A weeklong look at the top 25 players we expect to see at the Copa America Centenario.

 

Messi is the greatest player in the game, with very little question. He possesses the best balance and close control history has ever seen, but those words: “balance” and “close control” are an extremely imperfect way to describe what the Argentine can do.

 

His innate understanding of space and angles means the goals he scores are more often works of subtle artistry than brute force. Messi is an “athlete” in the sense that all footballers are athletes, but nearly everything he does goes beyond that definition.

 

He remains, even after a number of years at the top of his game, nearly unstoppable as a goalscorer because his thinking is always a moment ahead of everyone else on the field. He is a phenomenon of the likes of which we may never see again.

 

“Put in the superlatives yourselves, I’m running out. It’s already been a while now that he has been outstanding. He’s more than decisive in every way. That he’s capable of doing everything that he does at his age is something impressive, that doesn’t make any sense.” — Former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola.

 

“Who is the Best Player in the World? Leo Messi. Who is the Best Player Ever? Leo Messi.” — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

 

There’s too much to choose from to select one achievement for Messi, though his five Ballon d’Or trophies would be an obvious choice. Messi has won every individual award possible, but it might be the 53 goals he scored in Barcelona’s Treble-winning year of 2010-11 that stands out.

 

Messi averaged one through ball per game in 2015-16 to lead all players in La Liga, a rate that was double that of second place.

 

With the Olympics not a possibility, Barcelona will hope to have Messi on vacation somewhere, resting up for the new season. With the amount of games the Argentine superstar has played over a number of years for club and country, there is always a fear that the next year will be the one that sees Messi regress, or worse, gets seriously injured.