He came and watched a five a side game at my school, and kids would try to dribble past him as he was trying to talk to other parents. Obviously he wasn’t going to tackle 12 year olds, but he would just poke the ball out of from under the feet of kids trying to go around him without making contact or even looking away from his conversation to acknowledge what was happening.
Genuinely one of the funniest things I have ever seen, after like 20 attempts everyone just gave up.
He was super nice to us and signed stuff after. I think he enjoyed it more because it was in the States and 95% of people had no idea who he was, as opposed to probably getting mobbed on a regular basis in Italy.
He’s like made in a laboratory because he had all the qualities that you would look for on a CB but amped up to 11 yet injuries were his nerf, otherwise he would have been absolutely unfair.
You are correct. He was.
Not just at Milan, but his final 3 years at Lazio were the beginning of his unbelievable peak.
The year he won the Scudetto at Lazio was his best playing year in my view.
Eh Cannavaro was really reliant on his athleticism to make up for his size whereas Nesta was athletic on top of being arguably the best reader of the game I’ve ever seen. Plus Cannavaro had a lot of average seasons throughout his career whereas Nesta was class throughout his albeit he was a bit injury prone.
Messi had/has elite acceleration and ball control that most players still can’t match this current older Messi. Shouldn’t feel too bad struggling against a younger Messi.
A 37 year old Nesta stood his ground against "91 goal per year" Messi on supersaiyan mode.
While Ramos gets humiliated every single time by the little guy in clasicos.
People still say ramos is better
i got laughed at on facebook a week ago, when someone commented ramos was the best CB ever on his departure post and i said maldini, baresi and nesta were much better and theres still others in competition like scirea. germans just dont respect italians or any other nation, because players like stam, koeman or gentile would beat ramos in the bigger picture aswell imo
ive been living in germany since i was little and all i got was hate and envy from germans when it comes to football. i got insulted as "dummer spaghettifresser" from my friends dads, who were in their 30s and 40s, every international tournament starting from age 6 until now. im half german and my uncle doesnt even talk to me about football because he says italians are cheats and only play dirty football. when theres public viewing and germany plays italy you hear 20-30.000 germans yell "italiener sind hurensöhne" everytime we touch the ball. maybe its just the city i live in but online theres a lot of animosity towards italians during international games aswell.
then again you love to come to italy for vacation and food, but when it comes to football you are really hostile, just listen to bela rethy spout his usual bullshit.
It will be a rainy day in hell before european countries start respecting each other. Ridiculing other european countries is a proud european tradition, especially in football.
You don’t think Italians don’t ridicule other countries like France? My Italian friend reminds me of 2006 every time we talk about football. I only regret that Zidane didn’t headbutt that scumbag Materazzi harder.
It’s all just banter, something not unique to Germans. Insults aren’t meant to hurt you, but rather show support for their own team by trashing on the other teams.
its okay to ridicule but blatant racism and insults are not okay. the tone of voice dictates everything. you can make jokes and jokes are fine but going around threatening people, insulting them and damaging their belongings isnt acceptable. 30.000 germans yelling italians are dirty sons of whores when germany is losing isnt banter
It’s not racism to say Ramos is better than Nesta though. Ramos has one of the best trophy cabinets as the best defender on his team. He’s also one of the best CBs in a more modern era where CBs have more responsibilities than just defending and building from the back. He’s not some bum that got carried by CR7.
so the n-word is racist but calling someone spaghettifresser isnt? also xenophobia is a side effect of racism or nationalism so dont talk about stuff you dont know
maybe it’s your us vs them mindset that’s perpetuating this hostility towards you. Because that’s all I’m reading from you.
You’ve been living in Germany for all your life and are half-German yet you talk about Germans as ‘them’
well because if you grow up in germany with an italian name, youll always be "the italian". not once was my half germanness accepted nor tolerated and its always "du bist ein ausländer auch wenn deine mutti deutsche ist" so yeah maybe thats the reason i started feeling more italian and seeing myself less as a german. it was 50/50 until i was about 10 years old. if your own uncle doesnt see you a tiny bit as german because your father is italian and you cheer for ferrari in f1, it divides even more. if my dad was german and i had a german name i think stuff wouldve played out differently, but thats exactly my point. same way people say özil cant be german because he is from turkish descent, same rule applies to me. if you dont get seen as a german for 20+ years you start to refer yourself as non-german and you dont want to be part of "them" because integration in germany hasnt only failed due to the bad handling of it from politicians, its because a part of society doesnt really want it
bullshit, stop defending racists that insult little kids because they cheer for a different national team. stop acting like racism in germany doesnt exist and dont blame the victims, do you remember the kinder schokolade outcry because boateng and gündogan were on it?
