Phil Ball in Spain

The male of the human species seems to have a fondness for lists. It's not quite certain why this is, but few men would deny it. Women seem to find it baffling, and prefer to put their energies into other, more life-saving pastimes, but guys like lists. Boys like to collect and store things, but they're not hoarding. They just like statistics, and the act of shaping them into lists. Sports such as football, cricket and baseball are particularly suited to this type of mentality, and while it may be true that the current younger generation is less inclined to buy and collect the match-day programme, he - okay, sometimes she - will now have access to information that the previous generation could only fantasise about. But it doesn't stop the obsession with lists, and particularly hierarchies. You'll know where this is going - I must have read at least a dozen articles this week debating the question of whether Leo Messi is the greatest player of all time.