Pedri’s View on Soccer’s Greats Has Fans Arguing

The FC Barcelona star wonder kid Pedri is back on the headlines, but this time it is not for anything in the pitch, but rather for commenting on the top of the top football players. So it was that when the career of the current La Liga leader came to an end, at least in video game form, fans were locked in heated discussion on social media: Who, exactly, are the greatest players he ever played with? No one is surprised. He is a Barcelona player?

With Pedri playing for Barcelona, it was expected that he would side with LaLiga icon Lionel Messi in the ongoing GOAT debate. Well, and unsurprisingly, no one was surprised that he did. Messi was the player who defined a generation at Camp Nou, ripping up the record books and ransacking silverware throughout his time at the club. But the real reason it was all going so mad on the internet is because some fans couldn’t help but get Cristiano Ronaldo involved.

Genuine or otherwise, the reality is that from indirect connections with Barcelona through to the direct involvement of Ronaldo's name being a stone's throw from the mouths of people involved with the club, be they fans players or indeed the press, he's never that far from the chant of the crowd. As Messi has dominated football culture for more than a decade, so too has the rivalry with the Portuguese superstar “living rent free” in the head of legions of Barcelona adherents, they joke.

Pedri’s view is a reasonable one, “judge your team” to take into account who eventually owns him, but it sparked fresh debates over how players are ranked in the annals of football history. The footballing intelligence and insight of a 21-year-old probably has to be taken with a pinch of salt, given the nature of the game. And others argue that his position is merely a reflection of his circumstance.

Regardless of fans or pundits believing him or not, some said he should be on everyone lis, there is one thing for sure when Pedri speaks, the footballing world takes heed, and his opinions on footballs greatest ever players will always be the talk of the park. He is a player whose opinions and what they represent to his game keep him in everyone’s mind, for better or worse.