Lionel Messi's best ever dribble? Barcelona icon tore apart Eibar in 2015 | OneFootball

Lionel Messi might well be the greatest dribbler that football has ever seen.

A finely tuned, perfectly balanced ballet dancer amongst the flying tackles and kicked-up mud, Messi is capable of squirming through the slightest of gaps and pirouetting through the harshest of challenges.

His ability to slalom his way through defender after defender after defender goes a long way towards constructing the certain je ne sais quoi that follows him everywhere and makes him such compulsive viewing for fans.

Sure, he could be better in the air and sure, he could be more two-footed, but who really cares when you see him turning seasoned professionals into training cones?

Not us, that’s for sure, because it’s hard to go a single day scrolling through Twitter without coming across a clip that so perfectly encapsulates the majesty of Messi’s dribbling.

Whether it’s his Diego Maradona-esque wonder goal against Getafe or his obstacle course-like run against Uruguay, there’s a whole feast of Messi throwbacks to drool over whenever you’re killing time on social media.

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At what age did Messi join Barcelona?

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What is Messi’s greatest ever dribble?

However, there’s one contender for Messi’s greatest ever dribble that just keeps rearing its head online no matter how many times you think that you’ve seen the last of it.

Like the sweet, sweet perfume of a former flame, there’s a beautiful familiarity and nostalgia that comes with footage of Messi tying Eibar into knots during his Barcelona prime in the mid-2010s.

We’ve all seen the jaw-dropping Messi dribbles that led to era-defining goals, but often it’s the solo slaloms that didn’t lead to the back of the net that shine brightest in the memory as hidden gems best shared amongst football hipsters and the great man’s most passionate fans of all.

And while all that might sound rather dramatic, try saying that we’re getting ahead of ourselves when you watch the Paris Saint-Germain star playing like a man possessed back in 2015.

Turning the Ipurua Municipal Stadium into his own back garden by hanging onto the ball for what felt like forever, Messi was simply playing football from a different planet and you’d be mad not to watch the footage back:

How did football fans react?

He’s just a different beast, isn’t he? Extraordinary.

Is Messi the greatest dribbler in history?

It’s hard to watch footage like that and wonder how anyone could possibly have been a better dribbler than Messi in his prime, but, believe it or not, there are other strong contenders in the debate for football’s finest ever solo artist.

Lest we forget, after all, that Maradona prided himself on his ability to leave defenders in his dust, famously scoring the ‘Goal of the Century’ against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals.

George Best was also Messi-like in his ability to hurdle tackles at Manchester United and the iconic stories of Garrincha, who set the 1962 World Cup alight, are enough to make you think that he’s the undisputed GOAT.

So, sure, the jury is very much out on Messi’s claims, but in many ways, it simply doesn’t matter because watching him in full flow is enough to make all the debate and politics feel insignificant.