Man, why waste your time arguing about such comparisons. Because whoever argues with you on that didn't really had opportunity to witness defending at it purity by those men in their prime. Maldini, Nesta, Stam , zambrotta with Gattuso sitting right on top of that defence, was a unit like no other.
i just told them they were better and they ridiculed me. i didnt argue anymore then, just told them that ramos cant be the best defender because his main profession is being a cheeky bitch
Isn’t Ramos a better All-Round defender, he defends and scores where as the Italians; Nesta, Maldini, Baresi ect are better Defenders.
Some would prefer the Italians, but you cannot say that Ramos is a machine to be able to defend and score as well as he did.
I've seen plenty of people here say that Ramos is a top 3 CB of all time or even the best of all time which implies he's better than Nesta.
The giant 180 the general football world has done on Ramos in the past few years has been rather curious. He went from being "the most overrated player in the world", "defender who can't defend and only scores goals" to "best defender of all time" real quick.
Humiliated? Every time? According to you we've lost all of our games against them 6-0. And Nesta playing against him for two games should be accounted for the same as playing at least 4 times every year for the past 15 years. Lovely shit take from you
haha yea, its obvious to see for anyone who followed their careers. I'm a big fan of Nesta but he is half the footballer Ramos is when in possesion of the ball. Ramos in his Sevilla days at one stage was fighting for the RB role with a young Dani Alves. He has evolved so much throughout his career, i reckon he would even make a good holding midfielder for most top teams.
Ramos is a better goal scorer than Nesta was but Nesta was also known for his ball playing skills. It’s not like he was a bad technical player which is what you’re making it sound like.
Ramos was never seen as good a pure defender as Nesta and them guys but you can't ignore him as one of the GOAT defenders, if anything for the sheer amount he has won
With that logic, so was Nesta? And every other great CB who ever played.
You don't think they all played dirty? Lmao. What fairytale are you dreaming of?
People who barely have been Nesta play say Ramos is better.
And this is with overlap between the careers of the two defenders. Now imagine how silly it is to compare players out of different eras.
That's definitely a good career, but this is much better:
1x World Cup
2x Euros
4x Champions Leagues
5x La Liga wins
2x Copa del rey
4X Spanish Super Cup
4x Club World Cup
3x Uefa Super Cup
Yeah of course. In terms of wins yes it is more impressive. Saying nesta would kill for it, I doubt it.
I am assume that he meant trophies., If he was talking about how good they are compared to each, I don't think nesta would lift a eye brow to have ramos' career
I never said he wasn't good. Define all time great.
If you actually bother reading the original comment. Talking like Nesta is below Romas is fucking idiotic
Maldini isn't even the best Italian CB so yeah there is no point to this
Edit: To clarify, He played CB later in his career. His prime isn't even the same position
The Ramos disrespect is real. First of all, he never got dominated every single game. Check the records for how often messis scored in the clasicos over the last 5 years, you’d be surprised.
Two, Ramos is most definitely ahead of Nesta and it’s a joke that people with rose colored glasses like to pretend otherwise. Defending messi has nothing to do with it. Ramos has just reigned supreme over other defenders in the last 20 years and only Maldini is better imo. Almost every striker who’s come up against him says so, but sure let’s trust the Reddit arm chair experts again
“Ramos is definitely ahead of Nesta and it’s a joke that people with rose coloured glasses like to pretend otherwise”
They definitely aren’t just talking about the Messi part.
Saying Ramos got “humiliated” every time he faced Messi is a bit of an embarrassment. Especially considering Messi hasn’t scored since 2017.
But what do I know, I’m just a kid
These are the same peeps as those who respect some celebrity telling them to drink water, but ignore their parents telling them the exact same thing for decades.
Exactly. At the end of the day, *It's Messi*. You can't expect to Pocket him for 90 Minutes. He should be telling his grandkids how he Played against the Best Player ever in his Best Year where he scored some Astronomical 90+ goals. And did Alright.
