AS Argentina’s Albiceste confronted Le Blues at the Lusail Stadium last Sunday, there were millions rooting for their win chiefly on account of the diminutive soccer god called Lionel Messi. And the sentiment was palpable: “He has done too much for football not to win a World Cup.” And that was true: from a FIFA U-20 gold winner to a Champions League great, Copa America winner, double World Cup Golden Ball winner and Balon D’Or god, the Argentine, widely regarded as the best to have ever played football, had shown the stuff he was made of long before Qatar 2022. He did not need Qatar 2022 to prove anything at all, yet he proved, though past his prime, why he is a real candidate for football’s Greatest of All Time (GOAT) gong. He received the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, becoming the first player to win it twice, emerged the runner-up in the golden boot race, set a record with 26 World Cup appearances, and became the most-capped male South American (CONMEBOL member) footballer of all time.
Messi holds the national record for appearances and is the Albiceste’s all-time leading goalscorer. The story, from his 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship gold in The Netherlands combined with the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe, to his Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, has been phenomenal. His World Cup-winning post, now the most-liked in the history of Instagram, was true to type. It read: “CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!!!!!!! So many times I dreamed it, so much I wanted it that I still didn’t fall, I can’t believe it……Thank you so much to my family, to all who support me and also to all who believed in us. We proved once again that when Argentinians fight together and are united we are able to achieve our aims. The merit belongs to this group, which is above individualities, it is the strength of all fighting for the same dream that was also one of all Argentinians. We did it!!! LET’S GO ARGENTINA DAMN!!!!! We’ll see each other very soon.”
Qatar was indeed beyond a dream, especially given Argentina’s shambolic display against Saudi Arabia in their opening game. Messi scored a penalty in Argentina’s opening game, but Saudi Arabia ran away with a 2-1 win. He scored in the 2-0 win over Mexico, also recording an assist on Enzo Fernández’s goal, and he it was who again scored the opening goal in Argentina’s 2–1 win in what was his 1,000th senior career appearance. Up against The Netherlands in the quarter-final, Messi provided an assist and also scored a penalty. He would later score in the penalty shootout. During the semi-final 3-0 win over Croatia, he scored a penalty and played a lead role in Argentina’s third goal scored by Julián Álvarez. During the final showdown with France, he scored two goals and also converted his penalty in the shoot-out. With seven goals in seven games, Messi became the first player to score in each round of a World Cup since the last-16 round was introduced in 1986, although replays showed his goal against Le Blues in the final should not have stood.
Messi is a superstar in every sense of the word. Analysts recognise that in spite of his lack of physical imposition, a rich upper-body strength combined with his low centre of gravity and resulting balance, aids him in withstanding physical challenges from opponents. He is predominantly a left-foot player, but no one has seriously called his right foot into question. His finishing, positioning, quick reactions, attacking runs, playmaking role, vision and passing abilities are the stuff of legend, and it can be no surprise that he boasts huge figures in goals. His free kicks—he ranks ninth all time in goals scored from direct free kicks with 60 goals—are clinical, and he is king of assists.
Combining with the mercurial midfielders Xavi and Iniesta at FC Barcelona, the Argentine had rocked the world in what is arguably the best side to have ever played football, and his deadly force with Luis Suarez and Neymar was simply unmatched. If Real Madrid, the world’s most successful club side, has not won everything it may have desired in the past two decades, it is due in large part to the golden boy from Argentina, who habitually came to the Santiago Bernabeu to inflict pain and shatter dreams as if by compulsion. There have been many dribblers in history—Pele, Maradona, George Best, Ronaldinho, Okocha— and Messi can be easily ranked along with them. Lionel Messi dribbles with so much fire, and so much vision, and the ball is already in the net before you realise how skillfully he just moved. His skills are simply insane, hardly surpassed in football, although some would swear that the Brazilian, Ronaldinho, is the game’s ultimate entertainer, and there are those who would put the French superstar Zinedine Zidane and the Brazilian Ronaldo in yet another special class. But purely on individual merit, Messi will always be a GOAT candidate. As a footballer, he is so good that no award seems to do enough justice to his genius. The boy is quite simply insane.
Lionel Messi is till date not the best player in the Champions League, the greatest club competition in the world—that honour must be reserved for his perennial rival Cristiano Ronaldo—but it is difficult to imagine where else he isn’t the best. And although the number of those who ignore his terrific work rate, chalking his astounding achievements up to pure genius, is huge, Lionel Messi is one of the most hard-working athletes in history. Facing defenders such as the Portuguese Pepe and the Spanish Sergio Ramos, for example, he took so much pain to his body yet recovering at an insane pace. Talent, however intense, cannot make any athlete the best in the world. Hard work, dedication, high mentality—those are qualities without which no athlete can be the best.
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Messi has seven Ballon d’Or awards, the most for any football player, as well as the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year and 2019 The Best FIFA Men’s Player. If Messi holds the record for most goals in La Liga (474), the Supercopa de España (14), the UEFA Super Cup (three) and is the player with the most official recorded assists in football history (350), it isn’t just because of his unmatched natural abilities. With almost 800 goals for club and country, and with history to win five European Golden Shoes, Lionel Messi’s place in the football pantheon is assured. And he has just added a World Cup to his museum of magic. As the Argentina legend Diego Maradona has said: “The ball stays glued to his foot; I’ve seen great players in my career, but I’ve never seen anyone with Messi’s ball control.”
There are however some critical observations that must be made. First, the Argentine has, throughout his career, had the fortune of playing with a more stellar cast than his illustrious rival, and that has played a huge part in his trophy haul. Messi is also apparently officialdom’s favourite—a FIFA president openly disparaged the Portuguese, branding him vain— and this has tended to confer undue advantage on him (Messi). The fact cannot be controverted that the last two Balon D’Or awards given to the Argentine should have gone to the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski. There have also been criticisms of Messi’s Player of the Tournament awards at the World Cup. Besides, Messi enjoys the adoration of the media, which strains at a gnat to paint his rival Ronaldo black at every opportunity. Messi’s tendency to cave in when his club is being trounced is also a drawback. All said and done, however, there is a valid case to be made for the PSG superstar as football’s ultimate magician and possibly the Greatest of All Time. But with the Brazilian soccer god, Pele’s haul of three World Cup wins, the debate will always be there.
