Football
Comment: Messi vs. Maradona: Has he matched or even surpassed the divine Diego with the World Cup title? And what about the eternal comparisons with Ronaldo?
There are few places in the world where football is perceived as important, perhaps even fanatically, as in Argentina. In the country of the current world champions, huge celebrations broke out after the final penalty was converted and everyone took to the streets. Is it time to start worshipping Messi in the same way as the divine Maradona, or has he risen above it? And what about the comparison with Ronaldo?
There are few places in the world where football is perceived as important, perhaps even fanatically, as in Argentina. In the country of the current world champions, huge celebrations broke out after the final penalty was converted and everyone took to the streets. Is it time to start worshipping Messi in the same way as the divine Maradona, or has he risen above it? And what about the comparison with Ronaldo?
For much of the footballing public, the argument over whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronadlo, his eternal rival, is better is over. The World Cup title was the main thing that both of the last two championships were striving for.
Both, of course, had success in national jerseys before that. Ronaldo is the 2016 European champion and also a UEFA Nations League winner.
Messi managed to win another dream title at the Copa América in 2021, which is sort of the equivalent of the European Championship for the Americas. That’s why they both wanted to dominate this World Cup so much. Seeing as that will be the deciding factor. A title that the other guy almost certainly won’t get.
But the contributions of the two couldn’t be more different. While Ronaldo only scored once from a penalty and actually dropped out of the starting lineup, Messi was incredibly productive throughout the tournament and, as a true leader, carried his team all the way to the Cup itself.
If we look at career stats purely from the World Cup, we can see an interesting comparison. Messi played a total of 26 games at the World Cup, scoring 13 times and adding 8 assists. Five goals were decisive.
Ronaldo played four matches less, 22, and scored 8 goals + 2 assists. None of the extra goals were winning or decisive.
Here are some interesting facts. Maybe you’ve read them somewhere, but maybe you haven’t. The proof of Messi’s productivity and also stability is as follows. The Argentine captain has asserted himself in every part of the tournament.
Thus, he scored in the group stage, in the eighth round, in the quarter-finals, in the semi-finals and also in the final! It didn’t always stay at one goal and as is his custom, he also set up goals for his teammates. For the entire championship, Messi added three assists to his seven goals.
Messi narrowly missed out on the top spot in productivity. The star Kylian Mbappé scored one more goal and thanks to his hat-trick in the final, the title of king of scorers belongs to him. However, even that did not stop the organisers from awarding Messi the Golden Ball trophy for the tournament’s MVP.
And since he was already awarded this prize in 2014, he became the only player in history to win this award twice. By making it all the way to the final with Argentina, Messi also broke the record for most games played at the World Cup. He got to number 26 and took over the top spot from Lothar Matthaus.
The fact that the whole world wished Messi well is evidenced by the fact that the photo of him with the trophy he posted on his Instagram profile soon became the most liked photo on Instagram. Currently, Messi’s photo with the trophy has more than 72 million likes.
It’s also a testament to how much this achievement means to the nation itself that the Argentine government is considering immortalizing this great victory by producing new banknotes with these very designs. Messi may thus become the face of the Argentine peso.
Now that we have recalled some facts and interesting facts, it is time to move on to answering the questions in the headline. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me personally that most of the football community has given the title of “goat” (greatest of all time) to Messi after the World Cup.
Well, most of the neutral or undecided part at least. The die-hard Ronaldo fans will probably never admit this, and on the contrary, the Argentine’s fans were already clear about it before the World Cup.
As for me personally, I’ve always belonged somewhere in the golden mean. I’m not a Barcelona or Real Madrid fan, to be clear. After all, I’ve always been a wee bit more sympathetic to Messi and that World Cup title he won tipped the scales even more in his favour, so for me it’s Leo.
I like the alibi idea of not forcing this choice though. The idea of being grateful that we could see these guys running around the field at the same time, wrestling them against each other and pulling all sorts of titles. They are both absolutely phenomenal and exceptional footballers.
And Messi vs. Maradona? Has the position of Argentina’s best footballer changed? That’s more purely an Argentine choice after all, where I still think it’s not at all clear.
Leo has far more league titles, or Champions League ones, not to mention other cups. However, they are evenly matched at the World Cup, with both silver and gold.
In my eyes, Messi has done more. And quite substantially. Also, he is personally closer to me in character, demeanor and demeanor. Maybe that’s what takes points away from Messi in the eyes of Argentinians. After all, he has never been, is not, and will never be the media animal that the newspapers and tabloids are full of.
He is not surrounded by scandals, affairs and so on. Perhaps that is something that the lively nation that Argentina undoubtedly is simply lacks. It is a very difficult question. Messi himself, when asked if he has at least matched Maradona, replied that he wouldn’t come close if he played for a million years.
Javier Zanetti also answered that question in the negative for Goal.com. Among other things, he said that he doesn’t like these comparisons, but that in his eyes Messi has not replaced Maradona at the imaginary top among Argentine legends.
That he is, however, happy that the two best footballers in the world are both from Argentina. It is, of course, a very subjective view, but there is no other way. All these issues are subject to everyone’s tastes, sympathies and perceptions. Unless we are just comparing specific indicators with clearly given numbers.
So, to conclude once again. To avoid a clear answer, I say YES. For me, Messi is the best footballer of all time. He is truly a god-given talent and with that pure “footballingness” he is probably second to none.
Especially the comparison with Maradona is really hard, each played in a completely different era and the football looked completely different too. But Messi has done much more for me. Congratulations not only to Argentina, but to every street around the world where he was celebrated, or maybe even still is!
What about you? What’s your opinion and perspective on these never-ending battles? Who is your favourite?
Source:: Whoscored, Wikipedia, Twitter
