Barcelona defeated Bayern Munich in the Champions League semifinals on a 5-3 aggregate goal advantage. With that victory, Barcelona will have the opportunity to win their fifth Champions League tournament in franchise history and fourth since 2006.

Bayern Munich Coach Pep Guardiola had strong words for Barcelona star Lionel Messi after the second leg.

"Messi is just incredible, really strong, really fast, back to his best just as when I used to train him. "He is the best player of all time. I can compare him with Pele" Guardiola said.

Guardiola was the manager of Barcelona from 2008 to 2012 having watched Messi at first glance. Guardiola led Barcelona to three consecutive Spanish League titles during that time period. Guardiola has been managing Bayern Munich ever since 2013.

As for the "greatest soccer player ever" comments, popular opinion around the world is Pele. Pele led the Brazilian National Team to three FIFA World Cup victories, in 1958, 1962 and 1970. Messi led Argentina to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, but lost to Germany. Pele has the fifth most goals in World Cup history behind only Just Fontaine, Gerd Müller, Ronaldo and Miroslav Klose. There's no doubt, Pele has accomplished a lot more on the national team level, but Messi still has plenty of time to catch up given the fact that he is still just 27 years old.

Neither Pele nor Messi have been able to win the Copa America, South America's biggest soccer tournament.

Messi will be remembered as the greatest La Liga player of all-time. Messi has the most career goals and assists in La Liga history as well as the most goals in a single season, 50, which he scored in the 2011-12 season for Barcelona. One can't completely blame Messi for not yet winning a World Cup because he doesn't play on a stacked Argentina squad as Pele once did with Brazil. Messi has the second most goals this La Liga season, and he leads the entire league in assists.

Overall, Messi is a perfect 3-0 in Champions League finals. Messi is also the leading scorer of this Champions League with 10 goals.

Messi gave Jerome Boateng a lesson in the first leg.

Messi's biggest rival today is Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. The two superstars are constantly being compared because they are arguably the two best players in the world today,;they play in the same league; and they represent the biggest La Liga rivalry in the El Clasico.

"He is back, he is there where I had the privilege to train him. He is definitely back at his best” said Guardiola. Guardiola even went on to say he was pulling for his former team. "When Barça have the ball they are extremely strong. I hope in Berlin they can win the fifth European Cup. We tried everything but we had a lot of problems and when you play with so many problems for two months and the players keep charging forward, then the team deserves a big compliment.”

There's no doubt Messi will go down as one of the best players of all-time. He is already the best Spanish Premier League player ever, and he is just 27 years old. The only thing Messi must complete on his incredible soccer résumé is to win a World Cup or a Copa America championship.

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