Messi (2014), a documentary film

With Messi's massive popularity over the world, it comes as no surprise that a movie has been made about him, specifically a documentary film that details his life from his youth at Newell's all the way to 2014.

It was directed by Álex de la Iglesia and written by Jorge Valdano, ex-Argentinian footballer. The production company was Mediapro and it was distributed by Warner Bros. The runtime of the film was 1 hour and 33 minutes. The film got originally released on August 27th, 2014, at the Venice Film Festival.

In terms of reviews, it currently has 7.3/10 stars on IMDb. The movie even managed to get nominated for the Venice Days Award. To understand how big that is, we have to remember that the Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world, and is part of the "Big Three" alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. And in the box office, according to Box Office Mojo, it received $33,607

The cast included people like Johan Cruyff, Maradona, Iniesta, Mascherano, Menotti, Sabella, Piqué, Jorge Valdano and Pere Gratacó (Messi's coach in Barcelona B). The music was done by Joan Valent, known for his previous work in "La Caja" and specially "Las brujas de Zugarramurdi", the cinematography was done by the prestigious Kiko de la Rica, nominated for numerous awards beforehand, and the production design was done by important people as Antxón Gómez and Marcelo Vergés.

In the end, although it didn't reach levels of popularity that match some of the best in football cinema, it did deliver on showing Messi's life story, getting opinions from his team-mates and ex-coaches as well, which gives us a good insight on who he was and who he is (though it's from 2014).

Players and coaches on Messi

It comes as no surprise that a player with the caliber of Messi is recognized by many players and coaches as one of, if not the best player ever, but how many? And what do they have to say about Messi specifically? That's the topic of today's entry, so without further ado, let's get into it.

Players such as Rooney, Lineker, Piqué, Mario Gómez, Terry, Cassano, Venables, Lampard, Hazard, Shearer, Ronaldinho, van Nistelrooy, Souness, Barton, Fowler, McDermot, Helguera, Gerry Armstrong, David Silva, Reus, Gündoğan, Vitolo, Turan, David Luiz, Chilavert, Koeman, Xavi, Rakitic, Bartra, Ben Yedder, Sergi Roberto, Vidal, Gattuso, Song, Pina, Hudson, Rashford, Phil Thompson, Guardado, Leo Franco, Steve Nicol, Burley, Winks, Trippier, Bellamy, Sidwell, Villa, Fàbregas, Puyol, Coutinho, Alves, Dembélé, Roberto Pereyra, Arthur Melo, Icardi, Robertson and Hope Solo call Messi the greatest player ever, an incredible amount as we can see, and many recognizable names appear. And if we go to the coaches, Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Wenger, Escribá, Capello and Lopetegui, again, well known names. It can be easily seen that Messi is the greatest player ever by consensus of players, but what do they say specifically?

Guardiola perfectly explained that "Don't write about him, don't try to describe him. Just watch him.", since Messi can't be explained, only enjoyed. Henry said that "Every player on the planet is in Messi's shadow. If you want to step out of Messi's shadow, you should try another sport.", highlighting Messi's complete superiority over everyone else. Finally, we have Esquivel's words: "Messi saved football. There has never been such an overwhelming, devastating, decisive and unique player.".

Messi is a very unique player, and that has been noted by everyone, which is why I made this entry. See you next time!