LeBron vs. Messi

[deja vu]

Who's the better athlete?

Who's more popular?

[SpanishACB]

Who's more popular?

Messi, it's not even a contest

[Unbiased_one]

Who's the better athlete?

Who's more popular?

Globally, messi is the better athlete (in his sport) and more popular athlete (although Ronaldo is the most popular football player globally).

In America, Lebron is more popular. Lebron is obviously better as an all round athlete...messi probably wouldn't be good at many other sports.

[K Xerxes]

Messi has a better chance of going down as the GOAT in his sport than LeBron does, given his supreme club football dominance.

Globally, Messi is obviously more popular.

Not sure what you mean by athlete - Lebron is quite the superior physical specimen, but Messi is shattering more records and racking up more achievements. All he has left to accomplish is the international level.

[branslowski]

Messi....Only NBA player with nearly the global popularity is Kobe Bryant and Yao.

[Mr Know It All]

Better raw athlete is obviously Lebron and it's not even really a contest.

As for being more popular, Messi is the best and most popular in far and away the most popular sport in the world. Again, not a contest.

[Trollsmasher]

For the HGH users?

Messi

Also Messi is not the most popular football player or has any chance of becoming the GOAT as some claim here.

[CeltsGarlic]

I dont like the way cristiano went. Looks like jersey shore dbag.

[K Xerxes]

For the HGH users?

Messi

Also Messi is not the most popular football player or has any chance of becoming the GOAT as some claim here.

Ronaldo is arguably more popular, but Messi hasn't got a chance of becoming GOAT?

He's arguably achieved more on the club stage than any player in history has in their entire career, and the dude just turned 26. The only thing he has left to prove is on the international stage, but many people have already made his case for GOAT.

6 La Liga, 3 Champions League, 4 consecutive Ballon d'Or... and much more... Come on dude.

[Unbiased_one]

For the HGH users?

Messi

Also Messi is not the most popular football player or has any chance of becoming the GOAT as some claim here.

Messi is not the most popular player in the world. That I agree with. But the first google result for a goat poll in football gives this:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...aller-all-time

57% think he's the goat. More than just 'some here'. Give me one poll saying lebron has even 5% of the vote. That was in march 2012. At 25, he got over half the vote. Part of that is recency bias, but are you being serious?

[SpanishACB]

Messi is more popular than C. Ronaldo.
It's not even close when you account for south america, middle east and asia.

Just because Ronaldo is on a tour in the states and he gets some crowd doesn't really change that fact.

It's just you guys are being sold an idea and you're not checking any sources, just take it willingly like you take most media.

[Unbiased_one]

Messi is more popular than C. Ronaldo.
It's not even close when you account for south america, middle east and asia.

Just because Ronaldo is on a tour in the states and he gets some crowd doesn't really change that fact.

It's just you guys are being sold an idea and you're not checking any sources, just take it willingly like you take most media.

I think you'd be surprised. Ronaldo played for Madrid and united the two biggest clubs in the world.

[deja vu]

C'mon guys let's stay on topic. Let's not bring in other football players here.

[Trollsmasher]

Messi is more popular than C. Ronaldo.
It's not even close when you account for south america, middle east and asia.

Just because Ronaldo is on a tour in the states and he gets some crowd doesn't really change that fact.

It's just you guys are being sold an idea and you're not checking any sources, just take it willingly like you take most media.

Ronaldo is popular in those places too. He played for the two most popular clubs in the world after all.

Messi is hated even in Argentina, why the hell would he be popular in the countries of their rivals? Neymar is more popular in SA.

You are just making up stuff without any sources.

[Unbiased_one]

C'mon guys let's stay on topic. Let's not bring in other football players here.

All you need to know is this: messi is considered by a large portion of the population to be the GOAT in the biggest sport in the world. Lebron is considered by most to be somewhere in 8-11 range in a very popular, but not close to football, sport.