Drogba: Messi is not far from Pele and Maradona
"Messi could stop now and he would already have done a lot for football"
The debate about whether Lionel Messi is the best player in the history of the game remains open. The latest to wade into the debate is Didier Drogba. The Ivory Coast legend believes the Argentine is now among the best ever.
"Messi could stop now and he would already have done a lot for football," Drogba told AFP. "To win a World Cup would make him even more legendary. He's an extraordinary player!"
For Drogba, Barcelona's No.10 is now closing in on the best in history: "He's still not at the heights of [Diego] Maradona and PEle, but he's not far away."
Drogba played against Messi several times during his spell with Chelsea. In his biography he revealed a nice anecdote about preparations for one of those games.
“[Roberto] Di Matteo did what he always did and put up a list of the opposing team's top scorers,” Drogba wrote.
“Usually, the list would read something along the lines of Rooney -- 22 goals; Van Persie -- 15 and so on. When the Barcelona list went up, sure enough, in third place was Xavi on 14, in equal second place were Alexis Sánchez and Cesc Fàbregas on 15, but we all just laughed when the top scorer came up on the screen -- Lionel Messi on ... 63 goals, 14 in the Champions League alone!"
