interesting thread comparing 2 supremely gifted footballers with very different contextual backgrounds. if it were a question of pure talent than i dont think you can look past george best,
Messi is brilliant and staggeringly consistent but George best had a natural ability to change a match when and where he wanted, he scored 179 goals for united in 470 appearances, whilst messi has an admittedly superior 240 in 319 appearances. what these statistics dont take into account is position. George best played in a team flooding with talent, however he was still predominately confined the left wing or inside left as it was back then, this meant that much of his role involved feeding and running off two strikers ahead of him usually dennis law and Sir
Bobby Charlton. despite this he still amassed a staggering 179 goals as a MIDFIELDER .
Lionel Messi however, has scored the large majority of his goals as 'false number 9' a position and system built around his singular talents, the Barcelona passing metronome of xavi, busquets and iniesta all work to retain possesion and feed messi, barcelona's whole play is centered on creating chances for messi to finish. This lessens the impact of the goals he has scored over george best because both play in completely different positions, inside left, and a false number 9. This only serves to magnify the goalscoring exploits of George Best, he scored as much as a striker despite being a midfielder. if George best had played in this current, unparalleled talented barcelona team, as a false number nine i can guarantee all of you that the number of goals he would have scored would at least double if not more.
Furthermore i think messi's current poor form for Argentina, so far he has been unable to even come close to replicating his domestic dominance on the international scene, is as good an indicator as any that Messi's success owes as much to Barcelona as they do to him, messi has played nearly 70 games for argentina and has amassed a relatively meager 22 goalsm he has had every chance to succeed in teams flooded with talent to bring the best out of the diminutive Argentine. George best was never given a chance to truly shine for the northern irish national team and never played at a world cup and if i remember correctly any major tournament though i might be wrong here. despite this he has a record similar to messi's with a strike rate of 9 in 37 caps, both averageing about a goal every three or four matches.
Now whilst George best played in a team of comparatively modest talent which was the northern irish team of the 1960s and early 70s and was never given a platform of a major international tournament to showcase his unrivaled ability the same cannot be said of Lionel Messi. Whilst Messi has won an olympic medal his has achieved very little with the national team, despite being given several opportunities to do so including the 2006 and 2010 world cups. in both occasions messi severely underperformed despite being supplied with players ranging from carlos tevez, Sergio Aguero, Diego Milito, Angel Di Maria, Cambiasso, Veron, Javier Pastore and countless other revered talents. for this reason as much as any other it hints that Much of his success is in debt to the outstanding ability of xavi, who in my opinion has a claim to being one of if not the greatest center midfielder of all time. it must be noted however that messi remains a mere 24/25 year old who still has time to prove himself as a player who could perform regardless of what team he was in.
It should also be noted that if George Best had played with modern footballing equipment, training, conditioning and indeed discipline to prevent his drinking and other off field indiscretions he would have been an even more explosive player than the one who lit up the theater of dreams all those years ago. Comparitvely if messi were to go back and play alongside Bobby charlton and Paddy Crerand with those massive leather boots mud rather than grass, i dont think he would be anywhere near as effective, in fact he would be lucky to even come close to what George Best Achieved.
All in all for the reasons listed above if i were to choose which player of these two wizards i were to say was the more gifted footballer then i don't think you can look past the 'fifth Beatle' George best. "Messi good. Pele better. George Best".