{"id":48168,"date":"2025-08-05T23:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48168\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T23:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:45:12","slug":"messi-or-cristiano-ronaldo-liverpool-star-florian-wirtz-names-the-greatest-soccer-player-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48168\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? Liverpool star Florian Wirtz names the greatest soccer player of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool are the reigning Premier League champions and are preparing to raise their level even further in the upcoming season. Among the new additions to their roster is Florian Wirtz, who arrived from Bayer Leverkusen. Now the attacking midfielder has named his all-time greatest player, showing a clear preference between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wirtz<\/a> recently sat down for an interview with JD Sports, where he answered several rapid-fire questions about his opinions and experiences related to other soccer stars. When asked to name a player\u2014past or present\u2014he would\u2019ve liked to play with, he didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cMessi.\u201d And he immediately repeated the Argentine superstar\u2019s name when asked to name the greatest player of all time.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Florian has expressed his admiration for Messi<\/a>. In a previous interview with Sky Sports Germany, he spoke about the players who inspired him growing up. \u201cI actually had a few posters hanging in my room\u2014Lionel Messi, Ousmane Dembele, and Aubameyang, for example. My first jersey, however, was Messi\u2019s Argentina jersey,\u201d said the 22-year-old midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was little, he was the best player there was at the time in the world. I watched videos of him, was a fan of his\u2014I wanted to be as good as him,\u201d Wirtz added. \u201cNobody can play like Messi. He has his own way of playing. Sometimes, I watch more specifically how he solves situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Florian Wirtz named Lionel Messi the greatest soccer player of all time. Wirtz picks his favorite Liverpool player <\/p>\n

In the same interview with JD Sports, Wirtz was asked about his new chapter at Liverpool<\/a> and had to choose the teammate he\u2019s most excited to play with. \u201cOf course the whole team! But maybe Mo Salah,\u201d said Florian. \u201cHe was the best player the last season. So, yeah I\u2019m really looking forward to play with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German star was also asked to name the toughest opponent he\u2019s ever faced in his professional career, and interestingly, he chose someone who is now his teammate in England. \u201cMaybe (Alexis) Mac Allister in the last game we played against Liverpool in Champions League. Was really tough against him,\u201d said Wirtz.<\/p>\n

Last season, Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen faced each other at Anfield Road in the opening stage of the UEFA Champions League, where the Reds dominated with a 4\u20130 win. Both Mac Allister and Wirtz started for their teams in that match, and the German midfielder struggled to stand out under those circumstances.<\/p>\n

Wirtz names the best player he\u2019s played with <\/p>\n

Finally, during the same interview, Wirtz highlighted the most impressive player he\u2019s shared a team with during his career. \u201cToni Kroos,\u201d said Florian, referring to the former midfielder he played alongside during Euro 2024 with Germany. \u201cHe\u2019s just unbelievable in passing and directing the game. Yeah, an unbelievable player.\u201d<\/p>\n

SURVEY Do you agree with Florian Wirtz? Who is the greatest player of all time?<\/p>\n

Do you agree with Florian Wirtz? Who is the greatest player of all time?<\/p>\n

ALREADY VOTED 2 PEOPLE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool are the reigning Premier League champions and are preparing to raise their level even further in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,3635,33202,10884,1417,561,82],"class_list":["post-48168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-florian-wirtz","tag-lionel-messi","tag-liverpool","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}