"Messi has once again shown that he is a wonderful player and that he is, without doubt, the leader of Barcelona. He is the best player in the world and the best in the history of football. Along with Cruyff and Maradona, he is the best player we have seen at Barça."

"I think Messi's just beyond everyone else."

"Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona."

"Messi is better than Maradona; he is more complete, more consistent, more spectacular. He is reinventing the game – a mix of the real and the virtual."

"There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy and smiling child. I always help in any way I can, even if it’s just by signing an autograph. A child’s smile is worth more than all the money in the world""

"Messi has always been my idol."

"He's achieved so many great things and set the bar so high that practically nobody is ever going to reach it."

"He's the best of all time."

"Messi is the best player in the world. We'd have to kidnap him to stop him."

"Messi is unbelievable. It is great to get the chance to play against the best in the world. It doesn't really need repeating: he is a fantastic player."

"Lionel Messi. Oh... I think this guy is fantastic. He’s the best player I have ever seen in my life."

"It's impossible to control Leo for 90 minutes."

"Needless to repeat, that he’s the best player in the world, the best of all-time. I enjoy training with him, he makes everything easier."

"Messi is the best, for me, Messi is God, he is the best and always will be – for what he has given the team and for how much he has made me enjoy being in the same team as him."

"It's the efficiency that made the difference. Messi is fantastic, the best player ever."

"Messi is class. There is him, and then there is the rest. What he does is extraordinary. He demands admiration."

"Lionel Messi is out of this world, he's an alien. For me, he is the best player in the history of football."

"I think Messi is the best in the world, a very good player and that he is a gift from god."

"Messi is God – you see him on the pitch and he is spectacular."

"Messi is an alien, that dedicates himself to playing with humans."

"He is by far the best player in the world – he’s a one-off."

"For years I thought that there would never be a player like Maradona. But now Messi is at his level."

"It’s something for me that I can tell my kids that I’ve played against Messi when we watch him on television. For me he’s got everything. He is magical to watch. When I finish and look back, and he will still be going strong, I will be able to say to myself I tested myself against the best. And quite clearly, for me, he is the best ever. He’s a great individual player but a great person as well and a credit to football."

"Messi does not need his right foot. He only uses the left and he's still the best in the world! Imagine if he also used his right foot ... Then we would have serious problems!"

"I am not crazy enough to compare myself with Messi because he is the best there ever was and the best there will ever be."

"Is Messi playing in the Champions League or is he playing a Playstation game?"

"He plays like he’s on PlayStation, it’s unbelievable. People who say otherwise either don’t know anything about football or are just talking nonsense."

"He's a once in a generation player. I think it's unlikely that any human being again will repeat the numbers that Messi is getting."

"Leo is from another planet. What makes him the best is that other great players have had ups and downs, like Maradona. He wasn’t half of what Leo is at Barça. Messi has had so many good years in his career that he deserves to be considered the best ever."

"Messi is God, as a person and even more as a player."

"People often say to me they saw Pele and Maradona play. In the future, I will be able to say I saw Messi play."

"Although he may not be human, it's good that Messi still thinks he is."

"There is no doubt, you're from another galaxy. Thanks Leo."

"Messi is a joke. For me, the best ever."

"He's been by far and away the best footballer in the world for the last five or six years. He's the best player of all time and if he stays fit he will continue for the next five or six years. The things he does right now are out of this world. Of course, he doesn't play by himself, but he is simply incredible. He always finds a way and is always a yard quicker than everyone else. If you have a player like that on your side, you needn't fear anyone."

"Messi is so talented that 70% of the goals I scored at Barça came from his boots. With him in your team, you're calm."

"I’ve always said Messi is the best player in the world."

"In the semi-final Messi showed he's the top man. He is only 20 as well, imagine how good he will be in the next 10 years. I'd love to play alongside him."

"He is from another planet. He is the main point of reference and the key man in the whole Barça team."

"He was beautiful. He was the point of difference. He has always been the point of difference. Unparalleled, and maybe today there will, of course, always be those who argue, always be those who debate. And the debate could rage on if you like. But as he falls in love with the object in the world that his heart most desired, it is hard to escape the supposition that he has rendered himself today, the greatest of all time."

"I'm lucky to be part of a team who help to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground""

"I'm not sure he is human."

"Here he is again ... here he is again .. that's astonishing, absolutely world-class!"

"I start early, and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success""

"Messi saved football. There has never been such an overwhelming, devastating, decisive and unique player."

"I always thought that if you want to be the best, you have to work harder than everyone else""

"I like Messi because he doesn’t think he’s Messi."

"At the Camp Nou Messi scored two brilliant goals, made a third and at times yawned his way around champion opponents like a man tactfully avoiding a gaggle of overheated toddlers in a high street coffee shop. Often he took the ball and shimmied past two or three men, operating within a kind of fermata, events slowed and paused around him, and providing a reminder that he remains one of the great dribblers, master of the flip-flap, the surge, the amphetamine-crazed-millipede shift of feet."

"To me, Messi is the greatest player in the world right now. He has got a fantastic vision of the game, and what he can do technically - it's just crazy. The things he can do with the ball - and at pace and top speed - is just amazing. What decides it for me is not his many goals, although his goal account is impressive, but the thing is that he can do so much for his team. What counts is the total amount of his many, many qualities. He is just the greatest."