Before the 2022 World Cup final, Pete Sharland examined the GOAT controversy and explains why Messi has resolved the GOAT Controversy in his favor, regardless of whether Argentina wins or loses.
Whether the argument is valid or invalid (you know that’s never going to happen), Messi still has time to further his legacy at age 35. On the biggest stage in the world, his performances in Qatar have been a stunning farewell.
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Messi has resolved the GOAT Controversy
Given that the forward for Paris Saint-Germain has already stated that the championship game will be his final World Cup contest, it will be Messi’s second World Cup final and his final opportunity to follow in Diego Maradona’s footsteps.
The internet will be saturated with one side of the tiresome GOAT discussion chirping and crowing, and the other desperately protecting their warrior, whether he wins or loses.
Four players have been at the center of the discussion about the greatest (men’s) player to ever play: Pele, Maradona, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Pele scored and won World Cups.
Maradona won one World Cup and shown amazing talent. Ronaldo and Messi both score at levels we have never seen before. Purists will be disappointed that neither Ferenc Puskas nor Alfredo Di Stefano were included in the current generation, but regrettably, this is how the discussion has developed.
For each of these four athletes who have been regarded deserving by the public opinion, there is one main justification. But there are a number of variables that can affect which side of the argument you support. Your personality and aesthetic preferences when it comes to football play a part in this. Some factors include your age and the football era you fell in love with, while others may depend on the team and/or nation you support.
What are the main points stated, then? For Pele, the case can be made that he has won three World Cups and was a member of the second squad to win back-to-back championships. It’s his great legacy in the game and his over 1000 professional goals, regardless of how questionable that number may be.
Maradona claims that his unmatched brilliance put him so far ahead of his contemporaries that it wasn’t even fair. The maverick legacy of Maradona draws a particular kind of person more than the others (that is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination). The case for Ronaldo has two sides.
One was that he was unbeatable in three of the top five leagues in Europe, most notably the Premier League, the so-called “best league in the world.” Two, despite the fact that his talent may not have warranted it, his work ethic carried him to the pinnacle of a game. The counterargument for Messi is that no player has ever had as much natural talent at his disposal.
The World Cup Winners
Not just the quantity of goals, but also the assists and the inventiveness that Ronaldo and Pele lacked.
The GOAT debate is ultimately a matter of opinion, and that is the real truth about it. That’s actually how easy it is. You might believe that Johan Cruyff, George Best, Eusebio, Ronaldo Nazario, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, or Zinedine Best were the greatest players ever. You might even believe that it is Freddy Adu or Ravel Morrison. It is irrelevant. At all.
The GOAT debate is ultimately a matter of opinion, and that is the real truth about it. That’s actually how easy it is. You might believe that Johan Cruyff, George Best, Eusebio, Ronaldo Nazario, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, or Zinedine Best were the greatest players ever. You might even believe that it is Freddy Adu or Ravel Morrison. It is irrelevant. At all.
But if you want to approach it objectively, Messi is difficult to ignore. True, Ronaldo has scored more goals. Pele, indeed, has won more World Cups. But what Messi has accomplished in terms of notching assists in addition to goals, leading some quite underwhelming Argentina sides to two World Cup finals, and winning the Copa America is incredibly extraordinary.
But consistency is more important than anything else.
But consistency is more important than anything else.
When age isn’t taken into account, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry has been how frequently we put the two players next to one another. Because he is two and a half years younger than Ronaldo, Messi has less games remaining in his career. However, we never take into account the fact that Ronaldo has played a lot more matches than Messi when comparing Champions League goals or other stats.
Messi’s critics will claim that because he plays for a Barcelona squad that was made for him and in a league that wouldn’t have “tested him” like the Premier League, he has been comparatively protected. If you saw La Liga and the Premier League side by side, you would probably conclude that the former is better defensively, not the latter. Messi’s record versus English clubs definitely speaks for itself there. It’s debatable whether this is due to superior defense or simply increased caution brought on by La Liga’s head-to-head rule. Nevertheless, that defense doesn’t really hold up.
Plus, Ronaldo has spent a significant amount of time throughout his career as the team’s main goal threat, sometimes to the detriment of the team as that becomes his sole focus, whether it was through switching to a central striker right away or as a result of players like Karim Benzema playing subordinate roles.
Do you recall the most recent occasion when he had double-digit assists? The Real Madrid season of 2014–15. Messi’s sake? For PSG, he has 10 goals so far this year. Messi has only had five seasons in his career, excluding his first year in 2004–2005, where he did not record double digit assists. If we exclude Ronaldo’s lone season at Sporting (although in reality, he played enough games for it to count), we see that he had 16 seasons prior to this terrible one where he failed to reach double-digit assists.
What about objectives?
In terms of who outscored who each season, if we start with Messi’s rookie campaign in 2005–06 (and frankly, that’s a bit harsh because he only played 17 games), it is 9–9. And for the record, Ronaldo participated in 33 Premier League games throughout that 2005–06 season (24 starts compared to 11 for Messi). You might predict that Messi would outperform Ronaldo in the career’s final seasons based on what we’ve observed over the last several months. if not all of them.
And look, we have no idea what will happen to Messi’s career moving forward. Theoretically, he will remain at PSG until the summer, at which point he will either return to Barcelona for another year or join Inter Miami in the United States. Or even stay in Paris for another year. He might then return home and enjoy a storybook ending with Newell’s. As of this writing, it’s quite difficult to imagine a club letting him go because he got too much to handle. He isn’t yet exhibiting many indications of slowing down, though. He might even live to see Ronaldo’s final years of good health.
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And what about Pele and Maradona? For the former, you can undoubtedly argue that his peak was at least as good as Messi’s peak. However, Maradona could not maintain the same level for an extended length of time; the consistency is not even close. The claim that Pele scored goals at the club level immediately evaporates when you realize that, aside from his brief time in New York, he never played outside of Brazil. Additionally, you must eventually discuss the current level of the game in light of technical and physical advancements.
And that would appear to be a decent place to end. This does not imply that Messi will never be surpassed as the best player of all time. There may be a young child kicking a ball someplace who will go on to have a career unlike anything we have ever witnessed. However, they will have to begin at an absurdly early age and persevere for an extremely long time.
Messi scored 14 league goals during his “age 19 season,” and since that time, he has only failed to reach that mark once in his career—during his first season in Paris. The chances of many people—if any—being convinced by the arguments presented here are extremely slim. In his career, Messi has played football of an astounding caliber, but many others throughout the history of the sport have done so.
No matter what happens on Sunday, based on his work so far, this author places him at the top of the podium. If so, will it apply to you? You get to decide that.