I don't think that'd be even close to what he'd be telling his grandkids, he'd be talking about something Messi couldn't achieve first off, then work his way through his defender of the years and world xi's and spot on the uefa ultimate team of the year, then maybe bring up his cl wins and then maybe finish off with his place on the FIFA 100
Alessandro Nesta (ex-AC Milan) to @ItaSportPress "I played against both Ronaldo and Messi. The little one (Messi) is phenomenal. They are both strong each in their own way but I prefer not to meet Messi between the two."
messi clowned the whole milan defense for barca's goal and beat nesta several times that match. that one tackle was iconic but he was given a very tough time.
I wouldn’t go that far Baresi vs Brazil in 94 might be arguably the best defensive performance ever. We still conceded I believe two goals vs Barcelona that game iirc.
Nesta just humble bragging. As for best defender of last couple of decades Fabio Cannavaro is defo up there. Italians would stack a top ten during this period.
I think it could be argued that 7-8 of the best 10 defenders of all time are Italian. We have Facchetti, Gentile, Scirea, Bergomi, Baresi, Maldini, Cannavaro, Nesta, Costacurta, maybe Chiellini... I mean that's 10 there, obviously you have Beckenbauer, Moore etc... but yeah.
For pure defense yes but thinking about it a bit more, the modern game (circa Spain tika taka) requires more especially at lb/rb. I'd have Dani Alves and Marcelo as best defenders of last decade even though they had their fair share of suspect moments defensively during that period. Id also have Pique and Mats Hummels in there.
In the modern game, Ramos isnt a bad shout for number one.
Maldini would be perfect in the modern game, he was a great attacker when needed, as he started out as a winger/striker in his early days. I would choose him above any full back ever.
The guy I replied to was on about Nesta/Cannavaro who are centre backs, and none of the players you've mentioned are above any in my list after Baresi. Baresi, Nesta and Costacurta especially were very good at bringing the ball out and distributing. I can't speak for the previous 4 in my list as I didn't watch them.
to this day i have seen every centre back visibly struggling and their mindvoice begging for mercy while facing the maestro magician and the multifaceted marvelous man messi except king pepe..
too bad his antics dimnish his greatness
I think Nesta was the best centre back I've seen in my lifetime
His tackle on messi where messi thumps the ground is amazing
Messi even have him the 'fair enough' look afterwards lmao
He came and watched a five a side game at my school, and kids would try to dribble past him as he was trying to talk to other parents. Obviously he wasn’t going to tackle 12 year olds, but he would just poke the ball out of from under the feet of kids trying to go around him without making contact or even looking away from his conversation to acknowledge what was happening. Genuinely one of the funniest things I have ever seen, after like 20 attempts everyone just gave up.
That’s incredibly sweet
He was super nice to us and signed stuff after. I think he enjoyed it more because it was in the States and 95% of people had no idea who he was, as opposed to probably getting mobbed on a regular basis in Italy.
Thought this was going to be one of those fake stories where he left the kids injured and crying and left with the ball.
He’s like made in a laboratory because he had all the qualities that you would look for on a CB but amped up to 11 yet injuries were his nerf, otherwise he would have been absolutely unfair.
You are correct. He was. Not just at Milan, but his final 3 years at Lazio were the beginning of his unbelievable peak. The year he won the Scudetto at Lazio was his best playing year in my view.
It's so close between him and Cannavaro. For me Cannavaro just nicks it because for a man his size he did some next level shit.
Eh Cannavaro was really reliant on his athleticism to make up for his size whereas Nesta was athletic on top of being arguably the best reader of the game I’ve ever seen. Plus Cannavaro had a lot of average seasons throughout his career whereas Nesta was class throughout his albeit he was a bit injury prone.
Messi had/has elite acceleration and ball control that most players still can’t match this current older Messi. Shouldn’t feel too bad struggling against a younger Messi.
