Lionel Messi’s Vision: His Eyes Are NOT Normal

Lionel Messi’s vision is superb, one might even say other worldly. Just how do you really describe the vision Lionel Messi has on the soccer field? Messi is always scanning the field, looking the player making the most decisive run that will lead to a goal for Barcelona. And if the ball is on his left foot, which it usually is, he’ll pick out that player making the run with a killer pass.

What’s more, Messi sprays around passes that are high, low, bending, and or driven right to the foot of his teammate and so they don’t have to break stride. Yes, Messi’s passing is an art. Messi’s vision is incredible. Yes, Messi’s eyes are not normal. Pep Guardiola said Messi was always scanning the field for players who were open.

And that’s why Messi holds the record as La Liga as the top assist provider ever with 183. Barcelona legend Xavi is second with 128. When his career is done, that number will be well over 200 at least. Watch Lionel Messi’s vision on the soccer field and how he’s able to pick out the pass.

Leo Messi’s vision is unreal. More often Messi drops back to give the assist! A lob pass for me, is a vertical pass in the air straight towards the goal. I hope you enjoy this video. May have to click over to YouTube to watch.

Lionel Messi’s vision some say is out of this world – as in extraterrestrial. The man with kaleidoscope eyes. And what makes Messi so special as a player is his unselfishness. He doesn’t care if he’s the won who scores or someone else. Messi uses his vision on the ball to pick out the player who has the best chance to score. He just wants to win games.

Here’ more from UEFA on Lionel Messi’s vision on the soccer field.

In layman’s terms, the researchers believed the best players had a broader visual span that enables them to see more of the pitch and the position of their opponents and team-mates at any one time than less skillful players. To test this belief, they studied the behaviour of amateur footballers when they were shown various football situations. However, the results actually contradicted the theory.

“In general, we were not able to find a broader visual span in skilled players,” says Hagemann. “They do not extract information from a broader visual area. However, we found a longer fixed duration. Such skill-related differences in ‘gaze strategies’ are thought to be functional in terms of more efficient information pick-up.”

So while the best players may not have a greater field of vision than average players, they pick up more information from a single glance. This finding supports the ‘chunk theory’, based on the discovery that the best chess players could remember a board, not in terms of 32 pieces, but as five or six groups of pieces.