His chest goal numbers are unremarkable. Overrated, tbqh.
His chest goal numbers are unremarkable. Overrated, tbqh.
To win a World cup final in overtime.
The Sun
Least credible source in England
Pique
Pep
Homers
English still butthurt over Diego
In all seriousness it's cool to be able to witness someone like Messi who's so dominant at his sport, whether or not he eventually goes down as the GOAT
Im gonna sound like a troll here, not my intention.
Messi is great, probably the best. But in order to be the best of all time he has to take Argentina all the way in a WC, there's the difference with Maradona. Diego took his NT by himself all the way. And thats why probably not all argentinians seem reluctant to take Messi as the best.
Uhoh
Hide your wives and children
DAF86 is coming
DAF can say anything, which mostly will be true but I think he has the same thought in the back of his head
Haha, deep down you know I make sense.
I have said many times I don't argue Messi/Maradona 'cause I have only seen Maradona play in his prime in films, which is not enough to get a conclusion about his play. Although my favorite football journalist, Juan Pablo Varsky (which by the way is a Boca fan) says that "Messi is the best Maradona all the time" meaning he is just as good as Maradona and more regular. But like I said, I can't/don't argue Messi/Maradona.
What I do argue is that the WC argument is bull . First, I don't think it's fair to consider team accomplishments to determine how good an individual is and much less a WC which is played every four years and you need a lot of things to succeed like a good coach, a good team and specially a whole lot of luck.
What if Messi was from Afghanistan? Should he win a WC for people to say that he's the GOAT?
The GOAT argument is pointless anyways, you can't compare Pele's era where the goal average was like 5/6 per game with today's era where it's 2 goals per game. What you can do is to see which players dominated each era and there the argument is a lot more clear: Distefano, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona and Messi.
Best players I ever saw
- Ronaldo: 2 rings
- Zidane: 1 ring (robbed vs Italy)
Messi needs atleast 1 le
It always amazes me how easily Argentinians jump at the chance to throw every other member of the 1986 world cup national team under the bus in order to put Maradona on an unreachable pedestal. Almost as if they had some part of their pride riding on Maradona being the undisputed best of all time...
IMO Messi is already better than Maradona ever was. The WC argument is bull designed to misdirect by people that for some reason or other seem to think they've got something riding on the end result.
Now, I'm not going to sit here and say Messi is the best of all time, but IMO he's better than Maradona at least.
tbh fwiw imo DAF86 does bring up some good points, especially the point about nationality.
Does the same argument exist if Messi hailed from Afghanistan?
Would he still need a ring, or do we give him a pass while citing the ty quality of his national teammates?
On that note, would he be better validated if he kept up this pace while playing for Bate Borisov or Gay-taff, et al?
But Maradona's case is different. Argentina in 86 was almost out of that WC, the team was not working, the coach was very questioned about his tactics, Maradona was the best player back then but didn't have much respect overall because of '82 Maradona, there was a certain disbelif. To me there was 3 or 4 keys for Argentina to win that WC.
1) Defense picked up and got stronger
2) Burruchaga and Valdano were deadly in the area
3) Maradona
Point 3 alone stands out, Maradona was the huge factor out there and got Argentina of many troubles in differents instances of the cup. If not for him Argentina would never have gotten that WC.
Messi situation today is very similar to Maradona's prior to 1986. Questioned great player that still needs to probe things to his national team. That's what many Argentineans think today. They're not logical, of course. Messi is the best that, alone, should do it. But the country is not very much logical when it comes to sports. And I can see that.
Would it do it for you if you have great amount of talent around the best man in the sport and still can make it out of Quarter Finals?
Nowitzki's case comes to mind prior to 2011: Great player, but if no championship, no history.
Don't get me wrong, not other than me wants to see Messi out there holding WC's trophy. But if he never does he's not making into the hall of fame of Soccer.
By this Im not saying by any means that I support this thoughts, Im just viewing what I think many argentineans may have conflict when seeing his national team.
It'd be different. Afhganistan is not obligated even to qualify to WC, Argentina must go all in every four years. Especially with the supporting cast it has.
I never comparad Pele, or any other era prior to Maradona's with Messi.
I personally think that Diego may struggle to find his way these days. Defenses are even more tight. Individually I may give the edge to Diego still, but Messi is only 24, so room for improvemnet is not lacking.
I only hope that Messi can take that weight out of his shoulders. Althogh I think he knows his country is demanding a WC. Brazil has 5 now. Argentina is running low with just two. And as leader he has that responsability.
I don't know if the football HoF exists but if it does, Messi is already a lock. Cruyff and Distefano are both in that list of great players that dominated their era and they didn't win a WC.
my bad, by HOF I meant a place as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Diego is up there with Sampras, Jordan, Federer, Woods, etc.
At least Cruyff led his team to the WC Finals
Twice
DAF to the rescue in 3,2,1...
My intention is not downgrade Messi achivements, at all. Im simply trying to portray or show how many Argentineans feel. I think Messi is a great player, in the discussion of the best of all time. But one thing that make him a lock it'd be winning WC's. Good thing is that he's just 24...
Messi could win 3 World Cups and Pele would still claim he is not the best ever because he hasn't matched Pele's ridiculous 47,569,123 goal count.
lol counting friendlies
lol counting pickup games
lol defense was nonexistent in his age
lol using one statistic to judge everything about a player's standing in the all time list and not considering anything else
Anyway, I don't think you can clearly say which of the 3 (Pele, Maradona, Messi) is the best when it's all said and done. They all played in very different environments. They're all obviously amazing, and likely marginally better than each other (however the true ranking is). Pele scored a ton of goals because games were high scoring in his time (less focus on defense), and he never played in Europe. There was more open space then with the quality of defending vs. now when most players are extremely athletic and as individuals and especially teams can cover the field very quickly. Let's be real, all sports are way more physically-intensive now compared to the 50s. Same goes for the NBA. You can play at a very high level of compe ion in basketball and not even be that great at the game. You just need to be super athletic. If I were to try to score on an NBA team of any era, without a doubt I would rather try to score on the best team from the 50s compared to the worst team in today's NBA. Pistol Pete is a legend, but I doubt he Both Diego and Messi played against top compe ion in Europe, people use Messi's consistency and dominance as arguments as they should, but again...he plays on what's likely the best team ever. Pistol Pete was a legend, but I doubt he could stay in front of the majority of current starting NBA point guards. I don't think any team in history would consistently beat this Barca team; they'd win the majority of the time. So while he was more consistent than Diego, Diego won championships with Napoli. To compare Messi with Maradona fairly, we should see Messi play on a lower quality team and see how he does. Of course that's very unlikely, Barca will be the only European team he plays for. He's either retiring there or in Argentina.
The point is, they all played in different environments; different teams and different eras of the sport. Could Maradona consistently dominate when surrounded by this Barca team? I think so. Could Pele? I think so. Could Maradona and Messi score tons of goals with Pele's teams against Pele's compe ion? Yes. Referring back to my point, I think the difference between these 3 is marginal.
Well
Let's start with 1 ....
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)