Is Messi half the player without Xavi and Iniesta?

Lionel Messi. The Worlds Greatest. The King. Whatever you call the man, he is no doubt a legend, and the greatest player of the current day. But quiet; don’t tell Ronaldo and his adoring fans.

Three Ballon d’Ors, and 177 goals in just 221 games for Barcelona, yet many people say that he can’t play without the talent of Xavi and Iniesta behind him.

They certainly improve Messi’s game, they are two of the best passers in the world, and play for the two best passing teams in the world. Also, I’ve heard rumours that Xaviesta were the stunt double in those Duracell bunny adverts, but those are unconfirmed.

They may well be the batteries in the Argentineans backpack, but he certainly has a pretty strong power source of his own, unless he accidently scored 31 in 75 for Argentina, either that, or Andres Iniesta has a fantastic Fernando Gago costume.  If so, he should certainly keep that one back for Halloween.

I do like the idea that should one of them get substituted, Messi would start to stutter and work slower, kind of like that time where you are running out of batteries on your controller, and you have the Tesco Value battery sliding in next to that premium Duracell one, but it simply isn’t the case.

After all, it isn’t just a coincidence that Messi is the main component of the word Messiah. Which the pint-sized forward certainly is the definition of.

From Barnsley to Beirut, you’ll find Messi 10 shirts adorning kids backs, so for the sake of football, and my own personal enjoyment, I hope Xavi and Iniesta continue to have fantastic careers well into their 30’s, otherwise, we may well see Lionel Messi static in the centre circle for 90 minutes every game.

He’d probably still manage to get the Golden Boot.