NEIL SCOTT is sick of the scramble to quantify everything in football

Diego Maradona,Lionel Messi,Pele

Lionel Messie slaloms through yet another forest of flailing legs, the ball glued to his left foot as if held in place by some over-elaborate magnetic field. He bears down on yet another doomed shotstopper who, token gestures of defiance aside, is acutely aware that his short-term success potential rivals that of a lazy hedgehog attempting to cross the M62.
With a drop of the shoulder and a flick of the boot, the ball is nonchalantly dispatched to trace a graceful arc as it loops ov...