality to it. That goal can NOT be overrated

Alex, Barnsley,

i agree with u ronaldihno is good but imo messi is better and rooney another young protege but still not on messi's caliber. at least in raw skill :)

criff, kendall park, nj

Yes it's agood goal, but I seem to remember a certain David Beckham doing something similiar from the only decent pass Juan Veron produced at Old Trafford, That doen't seem to appear as a great goal!

Martin Gates, Prague,

according to me, lionel messie is unbelievable footballer.
actually ı think now that he is the best footballer in the world.his speed and technic in football area is charming.we can't ignore all of them.

tenacious , ankara , turkey

Im amazed to read some of the comments so far, some people are obviously so fixated with their premier league "rubbish" where centre halfs would probably be more comfortable on a rugby pitch., where people applaud "throw ins & corners" Im glad that results speak for themselves, in the last 20 years the Premier league has delivered 2 European cup winners, no England world cups, no England european championships and a list of over hyped and underachieving players.

Messi has delivered what Rooney / Ronaldo & company so far have promised but not delivered. One European cup, probably an America's Cup and watch out at the next world cup and still only 20!

John, Gibraltar,

You can't really count anything Maradona done. If he had been an athlete he would have been stripped of his honours for drug taking. Whether he was on drugs at the time we will never know but he was found to be taking them at one time and who is to say he hasn't always.
As for Wayne Rooney's goals they are nothing in comparison to Gemmill's goal against Holland in the 78 World Cup.

dachaidh, rhu, scotland

The way in which Messi kicked the ball was delightful. Maybe we could see similar goals, eg, Suazo's goal against Brazil; but this was great.

Sometimes I get angry with Messi because he is very individualist, but really he is a wonderfull player.

Gastón, BA,

What a disappontment ... I thought it was going to be spectacular!!

Then I clicked on the link and it's just a pretty routine finish, hundreds of which you could find in any number of "greatest goals" compilations. I mean, you wouldn't say Philippe Albert is a "scorer of great goals" but No.1 is pretty similar to the one he scored in Newcastles 5 nil drubbing of United a few years back.

I'll give you the Getafe goal, which was pretty good, but not in the same league as the likes of Henry/Zidane/Rooney.

JM, London, UK

who says that messi is worst than rooney?
the same rooney that scores 0 goals for 1 year with england?
the same rooney that didn't make anything comparable to messi at 19 years old like messi is doing right now, messi has done the best season individually at Spain, unfortunately his team was not in the best moment for him.
good luck with rooney, i still believing that messi is on the top of the world class footballers, and that in the next year could be him the one that makes us forget players like rooney...
ciao

Jordi, Alicante, Spain

Just to point out at the time of Messi's goal against Getafe, Getafe had the best defensive record in La Liga! Also he's pure genius, 23 starts in the season and 14 goals, 3 against Real Madrid I dobt Ronaldo could do that and I'm a United fan.

Morris, Celbridge, Ireland

Aarya, you talk about messi's third and fourth goals... and compare him to ronaldo and rooney right away... why don't you talk about his second???.. o yea rooney and ronaldo have never gone past 7 defenders and if ronaldinho hasn't done it either.. neither will they... bow to messi..

Jason, Pembrokshire, UK

How do your friends at Skysports feel about you providing links to clips on YouTube that are, I can only assume, not there legitimately?

Andreas Hunter, St A,

He's crap - me granny can play better....

Mind you she once scored with an overhead kick from her own penalty area and kept her hat on...Look it up on youtube.

supergran, NY, UK

If you think Messis goal last night was magic, compare it with Wayne Rooneys goal against Portsmouth in the FA Cup earlier this season. As oppose to Messi, "Wazza" had 2 defenders in front of him, was outside of the penalty box and came in a faster speed than Messi. And you want to talk miracle goals? Numbers 3,4 and 5 and the list aren't anything of the sort, although they are nice goals. But miracle goal is something like the one Rooney scored against Newcastle, or Ronaldo scored against Fulham AND World XI on freekicks.

Messi is a divine player, the best in the world probably in couple of years, but he´s still got a bit to go. And Ronaldo is probably the greatest magician post-Maradona!

Aarya, Gothenburg, Sweden

I would have to choose the goal against Getafe. Messi showed such amazing balance and control and unnerving coolness in his finishing that it eclipses the other goals, as good as they were.

Mark Tidey, Barns Green, England

Hi this is Jeewash all the way from nepal.
Im a great fan of Messi.
He is the one of the greatest player of the world.
His goal against Getafe proves his ability and talent.
Moreover, his recent goal against Mexico in Copa America 2007 adds more to his talent.
He is a brilliant player.
I love you Messidona

Jeewash, Biratnagar, Nepal

you are joking surely - I saw the messi goal but i have seen quite a few that hughes scored that were equally as good - example the first goal you gave the link for - not only a good goal but an important goal - check the game stats and you will see the importance of the goal which when married to the skill would quite easily make it better than the messi goal.

david, greenwich, london

I disagree that Messi's goal against Getafe carries the same weight of Maradona's against England. Messi's was against middle ranking Getafe, while Maradona chose the World Cup and against England to make his statement of intent. However, yesterday's goal against Mexico was a beauty: he received the ball with his left foot, waited for Oswaldo Sanchez to come off his line, and sweetly,sweetly lobbed it over the Mexican goalkeeper. The goal was beautiful!

Jonathan, Costa, CA

what else can anyone say about the sheer ability of the most exciting footballer since maradona? he is mesmerizing and his knack for attacking football is just pleasurable. i have watched many games in my life and to have a player with so much skills, and exhibiting them week in should be a welcoming event for all football fans. he is magical!

Lookman Olateju , El-Sobrante, California, USA.

fantastic

fatos, gjilan, kosove