Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi

Name	Lionel Andrés Messi
Age	25
Nation
Position	SS, AMF, WF
Club Squad No.	10
Nation Squad No.	10
Key stats (PES 2013)	Attack - 99 Shot Accuracy - 99 Dribble Speed - 98
Previous Clubs	None

Lionel "Leo" Messi is an Argentinian international forward who plays for Barcelona.

In real life he is known for being one of the best footballers in the world along with Cristiano Ronaldo and has also been compared to Argentine legend Diego Maradona.

He's known for his amazing agility, matched with his glued-to-his-foot style dribbling which makes it really easy for him to break through defences. He's also rated one of the best players in PES' 2009, 2010 and 2011.

He has featured as the cover star in PES 2009, PES 2010 and PES 2011.

[edit] PES 4

In PES 4, he is a very poor youth player for Barcelona whose main stats are technique and short pass accuracy. He wouldn't be a recommended signing as he's also very weak and lacks stamina for a winger.

He does have decent potential, however requires a lot of patience and gradual development. Due to him unlikely to feature in the first team, he won't be exposed to the much needed experience.

[edit] PES 5

He received a small stat boost in PES 5 which saw an improvement in his dribble accuracy and agility. Here he is a slight recommended signing but he's still quite a poor player due to his weak stature and poor speed and stamina.

Many PES fans had to update his stats manually due to his impressive performaces for Barcelona, mainly focussed around his speed and dribbling. This thread is an example.

[edit] PES 6

PES 6 is when he's suddenly realised as a world class youth where he received a massive stat boost to acceleration, body balance, dribble speed and agility thus making him a very useful winger to have. Due to his upgrade in strength, he's now a lot harder to shrug off the ball and therefore more useful when breaking through the defence. His stamina has also been improve to 80 which is the peak in all of the PES games. Despite this, it's still quite a low value to have for a winger and therefore he'd tire towards the latter stages of the match.

[edit] PES 2008

Messi could perform the Rabona skill for the first time in PES 2008. Once again, he received a small stat boost, specifically towards agility where this was maximised to 99. Also his dribbling stats were improved. One of his weaknesses which carries on from game-to-game is his poor shooting attributes, which does make it hard from him to finish his chances. Additionally, he is very poor in the air which makes him barely a threat when trying to get on the end of crosses or corners.

[edit] PES 2009

Messi appears on the front of the PES 2009 cover along with the Champions League logo.

Playing just behind the main striker is Messi's registered position, but he is equally capable when pushed out wide to the wings, either hugging the touchline or cutting back inside. As in real life, he is best suited to cutting inside from the right where he can create space for an overlap out wide or simply dribble past the defence for an attempt on goal. He forms a fearsome partnership with Andres Iniesta and Xavi much like in real life which allows Barcelona to dominate possession and ultimately get the results required. One weakness is his lack of stamina which often means he needs to be substituted before the end of the match.

For the first time, Messi has pretty much reached his peak where his agility is at 99 with dribble accuracy and dribble speed at 97 and 96 respectively. He also has very good technique so he's able to control even the hardest of deliveries. He does still lack aerial ability however. Also for the first time, his Attack stat is at 95, this then allows him to make more intelligent runs and has better positional sense when attacking.

He is believed to be one of the main reasons along with Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o in why so many people choose Barcelona on online matches.

[edit] PES 2010

In PES 2010, once again Messi is featured on the cover however this time with Fernando Torres.

His preset face has been updated and so has his hairstyle. With the almost perfect striker force of Messi, Ibrahimovic and Henry, Barcelona look set to be a popular choice online with such a highly rated attack force. However with PES 2010 changing the style of the game. It will now be near impossible to ghost past players like in previous games.

He features attacking cards such as Mazing Run and Incisive Run which can help him dribble past players and cut inside respectively.

He has an overall of 84 making him a good player, however considering he's one of the best players in PES and in real life, you would expect him to have more overall but it looks like he will be able to make it up through potential in Master League. His stats are very concentrated towards attack with very high dribbling, speed and agility stats making him able to weave in and out of oncoming challenges. He also has high technique making him able to control even the hardest of deliveries. However his downside is that he is very small and lacks stamina making him poor in the air and unable to last the full 90 minutes if playing flat out.

One of the most notable changes to his stats is that of his long pass accuracy and long pass speed stats which both were increased to 82, which then makes him more of a threat when crossing the ball.

After the update he was given a stat boost where his overall rating went up to 87.

[edit] PES 2011

Messi once again featured on the front cover, this time on PES 2011 where he can be seen dribbling a ball to the left. He has also been given a slightly more textured preset face and a longer hairstyle.

His shot accuracy was raised to 96, making him the most accurate player in the game (not considering legend players). However his shot technique was lowered from 89 to 86. Despite this, he is still one of the most deadliest strikers in the game and can score from pretty much any where inside the box. However due to his poor shot power, it'll be harder for him to score from outside the 18-yard box.

Also, when played in SS, his overall rating is 98, making him one of the highest in the whole game joint with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Furthermore, his agility was deducted by 2 points to 96 therefore making him slightly less agile when weaving in between players. In addition, his stamina also decreased to 73 therefore it will be hard for him to last a full game and therefore may need to be taken off after 70 minutes or so. Finally his swerve was increased to 83 which makes him slightly better when curling a strike on goal which can lead to his goal scoring opportunities increasing.

