The heroics of Lionel Messi haven't been misplaced on the Argentinian's super-fan Gary Lineker, however the former England striker's relentless onslaught of superlatives was a bit a lot for Micah Richards. The pair indulged in a dialogue concerning the World Cup-winning captain's newest exploits alongside their Match of the Day colleague Alan Shearer throughout the newest version of the trio's podcast 'The Rest is Football'.

Messi agreed to affix David Beckham's Major League Soccer membership Inter Miami final month and made his first look for the struggling outfit on July 21. His affect since has been nothing wanting phenomenal.

After scoring an injury-time free-kick winner on his debut - Miami's first win in 11 matches - the previous Barcelona nice has taken his new membership on a successful streak, scoring 10 objectives in simply eight appearances.

That run included the seize of a first-ever trophy for Beckham's membership, following a Leagues Cup Final penalty shoot-out triumph towards Nashville SC, a recreation during which Messi opened the scoring earlier than discovering the online throughout the spot-kicks.

And on Wednesday night, Miami overcame table-topping Cincinnati on penalties after a 3-3 draw, to achieve the ultimate of the US Open Cup.

The reversal of fortunes in little over a month isn't any accident, with Messi-mania now sweeping the United States. And Lineker, who performed for Barcelona himself from 1986-1989, was solely too completely satisfied to lavish the seven instances Ballon d'Or winner with extra reward.

Taking the lead on the podcast dialogue, Lineker mentioned: "I quite like talking about Messi and I make no secret about that. He's given almost two decades of incredible joy, watching him play the beautiful game most beautifully of all.

"He's gone to America and sure we all know it is just a little bit like the choice place to go for outdated footballers in the mean time, reasonably than Saudi Arabia. But his performances, I do know it is towards gamers that aren't at that very same stage as he would have performed towards beforehand, but it surely's removed from a Mickey Mouse league.

"He's already won a trophy, gone past Dani Alves as the most decorated footballer in history. Another two assists he got on Wednesday night, one a ridiculous pass in the final minute to go into extra-time. We've seen him bend in amazing free-kicks, scoring goals from outside the box, he really is an extraordinary footballer isn't he?"

All-time Premier League prime goalscorer Shearer agreed however was at pains to level out how reliant Miami had been on their new star participant.

"There's no way Inter Miami were doing any of that without him [Messi]. He's elevated them to a different level. Wherever they go now, the following his huge, because of Lionel Messi."

Lineker continued along with his reward for Messi, declaring that the rationale he's the perfect of all time is as a result of he does '4 or 5' issues in each soccer match that different gamers cannot do.

Sensing that former Manchester City defender Richards wished to finish the Messi love-in, Shearer interjected by saying: "Micah, at his age, just let him carry on. At his age, you've just got to let him get his kick and his pleasure from somewhere. It doesn't happen very often so let's keep on listening to Gary!"

"Not much else arouses me these days Alan," responded Lineker. "Do you not get pleasure out of watching the little man play Micah?"

Richards mentioned: "He's an extraordinary talent. I've always said he was the best but when he won the World Cup it cemented it."

Richards wasn't ready to offer Messi a whole free move nevertheless and added: "The only thing in his game that he maybe could improve was his heading, but he doesn't need to."

An amused Lineker replied by saying: "I think that's brilliant, that thing about his heading. There's not another country in the world that would say that other than Britain!"