Time for Messi to win World Cup and end the 'greatest ever' debate

Eusebio, Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio, Zico, Marco van Basten, George Best, and Lev Yashin are all-time greats of football — but Pele and Diego Maradona will always be above them. The reason is simple, those two won the World Cup.

Admittedly, it’s a fickle argument which reduces the greatness of some incredible players when compared to those who won the ultimate prize in football. Andrea Pirlo writes in his book ‘I Think Therefore I Play’ about how he was playing football in the backyard with his son while the Ballon d’Or ceremony was live on television. Pirlo got around 3 percent of the votes that year (2013), but he says he didn’t care — he had the World Cup.

Lionel Messi has won four of those Ballon d’Ors and everything else there is to win in a club career (six Spanish league titles and three Champions League titles included). He has scored the most goals in a calendar year, is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer in all official club competitions and the youngest player to score 200 goals in La Liga.

With such numbers it’s easy to say that Messi is clearly the greatest football ever — a one-off freak of a player who graces the game once in a century. There’s no doubt about his talent, his goals, his touches, his passes — that has never been a criticism he has faced. Messi’s only problem — and it’s unreal how it is not even a problem in his game — is that he’s still not Maradona. He’s still not Pele. He’s still not Zinedine Zidane.

For some, he’s still not even Cristiano Ronaldo — his closest and most unforgiving rival in modern sport, since Messi has left the rest trailing by miles when it comes to statistical and stylistic brilliance.

The Pele vs Maradona battle is closer because both won World Cups and that makes them equals. While Pele has three to Maradona’s one, Pele never dominated a World Cup the way Maradona did in 1986.

Messi has brought home an Olympic gold and the 2005 U-20 World Cup, but those don’t count. In fact, anything else that Messi does from now on in the Champions League or the La Liga doesn’t count — those assists and goals and Ballon d’Ors don’t count — the records don’t count — that No 10 jersey and captain’s armband don’t count.

Add to this the pressure of being treated as a deserter in his country despite Messi refusing to play for Spain even after naturalisation in the country. For Argentinians, there is only one hero — Maradona, the man who rose through the domestic ladder before moving to Europe and bringing home the World Cup. Messi was made the scapegoat of Argentina’s disastrous Copa America in 2011, continually blamed for wearing his Barcelona shirt with more pride than that of his country — so much so that current national coach Alejandro Sabella had to coax him to not retire from international football.

But it is time to put an end to these arguments. Barring disaster, Messi will play 10 more seasons in his club career — 10 more chances to win leagues and in Europe. But the World Cup comes twice or thrice in a footballer’s career, and Lionel Messi has already had two forgettable ones.

This time though, he’s within inches of glory — and what is special is that he has been the focal point of the team, scoring goals and creating chances. Argentina’s football hasn’t been spectacular, but Messi is smiling in training and producing the goals when it matters — most of them magic Messi moments.

Messi can kill the ‘greatest player’ argument once for all — and with that, achieve immortality as the man who led Argentina to the World Cup title in Brazil.