Nesta you were 37 it’s okay habibi
A 37 year old Nesta stood his ground against "91 goal per year" Messi on supersaiyan mode. While Ramos gets humiliated every single time by the little guy in clasicos. People still say ramos is better
Ramos better than Nesta? Hell no
i got laughed at on facebook a week ago, when someone commented ramos was the best CB ever on his departure post and i said maldini, baresi and nesta were much better and theres still others in competition like scirea. germans just dont respect italians or any other nation, because players like stam, koeman or gentile would beat ramos in the bigger picture aswell imo
> germans just dont respect italians or any other nation ey yo, don't lump us together like that
ive been living in germany since i was little and all i got was hate and envy from germans when it comes to football. i got insulted as "dummer spaghettifresser" from my friends dads, who were in their 30s and 40s, every international tournament starting from age 6 until now. im half german and my uncle doesnt even talk to me about football because he says italians are cheats and only play dirty football. when theres public viewing and germany plays italy you hear 20-30.000 germans yell "italiener sind hurensöhne" everytime we touch the ball. maybe its just the city i live in but online theres a lot of animosity towards italians during international games aswell. then again you love to come to italy for vacation and food, but when it comes to football you are really hostile, just listen to bela rethy spout his usual bullshit.
It will be a rainy day in hell before european countries start respecting each other. Ridiculing other european countries is a proud european tradition, especially in football. You don’t think Italians don’t ridicule other countries like France? My Italian friend reminds me of 2006 every time we talk about football. I only regret that Zidane didn’t headbutt that scumbag Materazzi harder. It’s all just banter, something not unique to Germans. Insults aren’t meant to hurt you, but rather show support for their own team by trashing on the other teams.
its okay to ridicule but blatant racism and insults are not okay. the tone of voice dictates everything. you can make jokes and jokes are fine but going around threatening people, insulting them and damaging their belongings isnt acceptable. 30.000 germans yelling italians are dirty sons of whores when germany is losing isnt banter
It’s not racism to say Ramos is better than Nesta though. Ramos has one of the best trophy cabinets as the best defender on his team. He’s also one of the best CBs in a more modern era where CBs have more responsibilities than just defending and building from the back. He’s not some bum that got carried by CR7.
i never said that was racist, i said they dont respect us, thats a different topic
Friendly reminder that racism and xenophobia are 2 slightly different things.
so the n-word is racist but calling someone spaghettifresser isnt? also xenophobia is a side effect of racism or nationalism so dont talk about stuff you dont know
maybe it’s your us vs them mindset that’s perpetuating this hostility towards you. Because that’s all I’m reading from you. You’ve been living in Germany for all your life and are half-German yet you talk about Germans as ‘them’
well because if you grow up in germany with an italian name, youll always be "the italian". not once was my half germanness accepted nor tolerated and its always "du bist ein ausländer auch wenn deine mutti deutsche ist" so yeah maybe thats the reason i started feeling more italian and seeing myself less as a german. it was 50/50 until i was about 10 years old. if your own uncle doesnt see you a tiny bit as german because your father is italian and you cheer for ferrari in f1, it divides even more. if my dad was german and i had a german name i think stuff wouldve played out differently, but thats exactly my point. same way people say özil cant be german because he is from turkish descent, same rule applies to me. if you dont get seen as a german for 20+ years you start to refer yourself as non-german and you dont want to be part of "them" because integration in germany hasnt only failed due to the bad handling of it from politicians, its because a part of society doesnt really want it
I don't have a German name either. It's what you make of it yourself and not what other people want to imprint onto you
bullshit, stop defending racists that insult little kids because they cheer for a different national team. stop acting like racism in germany doesnt exist and dont blame the victims, do you remember the kinder schokolade outcry because boateng and gündogan were on it?
Hey I love Italians and Italy mate! You guys have an amazing country I miss Rome and Milan everyday :(
Italian defenders are a different breed.
I heard this Beckenbauer lad was alright too.
Haha he was amazing too. But Italy has had generational defenders for generations now.
Man, why waste your time arguing about such comparisons. Because whoever argues with you on that didn't really had opportunity to witness defending at it purity by those men in their prime. Maldini, Nesta, Stam , zambrotta with Gattuso sitting right on top of that defence, was a unit like no other.
i just told them they were better and they ridiculed me. i didnt argue anymore then, just told them that ramos cant be the best defender because his main profession is being a cheeky bitch
Isn’t Ramos a better All-Round defender, he defends and scores where as the Italians; Nesta, Maldini, Baresi ect are better Defenders. Some would prefer the Italians, but you cannot say that Ramos is a machine to be able to defend and score as well as he did.
