"The Barcelona of today is the strongest team in the history of football," said Shakhtar Donetsk manager Mircea Lucescu, and that was before the Catalans trounced his team, 5-1, in a Champions League match.
"For me, it's the best team that I've seen," said New York Red Bulls forward Thierry Henry, who starred for Barcelona and Arsenal.
"They come very close," said Germany great Franz Beckenbauer. "In this generation, Barcelona is the best team, [but it's] difficult to compare with former great teams like AC Milan at the end of the 1980s. "In the 1960s and 1970s, you had [the Brazilian club] Santos, with Pele and Carlos Alberto. Different times, different styles of play."
For former France and AC Milan defender Marcel Desailly, the Johan Cruyff-managed Barcelona of the 1980s "was a great one, with Romario, [Hristo] Stoichkov, [Ronald] Koeman. The speed of their game was not like it is now, but it had other qualities. The AC Milan team of that period, when I was playing for them and a little bit earlier, is another."
Even if you don't want to pick out one team, certain minimum requirements have to be fulfilled for a side to figure into a conversation about the best of the best - including a cabinet filled with trophies.
That disqualifies Arsenal's "Invincibles" of 2004, for example, who were unbeaten in league play but actually failed to win the FA Cup that season (the Gunners have also never won a Champions League title).
But Barcelona could pass the trophy test. It has accumulated eight since manager Pep Guardiola took over in June 2008, including a unique Spanish treble of Champions League, Spanish League, and Copa del Rey in his first season.
"Teams that win are always the best. More than just playing beautifully you have to win, and Barcelona does that," said Carlos Bilardo, manager of Argentina's 1986 World Cup winner. "I don't think Barcelona has reached its best. It always can get better."
Yet, flair is important.
So, France's team that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships probably wouldn't rate. Neither would the Inter Milan squad that won the treble of the Italian championship, the Supercoppa Italiana, and the Champions League last season with manager Jose Mourinho's style-squashing defensive tactics.
But Barcelona does tick the "style" box with its flowing and intricate passing game.
"They achieve their results with their fast play, the precise passing and because they have both excellent setup players and goal-scorers. In this, they stand above everyone else," said Jeno Buzanszky, a member of Hungary's "Magical Magyars" team that won Olympic gold in 1952.
