Explain... seriously!
http://thefalse9.com/2013/09/football-tactics-for-beginnersthe-false-9.html
Bull s***, number 9s the world over, i.e. main centre-forwards have often dropped deep. Cole wasn't a penalty box striker nor was Shearer or Sir Les.
Messi isn't a false number 9, he's a playmaker, an attacking forward. He's not a centre-forward or a striker or a midfielder or a winger.
Not really, it's been called that on the continent long before Messi arrived.... Cruyff was considered one at points his career as was Puskas for Hungary.
It's just that it wasn't termed that way in this country till Barcelona popularized it, but it's not some made up media term which only exists because someone popularized it.
Like Tiki-taka for example, which is a term made up in the media that doesn't actually exist.