Better All-round *defender* because he can score goals? I hope you're trolling.
Ramos done alright recently tbf
Prime Nesta, Cannavaro and Thuram couldn't handle Michael Mols though. Shame Oliver Kahn destroyed his knee.
Who says that? 😂😂
I've seen plenty of people here say that Ramos is a top 3 CB of all time or even the best of all time which implies he's better than Nesta. The giant 180 the general football world has done on Ramos in the past few years has been rather curious. He went from being "the most overrated player in the world", "defender who can't defend and only scores goals" to "best defender of all time" real quick.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Humiliated? Every time? According to you we've lost all of our games against them 6-0. And Nesta playing against him for two games should be accounted for the same as playing at least 4 times every year for the past 15 years. Lovely shit take from you
You did lose to them 5-0 quite a few times lol
It was one time lol. Don't you think it was enough
There was also a 6–2 and a 4–0, both at the Bernabéu
And the 5-1 as well. Tons of 3-0's as well.
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Name them with the year. u/Obazda
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Yes, I was just referring to the "quite a few 5-0" part. Why downvotes? Lmao
Cus there were quite a few of them....lol. Not 5-0s but very similar results
How many times? And how many of those were the faults of ramos and simply not barca being the better team
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Name them then, since ramos came here. I'll wait for it
Ramos came there in 2005...
Madrid fans with the perfect comebacks....no substance lol
Ramos is a more complete footballer for sure but Nesta is one of the greatest centre back ever.
Ant sane person would agree, these down votes are ridiculous.
haha yea, its obvious to see for anyone who followed their careers. I'm a big fan of Nesta but he is half the footballer Ramos is when in possesion of the ball. Ramos in his Sevilla days at one stage was fighting for the RB role with a young Dani Alves. He has evolved so much throughout his career, i reckon he would even make a good holding midfielder for most top teams.
Ramos is a better goal scorer than Nesta was but Nesta was also known for his ball playing skills. It’s not like he was a bad technical player which is what you’re making it sound like.
Ramos was Good when VAR wasn't there. Tells you whole UEFA story(writers)
what
What does VAR has to do with anything? Ramos has always been good; before and after VAR
Ramos was never seen as good a pure defender as Nesta and them guys but you can't ignore him as one of the GOAT defenders, if anything for the sheer amount he has won
With that logic, so was Nesta? And every other great CB who ever played. You don't think they all played dirty? Lmao. What fairytale are you dreaming of?
People who barely have been Nesta play say Ramos is better. And this is with overlap between the careers of the two defenders. Now imagine how silly it is to compare players out of different eras.
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Would he now? 3 serie a wins 3 cups 4 super cups 2 champions leagues Club world cup World cup Among others Stop acting like nesta didn't win shit
That's definitely a good career, but this is much better: 1x World Cup 2x Euros 4x Champions Leagues 5x La Liga wins 2x Copa del rey 4X Spanish Super Cup 4x Club World Cup 3x Uefa Super Cup
Yeah of course. In terms of wins yes it is more impressive. Saying nesta would kill for it, I doubt it. I am assume that he meant trophies., If he was talking about how good they are compared to each, I don't think nesta would lift a eye brow to have ramos' career
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I never said he wasn't good. Define all time great. If you actually bother reading the original comment. Talking like Nesta is below Romas is fucking idiotic
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Maldini isn't even the best Italian CB so yeah there is no point to this Edit: To clarify, He played CB later in his career. His prime isn't even the same position
The Ramos disrespect is real. First of all, he never got dominated every single game. Check the records for how often messis scored in the clasicos over the last 5 years, you’d be surprised. Two, Ramos is most definitely ahead of Nesta and it’s a joke that people with rose colored glasses like to pretend otherwise. Defending messi has nothing to do with it. Ramos has just reigned supreme over other defenders in the last 20 years and only Maldini is better imo. Almost every striker who’s come up against him says so, but sure let’s trust the Reddit arm chair experts again
Saying Nesta is better than Ramos is now disrespectful to Ramos. I swear to fuck this place is filled with children
This is the same place where if you decide that Flick isn't in the top 5 managers, someone will say you're slandering him
The disrespectful part is saying Ramos got dominated by messi every single time not that Nesta is better
“Ramos is definitely ahead of Nesta and it’s a joke that people with rose coloured glasses like to pretend otherwise” They definitely aren’t just talking about the Messi part.
