Former Basel manager Thorsten Fink has claimed that Liverpool midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri has the same god-given talent as Lionel Messi.
Fink, now Grasshopper boss, was in charge at Basel when Shaqiri, on a reported £90,000-per-week at Anfield [Source: Spotrac], was breaking through as a teenager, and he rates the 27-year-old extremely highly.
“[Cristiano] Ronaldo must work for this – work with this body, work with everything. For me, Messi has this talent. That’s also for Shaqiri,” he told ESPN.
“He has this talent to play. If he works very professionally, he can be the best player for Liverpool – not only a player. He can play for the biggest club in the world because of the talent he has.”
OPINION
It’s been clear for many years now that Shaqiri has immense natural talent, however he has never quite been able to put it all together on a consistent basis. We are starting to see him do that at Liverpool. However, it is completely ridiculous to put him anywhere near Messi or Ronaldo. It’s hard to gauge pure, god-given talent, but it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that Messi has a bit more of it than Shaqiri. That’s no knock on the Liverpool man, it’s just that the Argentine is the greatest player football has ever seen. Fink may have gotten carried away here, because his real message is simply that Shaqiri is wonderfully talented. He’s saying that there are some players who have to work to get to the level they’re at, like Ronaldo, and there are others like Messi and Shaqiri who are blessed with natural talent. That doesn’t mean Shaqiri is a better player than Ronaldo, though. However, we’re starting to see the 27-year-old work a bit harder and we’re seeing the rewards of that work ethic coupled with his immense ability.
