The influential midfielder has praised his Blaugrana team-mate and feels he does not need international success to go down as the finest player in history
does messi need the world cup to be the best ever? nope. can he win the world cup? Possibly. Argentina has a solid team. Will winning the world cup shut all the haters up for good? pretty sure it will.
to be honest though THE BEST EVER title needs to be left out of football. there are many greats of the game in different eras and to choose one is simply based on opinions. even statistically, you cant really judge. pele has over 1000 goals, in an american league, if messi has 900 goals by the end of his career (for arguments sake) is does 900 beat 1000? statistically, no. then saying 1 league is better than the other throws in comparisons to EPL, german league, etc. the argument will just go on and on and on. People need to stop riding on players dicks and accept that in each generation, certain players were head and shoulders above the rest and thus slot into the "greats of the game" title.
Pele didn't just play in different league, he played in completely different era. Football is harder now than it was back in the 50s and 60s. Tactically and physically the game has gotten harder from those days so people got a fair point there.
People have always compared players and Pele/Maradona has become the duo of best players of all time so now when there is a player rivaling them people will compare..
Gotten harder tactically, physically i would have to strongly disagree, you cant tackle the same, and if you even lean into someone it's a free kick, the game has gone soft, the game was far far FAR!! more physical in Peles era, and i miss it that kind of football.
I was talking about stamina/endurance and that kind of stuff. Fitness levels are much higher. It's hard to compare but I think Pele would not dominate like he did back in the day if he would play now..
at allgamespc2012 What do you mean Pele never left south america? Are you kidding me? Pele played against several teams from all over the world, it even stopped a war (Nigerian Civil War agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire so they could watch Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos). He was way ahead of his time!
Messi isn't even the best Argentinian. Maradonna is better than him. The world cup is the highest price in all of football for a reason. If you can win and help your country in getting that achievement, surely the amount level of greatness is increased for you depending on the impact you had during the tournament and career.
Pele also scored the majority of his goals in the brazilian leauge. (It can be said that south american football around his time and Madonna's was at a higher level IMO of that of Europe now it's the opposite obviously).
Messi just needs to win 1 world cup to enter the tier of Maradonna and Pele, additionally, he could try and go play for another club/league and see if he can play just as well in a team that isn't built for him.
People need to be giving up b.s. excuses. Club achievement is one thing world cup a whole other beast.
Messi has been better than maradona & for some time a lready...And again..the defense was crap back in their d ay s..but who knows..it 's already hard to ;co mpare those two ; time periods. Winnin g the world cup doesn't put one player over ; the other..David Vil l a imo isn't b etter than CR7...
What a load of crap. So to be truly great you must win a World Cup? So where does that leave the average so and so's who have WC medals? Fernando Torres for example has won pretty much everything, is he a great? Hell no. Messi and Ronaldo are above Maradona's level already, WC or no WC.
Let's not start judging how the game was played unless you actually lived the era. We can only judge from what we've seen.
@asmith I said it depends on the level of contribution for both country and club level.
Torres is a garbage player no denying that and many people who are less than worthy will win the world cup. Were not talking about comparing supplementary players with the likes of world class players.
However, when comparing the likes of Maradonna and Pele with Messi and Cristiano you have to look at the achievements they have attained if they couldn't win the world cup for their country how can they be considered the best ever? Surely the best player to have ever played should have been able to give him country the ultimate glory no?!
So you're saying that it doesn't mean crap if a good player wins the world cup for example Iniesta who scored the winning goal in the final. But the great players MUST win it single handedly to be considered the best. Quite a contrast you got there..
There is only so much a player can do even if they were the best.
Just take both views into consideration, during Pele's time defences were undoubtedly weaker and fitness levels were poor and there were no nutritionists etc but at the same time defenders could hack you down, the pitches were horrendous as was the ball. Now you can say Messi Ronaldo have all the fitness and help they need but then so do the defenders of this era so it balances out. My opinion is that Ronaldo and Messi are better than previous generations simply because we are getting healthier and learning new methods to stay fit, in 10-15 years there will be players who surpass the records of these two. That shouldn't take away from Ronaldo and Messi, therefore what those two do now shouldn't take away from Pele, Maradona. Greats are great. But part of the fun of football is debating who is the best, we all have our favourites :) we just shouldn't hate on another player to prove our choice is right!
does messi need the world cup to be the best ever? nope.
can he win the world cup? Possibly. Argentina has a solid team.
Will winning the world cup shut all the haters up for good? pretty sure it will.
to be honest though THE BEST EVER title needs to be left out of football. there are many greats of the game in different eras and to choose one is simply based on opinions. even statistically, you cant really judge. pele has over 1000 goals, in an american league, if messi has 900 goals by the end of his career (for arguments sake) is does 900 beat 1000? statistically, no. then saying 1 league is better than the other throws in comparisons to EPL, german league, etc. the argument will just go on and on and on.
People need to stop riding on players dicks and accept that in each generation, certain players were head and shoulders above the rest and thus slot into the "greats of the game" title.
you neeed a team to win a WC, one player is not going to do it by himself.
Just take both views into consideration, during Pele's time defences were undoubtedly weaker and fitness levels were poor and there were no nutritionists etc but at the same time defenders could hack you down, the pitches were horrendous as was the ball. Now you can say Messi Ronaldo have all the fitness and help they need but then so do the defenders of this era so it balances out. My opinion is that Ronaldo and Messi are better than previous generations simply because we are getting healthier and learning new methods to stay fit, in 10-15 years there will be players who surpass the records of these two. That shouldn't take away from Ronaldo and Messi, therefore what those two do now shouldn't take away from Pele, Maradona. Greats are great. But part of the fun of football is debating who is the best, we all have our favourites :) we just shouldn't hate on another player to prove our choice is right!