Best of the Best 2

As a follow up to my post on Saturday, I'm fully aware that Wayne Rooney scored....again! It seems like every time the boy gets the ball anywhere near him he's looking to score. There is absolutely no doubt that Rooney will be EPL player of the year, and that he will have a strong world cup showing (Provided that he can stay injury free from now until June).

However just as I'm sure Messi read my blog and felt a need to justify my love for his skills he goes a scores another hit trick against Real Zaragoza Sunday evening. This leaves Messi with 8 goals in his last 3 games and 33 in all competitions this season. See the Goals at the link below, hint pay attention to the second and third Messi goals.

http://www.footytube.com/video/real-zaragoza-barcelona-mar21-37631

I understand that comparing Rooney and Messi is a bit unfair as they are two different types of players. As Tommy Smyth of ESPN points out Rooney has to go and get the ball a lot in the midfield and distribute to the wingers. Whereas Messi many times is fed the ball on his preferred left wing position. Rooney is also the bigger player and over time may be able to take more punishment from the backs and holding midfielders, Messi over time may start to feel the affects of being kicked at by defenders once his pace begins to decline. Though that will be a long while from now. However when it comes down to it most people judge the world's best player on several different criteria. Two of them being technique and mastery of skill on the pitch. Both of which go to Messi hands down in my opinion. Also a lot is based on cup wins and head to head match ups if possible. On point one I would say that the two players are very close as Messi has 3 La Liga titles, Rooney has 3 EPL titles. Messi holds the edge in Champions league titles 2-1.

This leads to the head to head match ups. Barcelona and Manchester United met in last year's Champions league final. It was actually built up as match up between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who had been world's best the previous year. Either way neither Ronaldo or Rooney were factors in the match as Messi and Barca won with relative ease. This was capped off by Messi scoring the decisive goal 20 minutes from time on a great header. It became pretty apparent during the match that Messi had truly stepped into the best player on earth role. Trust me it hurts for me to say that as a United supporter, but the evidence was left all over the Stadio Olympico pitch that warm May night in Rome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAhgJNELc9Y&feature=related

Well enough of my rambling what do you think? Who is the best of the best in your opinion? (and no Eric Roberts does not count!)