TAZ wrote:@Nakujua.....First of all FIFA gets most of its funding through sponsorship deals, football is the most popular sport in the World so they really don't need Messi to get the deals done. Btw its the Media who are 'hyping up" Messi and not FIFA. On the issue of the Zambian record, how do you expect the World to recognize a record which has only been seen in Zambia. Hata CAF were not aware of such a record. Besides they themselves are not even sure of how many goals were scored, "they've commissioned an independent team to go back into the archives and record minute-by-minute each of those goals then calculate all of those goals". I don't think they'll achieve much with that because i don't believe in 1972 Zambia had the resources to record each game. I'm also yet to establish the purpose of all this, Messi is clearly better than the Zambian and scored goals against tougher opposition.....why bring up this issue of goals tally just when he has 2 games to go? You don't need to hype Messi, he's just great.
fifa does not need messi to get the deals, but a hyped up Messi means they can get even better deals from sponsors competing for the few slots, when there is more talk of soccer demand goes up.
Messi scoring goals aganist tougher opposition is relative, we could say he has the best supporting cast in the world, or he has undue advantage due to the growth hormones issue, or he has personalized therapy team that keeps him on top, and many more, my point is comparing opposition from different ages is virtually impossible.
he is the best attacking midfielder currently, is he a great ? that's another debate altogether