Earlier this week we were able to witness history in the soccer world with the selection of Lionel Messi for his fifth Ballon d'Or. This fifth Ballon d'Or for Messi puts him back on top as not only the best soccer player in the world but also the only player in soccer history to receive this award five times. That statement itself is crazy to take in, due to the fact that there has been so many great players through the years. Some including Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, and Zidane, who all never even came close to touching this milestone.

It's safe to say that Messi is more then deserving of winning this award so many times in the past five or so years. The stats that he has put up are something you would see on your My career in FIFA 16. Although anyone with knowledge in the sport of soccer knows that Pelé from Brazil is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), Messi puts up a good argument being a close second or even surpassing Pelés legacy. Some reasoning behind this would have to be how these players are so similar, both Pelé and Messi aren't like your average soccer player who has size to push players off the ball or height to get that advantage on corner kicks. They both were no taller than five feet eight inches (5'8) which is crazy to think that someone with such small size are considered to be two of the most dominant players in soccer history.

Although many doubted Messi when he was on the come up through youth soccer due to his growth hormone deficiency, he still showed dominance which granted him an opportunity with Barcelona who agreed to pay for his medical treatment at the age of 13 and boy do I bet Barcelona is glad they took this risk. Through the start of his career with Barcelona he was given the nickname "La Pulga" which means "The Flea" due to the fact that although he's small, he is still very quick and agile which gave him that upper hand on many players. As the years passed the rest has been written for Messi, up to current date he has won 5 ballon d'Or in which four of them were earned four years in a row. On top of that he has a jaw dropping 441 total career goals with Barcelona along with helping them reach an impressive 26 total league championships.

Many great players, like Ronaldinho, Henry, and Pelé, have all stated that Messi is hands down the greatest ever and that they wish they could have been as good as him. You may think, with these statistics, he would hands down be viewed as the greatest of all time but the common reasoning for him to live in Pelés shadow would be how he has never won a world cup with his International team (Argentina) and Pelé has won three. So lets leave it up to you, has Messi earned him self that special seat at the top of the Soccer throne as the best ever or does he still have some proving to do?