Cybereagles

End of discussion.

1, Messi
2, Pele
3, Maradona
4, Ronaldo (Brazil)
5,Ronaldinho

1st 3 not the others.

Messi now may well be it.

Played in a much more competitive era, dominant across his entire long career,

Best WC final I’ve ever seen.

I was rooting for France, really nothing between 2 fine sides…except Messi, confirmed by him being such a winner.

Siiiiiuuuuu

By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:22 pm By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

You’re too smart to narrow it to this. Messi scored twice in what might be the greatest final ever at age 35. On top of the most illustrious club accomplishments, where he played a monster role.

France is the professional side: deep, organized, tactical, fit, with lots of verg good players. Including an extremely lethal Mbappe. Messi willed his Argentina in this one…as he often did for Barcelona, with much better players of course.

I’ve never seen football like Barcelona at its height. Again, generational players. But Messi stood out even among them.

He’s a legitimate GOAT with Pele and Maradona.

Pele won 3 WCs.

Please stop this nonsense.

mate wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:29 pm

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:22 pm By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

You’re too smart to narrow it to this. Messi scored twice in what might be the greatest final ever at age 35. On top of the most illustrious club accomplishments, where he played a monster role.

France is the professional side: deep, organized, tactical, fit, with lots of verg good players. Including an extremely lethal Mbappe. Messi willed his Argentina in this one…as he often did for Barcelona, with much better players of course.

I’ve never seen football like Barcelona at its height. Again, generational players. But Messi stood out even among them.

He’s a legitimate GOAT with Pele and Maradona.

The so-called GOAT that needed 2 finals to win a WC final.

The prodigy that could not drag his country by his sheer will and talent and needed to be in his football wheelchair to finally beg, borrow and steal country glory.

He is in the GOAT conversation BUT he is NOT the GOAT. GOATs do GOAT things from their early years and don't need multiple tries to close the deal.

Pele >> Maradona >> Messi

Difficult to compare players across entirely different eras. The question needn’t be is Messi better than Pele, rather, what intracranial pathology had millions mentioning Cristiano in the same sentence? Not even close. Never has been.

theDunamis wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:39 pm

mate wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:29 pm

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:22 pm By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

You’re too smart to narrow it to this. Messi scored twice in what might be the greatest final ever at age 35. On top of the most illustrious club accomplishments, where he played a monster role.

France is the professional side: deep, organized, tactical, fit, with lots of verg good players. Including an extremely lethal Mbappe. Messi willed his Argentina in this one…as he often did for Barcelona, with much better players of course.

I’ve never seen football like Barcelona at its height. Again, generational players. But Messi stood out even among them.

He’s a legitimate GOAT with Pele and Maradona.

The so-called GOAT that needed 2 finals to win a WC final.

The prodigy that could not drag his country by his sheer will and talent and needed to be in his football wheelchair to finally beg, borrow and steal country glory.

He is in the GOAT conversation BUT he is NOT the GOAT. GOATs do GOAT things from their early years and don't need multiple tries to close the deal.

Pele >> Maradona >> Messi

Going by your criteria, how is Maradona ahead of Messi?

Maradona won 1 in 2 and couldn’t even get to the final of their continental competition. Club football wasn’t trophy laden either. So pray tell.

theDunamis wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:39 pm

mate wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:29 pm

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:22 pm By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

You’re too smart to narrow it to this. Messi scored twice in what might be the greatest final ever at age 35. On top of the most illustrious club accomplishments, where he played a monster role.

France is the professional side: deep, organized, tactical, fit, with lots of verg good players. Including an extremely lethal Mbappe. Messi willed his Argentina in this one…as he often did for Barcelona, with much better players of course.

I’ve never seen football like Barcelona at its height. Again, generational players. But Messi stood out even among them.

He’s a legitimate GOAT with Pele and Maradona.

The so-called GOAT that needed 2 finals to win a WC final.

The prodigy that could not drag his country by his sheer will and talent and needed to be in his football wheelchair to finally beg, borrow and steal country glory.

He is in the GOAT conversation BUT he is NOT the GOAT. GOATs do GOAT things from their early years and don't need multiple tries to close the deal.

Pele >> Maradona >> Messi

In the day of Pele, players ran 3km-5km per game. Today they hit up to 16km with OT.

Today every player can play the whole field. Pele played against slow, committed defenders in static schemes, albeit they were brutal...but Pele on athleticism was head and shoulders above some pretty weak athletes in many games.

We can romanticize the past, but a deeper and objective look is required. Don't get me wrong, I probably still tip Pele. But this is something needing continued thinking, as Messi just won the WC.

3 WCs? Please. What team can do that anymore? You just saw France do 2 in a row, with a more balanced and complete team with a lethal scorer in Mbappe...yet they couldn't do it, losing to a GOAT.

