Messi Was the Golden Child

Little Leo Messi is very little in this video... either 5 or 6 years old.  This must be the reason why Barcelona tied him up at 12 years old.

Messi Has More Bread Than A Bakery

Messi tops the highest earnings list for the first time in his short but highly successful career. Over the past year, Messi earned a cool £29.6 million. Not bad for kicking a ball around, eh? David Beckham, who topped the list the proceeding two years, dropped to second, earning £27.3m. Madeira's favorite son, Cristiano Ronaldo, is third, earning £27m.

Jose Mourinho topped the manager's list earning £11.7m at the helm of Inter Milan.

For the complete list visit here.

Messi tears Zaragoza apart

While many people have different opinions to who is the best footballer in the world today, Messi showed why he is consistently in the discussion. Pay close attention to the second and fourth goals.

La Liga Weekend Highlights

Hat-tricks from Argentinians Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain gave both Barcelona and Real Madrid the full 3 points on Sunday. Messi currently with 22 goals is in the lead for the coveted Pichichi award but Higuain is close behind with 19 goals. However Higuain's Real Madrid remains in 1st place in La Liga due to goal differential. Here's an amazing stat on goal differential to show the discrepancy between the top two clubs in Spain compared to the rest of the league; Real Madrid: +50, Barcelona: +48, Valencia (next best): +13. WOW!

Real Valladolid 1 Real Madrid 4

Barcelona 3 Valencia 0

Sevilla 1 Deportivo 1

More La Liga Highlights

ESPN's Top 50 Players in South Africa

NO. / PLAYER / COUNTRY


1 Lionel Messi, Argentina
2 Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
3 Wayne Rooney, England
4 Kaka, Brazil
5 Xavi, Spain
6 Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast
7 Andres Iniesta, Spain
8 Fernando Torres, Spain
9 Steven Gerrard, England
10 Michael Essien, Ghana

11 David Villa, Spain
12 Franck Ribery, France
13 Samuel Eto'o, Cameroon
14 Luis Fabiano, Brazil
15 Iker Casillas, Spain
16 Cesc Fabregas, Spain
17 Gianluigi Buffon, Italy
18 Dani Alves, Brazil
19 Nemanja Vidic, Serbia
20 Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands

Very interesting list here.  I don't know this list is accurate or very credible having come from ESPN.  As you can see, Dani Alves is supposedly better than Maicon.  Obviously this list has nothing to do with contribution to the actual national squad or Cristiano Ronaldo probably wouldn't be on it.

21-50 after the jump

But...but...Messi did it, too

Real Madrid lost their appeal on Cristiano Ronaldo's two game ban. They tried to use the defense that Messi did it in a game and didn't get suspended. I can't believe that Real Madrid would use that as a defense. I mean it sounds like something a kid tells their parents an an excuse. Just because somebody got away with it doesn't mean it wasn't wrong. I mean both are pretty viscous, and Messi did probably deserve a card, as well as one for the defender holding on for dear life. Take a look.


I do feel that Messi does get away with a lot more than Ronaldo. I remember a match were he spit on somebody and it wasn't even big news. If that was Cristiano, we never would have heard the end of it.