He now has eight Golden Balls to his name, a record-breaking haul of major honours and countless entries in the history books. With that in mind, Guardiola has told Italian TV show Che Tempo, Che Fa when asked to offer his take on Messi: “For me it’s easy to say he’s the best of all time, but the stars came together at the right moment. The GOAT? Maybe that’s a lack of respect to Pele and [Diego] Maradona, but for me, he is. I’ve never seen someone like him as a coach, you can’t imagine him maintaining this continuity for 15-20 years. When you see him up close, you think of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, we were lucky to work with him.”