It's a fun debate. I'm putting my biases aside. Believe me, I wanted France to win...as I considered Argentina dirty and cheating in so many moments in football, including this WC against Holland.

But Messi is a legitimate candidate among the big 3 for GOAT. I will say this: head to head if you magically teleported all 3 of them together...Pele and Maradona would be asking Messi how to train to be so fit, fast, and consistent with top skills for 90 minutes each game.

Come on. The game has changed. Markedly. Factor that.

Lol congratulations to Messi. He was immense in this WC

Goat way like to dey chop ojoro penalties.

Yeye he-goat

Lol he is not my goat, but he has my respect I won't lie. He played very well throughout

As much as I didn’t want Argentina to win , I can’t help but be happy for Messi
He has worked very hard for this one and indeed hard work pays off so kudos to him and the Argentine team

He has written his name in the book of legends

theDunamis wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:39 pm

mate wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:29 pm

Scipio Africanus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 7:22 pm By winning one WC on PKs against a fourth string France side? Abeg comot for road.

You’re too smart to narrow it to this. Messi scored twice in what might be the greatest final ever at age 35. On top of the most illustrious club accomplishments, where he played a monster role.

France is the professional side: deep, organized, tactical, fit, with lots of verg good players. Including an extremely lethal Mbappe. Messi willed his Argentina in this one…as he often did for Barcelona, with much better players of course.

I’ve never seen football like Barcelona at its height. Again, generational players. But Messi stood out even among them.

He’s a legitimate GOAT with Pele and Maradona.

The so-called GOAT that needed 2 finals to win a WC final.

The prodigy that could not drag his country by his sheer will and talent and needed to be in his football wheelchair to finally beg, borrow and steal country glory.

He is in the GOAT conversation BUT he is NOT the GOAT. GOATs do GOAT things from their early years and don't need multiple tries to close the deal.

Pele >> Maradona >> Messi

You think we don’t remember Higuain’s missed tap-ins to deny Messi?
Do you know how Argentina qualified for Russia 2018?

All you Messi haters should quit while you can.
Messi won the COPA America and followed it up with the big one.

AreaDaddy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 8:00 pm Goat way like to dey chop ojoro penalties.

Yeye he-goat

akamoke wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 8:05 pm As much as I didn’t want Argentina to win , I can’t help but be happy for Messi
He has worked very hard for this one and indeed hard work pays off so kudos to him and the Argentine team

He has written his name in the book of legends

He has.

People underestimate how unbalanced Argentina was most of his career. They basically put out attackers with a nominal midfield and defense. This WC they finally got a balanced team and used him appropriately.

This is the 1st time I've seen the Argentina of the 70s and 80s in terms of skill, guile, swagger, and ruthlessness...until they got tired and let a formidable France back into it for a game of the ages. We can go on for a while on how good France is as well, a damn fine team!

It took every ounce of Messi to be a difference in this game. I go back to how the competition is just that much better today. With tighter margins.

Some folks won't acknowledge this. But any serious football follow who played the game knows the difference between yesterday and today. Look, I'm not a name dropper, but I've gotten to play with and know top footballers in my 5 decades of life.

I've asked them often enough about this: and they pretty much all say the standard is way beyond what they knew. Especially the running and 90 minute discipline. Even in the 80s some player smoked, drank, and could get away with not being fully fit.

They said even with modern sports science, some players of the past didn't have the core athletic potential to be competitive to today's guys who have a higher minimum of speed, stamina, power, and skill. Messi has performed as top player in these conditions.

Just saying.

Pele played at four World Cups and was part of three winning Brazil teams: in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Even Mbappe has more world-cup goals playing in just two. He played 2 finals.. MEssi played 5 and scored the most PKs ever

Bigpokey24 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 8:16 pm Even Mbappe has more world-cup goals playing in just two. He played 2 finals.. MEssi played 5 and scored the most PKs ever

How many did Pele and Maradona score? Sometimes you can’t just spew what you read on Wikipedia without context.

Messi is in the GOAT conversation no matter how you dice it.

He may not be the greatest of all but for me who never watched Pele or barely old enough to watch Maradona, Messi is the GOAT of his generation for now.

^^^ mumu plenty for this thread oooo

Pelé's career total of 12 World Cup goals, scored between 1958 and 1970(4 world-cup)

but the PK specialist Messi has scored eleven times in 5 World-cups, with 6 of those from the PK Spot

Cito wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 8:34 pm How many did Pele and Maradona score? Sometimes you can’t just spew what you read on Wikipedia without context.

Messi is in the GOAT conversation no matter how you dice it.

He may not be the greatest of all but for me who never watched Pele or barely old enough to watch Maradona, Messi is the GOAT of his generation for now.

Great point about context.



If you get a chance, watch videos of Pele and Maradona. They will of course awe you, especially compared to the competition.

But I think young folks like you will notice a huge difference in the speed and 90 minute running...especially time and space on the ball.