Man City boss Pep Guardiola sends personal message to Lionel Messi after World Cup heroics | Football | Sport
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was quick to congratulate Lionel Messi on winning the World Cup when quizzed on the 35-year-old’s crowning achievement for Argentina in Wednesday’s press conference. Messi stole the show in Qatar as he led the Albiceleste to their first global triumph since 1986 and picked up the Golden Ball award in recognition of his impressive showings, which arguably etched his name into the history books as the undisputed best player of all time.
Guardiola managed Messi during his time in charge of Barcelona and has remained a keen admirer of the 35-year-old since leaving the Catalan giants to take charge of Bayern Munich before joining City back in the summer of 2016. The Spaniard did not hesitate to congratulate Messi on his latest triumph when asked for his thoughts on Wednesday and reserved special praise for Julian Alvarez and Nicolas Otamendi, who also played regularly for Argentina on their way to winning the World Cup for the third time in their history.
“We are incredibly happy for him [Alvarez], congratulations to him and Nicolas Otamendi, and personally to Lionel Messi,” said Guardiola.
“For Argentina as a country, they are a well-deserved champion. For Julian, he is with us and we are delighted because he played a lot. His contribution was amazing for the team and the way they played. We have a world champion in our team.”
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Guardiola went on to echo the thoughts of many by insisting that Messi has now surpassed the likes of Diego Maradona and Pele in the all-time pecking order and can now be considered as the single greatest player in the history of the game.
“Everyone has an opinion but nobody can doubt that he is there, with the greatest of all time,” added the City boss. “For me I said many times, he is the best, but it will be difficult to understand.
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“A player can appear and compete with what he has done in the last 50 years to 70 years, but the people who saw Pele or [Alfredo] Di Stefano or Maradona, they can say their favourite.
“In their opinions they are sentimental, you know? But on the other side, if he [Messi] had not won the World Cup, my opinion about what he has done for world football, it wouldn’t have changed absolutely anything. Of course, for him it’s the final achievement of an incredible career.”
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