Perhaps rivalled only by your classic 'If a tree falls in the forest...' teaser in the philosophical conundrum stakes, it's a question many great minds have no doubt spent many great hours trying to get to the bottom of. But Stoke's inabilty to ever really trouble the Champions League spots, coupled with the man himself's reluctance to come over here and try his hand at some proper football, have meant that it has until now gone unanswered.
Lucky then that Bojan, the current darling of the Britannia who came up through the Barca academy with Messi, is in a better position than most to settle the argument.
And....
Yes, he could do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke, the bomb being dropped in a Sky Sports interview with Guillem Balague.
"Messi can do it. I understand that teams don't like to come to the Britannia Stadium, especially in winter with the wind, the cold, and we're a strong team. It's not easy. But I try to enjoy it and I try to improve my football in that situation".
Turns out that Balague had also been trying to get to the bottom of it too, revealing; "I asked Messi about that."
"He said, 'Those people that say that should realise I played in awful conditions in Rosario when I was 11 years old, with glass on the pitch, with holes and everything.' And he also played good."
So there we go. Case closed.