Top 10 Messi

No doubt inspired by my earlier post about the quality of Lionel Messi El Mundo Deportivo are currently running a poll to find the best goal he's scored to date.

See clips of their Top 10 Messi Goals and vote for your favourite at elmundodeportivo.es

Lionel Messi v Diego Maradona

At work last week we were discussing - at great length - who was the better footballer: Lionel Messi or Diego Maradona.

There is no doubt in my mind that Messi is currently the best player in the world - I know Christiano Ronaldo has the title and rightly so as during the 2007-2008 season, culminating in Champions League victory, he was out of this world.

Since the start of this season Messi has been untouchable as Barcelona have created a good lead at the top of La Liga, reached the final of the Copa del Rey and the quarter finals of the Champions League. Messi is averaging a goal a game and Barca are averaging 3 goals a game - a higher figure than any other club across the major European leagues. Last night, as Barca beat Malaga 6-0 Messi scored another wonderful goal that reminds us what a special player he is.

All of that said it's too soon to say if he's a better player than Maradona who maintained such extraordinary high performances over a long period of time. In Europe he transformed Napoli from also-rans to league and domestic cup champions in his first season - a season that he was also top scorer in Italy.

The following season he and Napoli won the UEFA Cup - at a time when this was a strong competiton. A season later and Napoli were again league winners. At Barcelona - despite a career threatening injury that kept him out for 9 months - he also won the Copa del Rey which, to be fair, was a poor return for his years there.

No, it's too soon to say that Messi is better - it'd be a bit like saying that Girls Aloud are better than The Nolan Sisters - time will tell.