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Lionel Messi has regularly been described as a genius during his phenomenal Barcelona career and has now been compared to William Shakespeare, Salvador Dali and Ludwig van Beethoven by former coaches Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola.
The two men have discussed Messi as part of a documentary by TV3. Guardiola spoke about Messi’s quality and explained why he can be compared to artists including Shakespeare, as reported by Marca. He said, “Messi is an artist, yes he is. Comparable to whom? Miquel Barcelo, Ferran Adria or Shakespeare. Why? Because they left something that moved us all.”
Guardiola also spoke about Messi’s incredible quality and offered some insight into his performance in Barcelona’s historic 6-2 win over bitter rivals Real Madrid in La Liga back in 2009.
“Leo makes us all good. Leo’s goals are not goals, they are always great goals. Is that taught? No. There are some amazing players, but there are others who last forever and ever,” he said. “On the day of [Barcelona’s] 6-2 [win against Real Madrid], we hadn’t trained the idea of putting him in the middle and taking him off the wing. We only talked about it beforehand, but the good ones haven’t even trained it. “[Those Barcelona players] were very good people, but on the pitch they were fu**ing killers.”
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Luis Enrique Talks Dali and Beethoven
Luis Enrique, who managed Messi at Barcelona from 2014-17, was also full of praise for the Argentina international. The Spain boss also noted how influential Ronaldinho had been to Messi during his early years in the first team at Barcelona.
“Leo is a competitive machine. If at the beginning he had come up against a veteran who wasn’t Ronaldinho, who had been more selfish or more of an ar**ole, he would have had more problems,” he said. “It’s impossible to carry the ball so close at that speed. Losing for Messi is very hard for him. You could see it the next day, after the match. In football, Leo Messi is a genius, clearly, just like Beethoven… or Dali.”
Both men enjoyed great success with Messi at Barcelona. Guardiola’s ‘dream team’ remain one of Europe’s greatest ever club sides and won the first treble in Spanish football history in 2008–09. Luis Enrique matched that achievement in his first season in charge as Barca became the first club to win the league, domestic cup and Champions League in the same season twice.
Messi Set For Special Birthday Present?
Messi’s genius is not in doubt but there’s no question the captain is heading towards the end of his extraordinary career. The Barcelona captain will turn 34 on June 24 and could have another reason to celebrate.
The forward is closing to sealing a contract extension with Barcelona for another two years which could be announced on his birthday, according to Xavi Torres at Catalunya Radio.
Messi is currently with the Argentina squad at the Copa America but only needs to give Barcelona the “final OK” to complete the contract extension and continue his career with the Catalan giants.
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