In Master League, after 3 to 4 seasons, his overall hits at least 102, making him much higher than Ronaldo who stays at roughly 98. It's also possible for Messi to be lured to clubs such as Chelsea.

When playing Master League Online he is one of the most expensive players to purchase, along with Cristiano Ronaldo.

[edit] PES 2012

He is no longer the cover star of PES, and is replaced by Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi is still the best player in the game as his stats were boosted a little bit with Shot Accuracy reaching the amazing rating of 97.

[edit] Playing Style

He is widely regarded as one of the most technically astute players in the game who combines superb dribbling ability with tremendous pace and agility to ghost through opposing defences. Messi is also one of the few players in the PES series who can perform the 'Rabona' skill due to his low weaker foot frequency which gives him an advantage over some other play-makers in the game. Despite being able to perform the rabona, this is pretty much the limit to his skills, as he is not known for his show-boating talents.

One final tip is to not overuse Messi. In the PES series he's never had the best of stamina, therefore to preserve his talents, it is best that he doesn't take part in the defensive side to a match.

[edit] Ability

Contrasting abilities from different PES games.

[edit] Pre-PES 2012

Key:

Attributes range from 1-99 – with 99 being the maximum
Color ranges:
- 1-74 = white
- 75-79 = green
- 80-89 = yellow
- 90-94 = orange
- 95-99 = red

PES	4	5	6	2008	2009	2010	2011
Attack	68	73	79	83	95	98	98
Defence	26	30	39	49	40	38	38
Body Balance	67	65	81	81	80	83	83
Stamina	70	71	80	80	75	78	73
Top Speed	80	82	85	84	89	84	82
Acceleration	77	78	90	91	92	92	92
Response	60	71	80	80	83	84	84
Agility	78	85	94	99	99	98	96
Dribble Accuracy	80	86	90	93	97	98	98
Dribble Speed	73	75	92	94	96	98	98
Short Pass Accuracy	80	79	78	75	84	84	84
Short Pass Speed	65	74	73	73	80	80	80
Long Pass Accuracy	75	75	76	72	74	82	82
Long Pass Speed	66	70	72	72	72	82	82
Shot Accuracy	67	78	77	78	83	92	96
Shot Power	75	76	75	79	78	78	78
Shot Technique	66	75	80	83	86	89	86
Free Kick Accuracy	53	71	71	68	72	75	79
Swerve	65	74	74	74	74	74	83
Heading	68	67	67	67	64	74	75
Jump	75	74	74	74	74	74	74
Technique	82	84	85	88	90	96	96
Aggression	69	80	88	88	90	95	95
Mentality (Tenacity)	65	65	71	71	71	73	75
Keeper Skills	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
Team Work	54	62	75	67	67	67	67
Condition (Form)	3	4	4	4	4	4	4
Weak Foot Accuracy	4	3	5	5	5	6	6
Weak Foot Frequency	4	3	3	3	3	4	4

From the table you can see that Messi has only reached his almost maximum potential after PES 2009, cementing his place as one of the best dribblers PES has ever seen. From an early stage (PES 5) you can see the raw talent that he has when dribbling. From then, he's improved ten-fold. He differs from other players such as Ronaldinho because he is a raw dribbler, whose main tactic is to break through the defence and shoot, much similar to Cristiano Ronaldo (although he's slightly worse at dribbling but has more all-round stats) and therefore he can potentially be more effective. He does lack shot power, utilising accuracy and finesse (similarly to Michael Owen) in order to score.

Due to his fragile stature, he will always have poor strength, aerial ability and stamina, which are his main weaknesses. Furthermore his Condition is fairly poor, which can see his form hit a light blue or purple arrow, which can have a major effect on his playing ability, and therefore your team.

[edit] PES 2012-onwards

Key:

Attributes range from 1-99 – with 99 being the maximum
Color ranges:
- 1-74 = white
- 75-79 = green
- 80-89 = yellow
- 90-94 = orange
- 95-99 = red

PES	2012	2013
Attack	98	99
Defence	38	38
Header Accuracy	76	74
Dribble Accuracy	98	98
Short Pass Accuracy	84	84
Short Pass Speed	80	82
Long Pass Accuracy	81	81
Long Pass Speed	81	81
Shot Accuracy	97	99
Place Kicking	83	85
Swerve	85	85
Ball Control	95	93
Weak Foot Accuracy	6	6
Weak Foot Usage	4	4
Goal keeping Skills	50	50
Responsiveness	84	84
Explosive Power	97	97
Dribble Speed	98	98
Top Speed	82	82
Body Balance	83	83
Stamina	76	76
Kicking Power	85	80
Jump	74	74
Injury	2	2
ATK Awareness	3	3
DEF Awareness	1	2
Form	4	6
Tenacity	76	76
Team Work	83	83

Due to the change in the way PES displays attributes, it is now harder to compare to previous games.

[edit] PES 2012

You can still see that Lionel Messi is one of the best players in the game, with heavily concentrated dribbling and speed stats. He has, however, made improvements from PES 2011, specifically on his Shot Power which is now 85 (previously 78) and he has also improved slightly on his Shot Accuracy. The rest has remained largely the same, with his only weakness being that he is incredibly poor in the air.

[edit] PES 2013

Messi has had slight improvements to his stats. For example his Attack and Shot Accuracy have both increased to 99. He has seen a small hit to his Header Accuracy and Ball Control, losing 2 points.

He is definitely still one of the best players in the game, equalling Cristiano Ronaldo. His overall ability is 98 while in the SS position.