Pedro Rodriguez: Nobody Compares to Messi, 'One of a Kind'

Former Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez has delivered the ultimate verdict on his old teammate: nobody he ever shared a pitch with comes close to Lionel Messi — and the Argentine keeps proving it at 39.

The verdict: no contest

Asked by SPORT whether Messi was the best player he had ever shared a dressing room with, Pedro did not pause for even a moment. "Without a doubt," the former Spain international replied, before explaining what separates Messi from every other great footballer he has encountered.

"Because he's a one-of-a-kind footballer," Pedro said. "He's proven it with his statistics, but the fact is that in every match he plays, he continues to prove it to this day." The interview, given after Pedro announced his retirement, carried the weight of a player who spent his peak years alongside greatness at Barcelona.

A witness with rare credentials

Pedro's judgment comes from an unusually broad sample. He came through La Masia and shared a training pitch with Ronaldinho before lining up alongside Messi, Neymar, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol during Barcelona's golden era. After seven trophy-laden seasons in Catalonia, he moved to Chelsea in 2015, where he played with Eden Hazard, and later finished his career at Lazio.

"There's no question about it," Pedro said of the ranking. "I don't think I've ever played alongside players like him. I've played with some incredible players – Ronaldinho, Neymar, Hazard at Chelsea – all of a very high standard." Yet for Pedro, Messi sits in a category of his own.

What gives the opinion its weight is the timing. Pedro is not looking back through rose-tinted glasses at a finished career — he is watching Messi remain decisive in real time. From Guardiola's Barcelona to Miami's record chase, Pedro has seen the same player dominate three different footballing eras with the same tool kit: close control, vision and an instinct for the decisive moment.

What makes Messi different

Pedro's explanation went beyond goals and assists into the way Messi runs a football match. "He scores goals, he's got vision, he's a dribbler, he's a game-changer and makes the difference in every match," he said. "With a pass, a goal… You always feel his presence on the pitch and he's the one calling the shots at all times."

That sense of control — the feeling that Messi dictates the terms of a game regardless of the scoreline — is what Pedro returned to most often. It was the same authority Messi showed across 270 matches the pair played together at Barcelona, according to Barca Universal, a span that included two trebles and countless nights when the Argentine decided games alone.

Pedro's description of a player who decides matches "with a pass, a goal" also captures why defenders never solved him. Messi's threat was never one-dimensional — the assist was as dangerous as the finish — which meant the attention Messi drew created the space for teammates like Pedro to thrive. The 54 combined goals the pair produced together, reported by Sportskeeda, are the statistical footprint of that symbiosis.

Still one of the best at 39

What impressed Pedro most was not nostalgia but longevity. "He's reaching a World Cup at that age and is still one of the best," he said. "And because he's such a complete player, I don't think there's anyone quite like him."

The point lands with force. At 39, Messi reached the 2026 World Cup final and remains the heartbeat of Inter Miami's record-chasing attack. Players of his vintage are usually winding down in friendlier leagues; Messi is still deciding matches, still setting records, and — as his old teammate put it — still proving it every time he steps on a pitch.

The longevity is physical as much as technical. Pedro's point was that Messi's completeness — the combination of scoring, vision and dribbling — is precisely what has allowed him to adapt his game with age, spending more time between the lines and less on fruitless sprints. Where other greats faded when their pace went, Messi simply shifted his genius to the areas of the pitch he could still own.

The GOAT debate, settled by a teammate

Pedro has never been shy on the great question either. In earlier interviews he placed Messi above Diego Maradona, Pele, Johan Cruyff and Cristiano Ronaldo, saying there was no comparison for him. The new interview reinforces that stance from the opposite direction: not just statistics, but daily experience of what Messi does to games.

When the players who marked him in training and shared his dressing room keep reaching the same conclusion — Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Neymar and now Pedro all publicly calling him the best — the debate starts to sound less like a debate. As Pedro put it: one of a kind, then and now.

The Barcelona years in numbers

Pedro's testimony is anchored in one of club football's great trophy hauls. Across seven seasons at Barcelona, he lifted 21 trophies — five La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues among them, per prior Spanish media reports — and Messi was the constant through all of it.

The numbers behind the partnership tell their own story. In those 270 shared appearances, Messi and Pedro combined for 54 goals between them, a figure that captures a decade in which Barcelona's attack ran through the Argentine. Pedro watched from the closest possible vantage point as Messi turned the 2009, 2011 and 2015 Champions League finals into personal showcases.

Retirement tends to sharpen these verdicts rather than soften them. Asked to weigh one career against all the talent he encountered — from Ronaldinho's joy to Hazard's wizardry at Chelsea — Pedro's answer carried the finality of a man settling his own history: there was never a comparison.

For the fans who never saw the Barcelona years, the verdict of the men who did is the clearest guide: one of a kind, then and now, and still making the difference every single week.

Questions people ask

Find where to watch the Argentina vs Benin Live stream in your country.