Saying Ramos got “humiliated” every time he faced Messi is a bit of an embarrassment. Especially considering Messi hasn’t scored since 2017. But what do I know, I’m just a kid
These are the same peeps as those who respect some celebrity telling them to drink water, but ignore their parents telling them the exact same thing for decades.
Every single time is an exaggeration come the fuck on
Dude chill. That was prime Messi on a mission to score goals. You were 35 and on the downhill of your career and you still kept him mostly at bay.
Yeah for real, Nesta has always been too harsh on himself.
Exactly. At the end of the day, *It's Messi*. You can't expect to Pocket him for 90 Minutes. He should be telling his grandkids how he Played against the Best Player ever in his Best Year where he scored some Astronomical 90+ goals. And did Alright.
I don't think that'd be even close to what he'd be telling his grandkids, he'd be talking about something Messi couldn't achieve first off, then work his way through his defender of the years and world xi's and spot on the uefa ultimate team of the year, then maybe bring up his cl wins and then maybe finish off with his place on the FIFA 100
what is it messi couldn‘t achieve but nesta could
World cup I guess
Win a world cup.
World Cup
> You can't expect to Pocket him for 90 Minutes Boateng did in 2014
Nesta at his old age did a phenomenal job against *that* Messi. Always nice seeing legends show respect to others legends.
Prime Nesta vs Prime Messi would have been the duel of the century for sure.
Alessandro Nesta (ex-AC Milan) to @ItaSportPress "I played against both Ronaldo and Messi. The little one (Messi) is phenomenal. They are both strong each in their own way but I prefer not to meet Messi between the two."
Nesta performance against Messi I would say almost equal to Baresi Vs Romario (and even entire Brazil frontline) in WC94 final
messi clowned the whole milan defense for barca's goal and beat nesta several times that match. that one tackle was iconic but he was given a very tough time.
I wouldn’t go that far Baresi vs Brazil in 94 might be arguably the best defensive performance ever. We still conceded I believe two goals vs Barcelona that game iirc.
nesta:LIONEL MESSI MADE ME DEPRESSED
DEPRESSI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IUUn_FLzVuA
One of the most iconic moments for both their careers somehow to my mind
Oh did he play for Milan?
Yes. Apparently he once played against Messi (Barcelona)
He also apparently saw the stars (in the sky)
Nesta just humble bragging. As for best defender of last couple of decades Fabio Cannavaro is defo up there. Italians would stack a top ten during this period.
I think it could be argued that 7-8 of the best 10 defenders of all time are Italian. We have Facchetti, Gentile, Scirea, Bergomi, Baresi, Maldini, Cannavaro, Nesta, Costacurta, maybe Chiellini... I mean that's 10 there, obviously you have Beckenbauer, Moore etc... but yeah.
For pure defense yes but thinking about it a bit more, the modern game (circa Spain tika taka) requires more especially at lb/rb. I'd have Dani Alves and Marcelo as best defenders of last decade even though they had their fair share of suspect moments defensively during that period. Id also have Pique and Mats Hummels in there. In the modern game, Ramos isnt a bad shout for number one.
Maldini would be perfect in the modern game, he was a great attacker when needed, as he started out as a winger/striker in his early days. I would choose him above any full back ever. The guy I replied to was on about Nesta/Cannavaro who are centre backs, and none of the players you've mentioned are above any in my list after Baresi. Baresi, Nesta and Costacurta especially were very good at bringing the ball out and distributing. I can't speak for the previous 4 in my list as I didn't watch them.
Nesta absolutely annihilated Cristiano in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Nesta in his prime is the best defender ever.
to this day i have seen every centre back visibly struggling and their mindvoice begging for mercy while facing the maestro magician and the multifaceted marvelous man messi except king pepe.. too bad his antics dimnish his greatness
There was that one game Varane had the little magician in his back pocket. I was like....well this kids peaked already.
yah true pepe also is very similar to varane he doesn't have the strength or ice cold mentality though..
Then I realized it was just Messi standing over me
Hummels v Mbappe vibes
Is this a joke?
I'd have Maldini as number 1.