I agree with everything you said, and think it's great you're still playing. Messi, to me, is absolutely the best player in the world now, if not of all time. It's not just his technical skills. He's also an incredibly smart footballer, with great field vision. I feel very lucky to see him play.
Agreed! And also you get a sense of who he is internally if you watch enough (after any game, Youtube will have highlights, but they'll also have 8 - 12 minutes of cuts only of Messi) ... the facial expressions after he does something good or bad or indifferent, how he interacts with his teammates. No PrimaDonna, no dramatics. He doesn't score for 4 games? No problem, he's assisting. Watch Ronaldo during a rough patch ... pouting, slow to congratulate his team mates on goals. That's fine - it's just that even if Messi
weren't the better player, I'd admire him more.
And then it just adds to the Rebels vs the Empire that it's Catalonia vs Madrid. We are very lucky to have both of them including Ronaldo, if only to make it good vs evil, even if it's not really good vs evil.