Messi up there with the greatest

Messi always says: "I want to avoid comparisons because for me there has never been anyone quite like Maradona."

Well, that ship has sailed after Messi's four goals against Arsenal which took Barcelona into the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

No longer can comparisons be dodged. Messi and Maradona so obviously are from the same mould. Both Argentinian. Both small in stature. Both talented in uncannily similar ways in the number 10 shirt which Maradona wore, in particular, for Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli and Argentina in the 1980s and 1990s.

The same low centre of gravity affording supreme balance. The same vision and movement and tight control. And if Maradona relied a touch more on power then their capacity for making and scoring goals with ruthless efficiency is almost identical.

'Perfect 10,' 'Little Magician,' 'The Messiah.' They were just some of the headlines which greeted Messi's one-man demolition of Arsenal.

Messi is the best footballer on the planet right now. Better than Cristiano Ronaldo whose game remains overly extravagant. Messi has tricks, but almost always there is an end-product. Messi is no show pony.

Better, too, than Kaka and Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney. Rooney is having the season of his life, virtually having carried Manchester United on the back of his 34 goals, but he does not possess the variety of options open to Messi.

So could Messi be the best of all-time?

That is impossible to answer about a 22-year-old whose talent has blazed an increasingly fluorescent trail across the footballing world.

For two main reasons. Namely Maradona and Pele.

The fact is Maradona, for all his problems with drugs and discipline, virtually won a World Cup for Argentina in 1986. His second strike in the quarter-final against England, following the infamous 'Hand of God' goal, was arguably the greatest in World Cup history.

Maradona virtually single-handedly then took Argentina to the final again in 1990, proving a footballer's greatness is defined by whether he can conjure up his brightest talent when it matters most.

Some would throw into the mix the individual brilliance of Northern Ireland's George Best and the pioneering 'Total' football of Dutch master Johan Cruyff. But, in truth, they fall just short, mainly because Best never had the chance to grace a World Cup and because Cruyff failed to inspire the greatest-ever Dutch side to ultimate glory.

But we should also be careful not to jump too quickly on the popular bandwagon in our appreciation of Messi.

Yes, the modern game is quicker and more pressurised than it has ever been but there is good reason Pele was voted one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.

He was up there with presidents and prime ministers and famous scientists because he was the living embodiment of how the most popular game on Earth should be played.

Let's not forget, Pele scored a hat-trick in the semi-final of the 1958 World Cup against France and went on to become the youngest player to play in a World Cup final at 17 years and 249 days, scoring another two goals as Brazil beat Sweden 5-2.

Pele's famous dummy to bamboozle the Uruguay goalkeeper, his shot from the halfway line against Czechoslovakia which narrowly missed, his instant trap and lay-off for Jairzinho to score against England in 1970 are fixed firmly in World Cup folklore.

Then there is the fact Pele scored a phenomenal 1087 goals in 1120 appearances in first-class matches or 1280 goals in 1363 if we include non-competitive games for armed forces teams during his national service in Brazil.

The exact figure barely matters. The point is Pele's legend in winning three World Cups is indisputable. So is Maradona's.

For Messi to join them in football's elite star chamber he must take his mesmerising form for Barcelona on to the international stage. He must do for an Argentina side run by Maradona what Maradona did for his country.

It is one of the most intriguing aspects of the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa. All the signs so far say Messi has what it takes to walk with the greatest of them all.