Why Messi Isn’t The Goat
Those that follow me on Twitter know this is a topic that I frequently ramble about. In fact, I’m convinced I will be an old man on my rocking chair slating younger Gen Z kids (who at this point will probably be adults in their 50s or something) about how Messi isn’t the greatest of all time and they’re all bugging.
I have reasons for this though! First, I think we need definitions. What defines the greatest in anything, sport or otherwise? Some would say statistics. Others would say performances under pressure. Others, even, would say entertainment value. I personally think to be the goat, you need to have all of these (and more) in absolute abundance — key word, abundance. I can agree with the idea that those three are the main factors, though.
Now, the curious case of Leo Messi. He has been breaking records for goals, assists, passes, shots, number of creme eggs eaten and number of grannies helped crossing the road. His statistics are absolutely immaculate, and on that basis alone he’s absolutely a once in a generation — even a once in a lifetime talent. His longevity and consistent output is rivaled only by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. Nobody else has come close to what he’s done. in fact, in terms of raw football talent, Messi is likely the most talented player I have ever seen. I guess there’s questions about if certain other players have the same talent, like Ronaldinho or the classic R9 Ronaldo, but I’d be willing to leave that claim unchallenged for the sake of the argument.
So why isn’t he the goat then? Here’s how I think of it. Who’s the greatest boxer of all time? 8–9/10 boxing fans would say Muhammad Ali. But why? He has 5 losses on his record. He’s been beaten, even when he was near the top of his game. Why is he the goat and Floyd Mayweather isn’t, although he has a record of 50–0. 50 straight wins. Unhittable, the greatest defensive boxer in history. He literally perfected the art of hitting and not getting hit. Yet, he hardly gets a mention as goat — more time people say Mike Tyson or Sugar Ray Robinson or Joe Louis is the goat before they say Floyd Mayweather.
The answer is simple. Ali faced much more adversity in his era. He came up in a racist era for black people in America, knocked the daylights out of Sonny Liston as a young unproven boxer in the biggest upset boxing had seen up to that point. Nobody gave Ali a chance in hell of winning that fight. He not only wins, he smacks him around so much Liston didn’t come out for the 7th round! This was a man who could knock out a bear and this baby faced assassin had just evaded him while smacking his ‘ed in all fight. He then beat him again in a rematch (though he was blinded by a substance Liston put on his gloves for like two rouns), joined the Nation of Islam, became a national icon for refusing to fight in the Vietnam war, was banned from boxing and robbed of 3 years of his prime, came back and still beat the baddest heavyweights in the game. Stats don’t tell you that.
Messi for me is Floyd Mayweather. Floyd is defo a Hall of Famer, but he isn’t the goat. He didn’t fight Manny Pacquiao at the height of his career, and everyone else he kind of comfortably handed. Not to say there wasn’t high level opposition, but they weren’t anything like the Joe Frazier George Foreman and Sonny Liston era of heavyweight boxing, minus the political shit too. Messi scores 7 goals against Deportivo La Coruna and Levante and people forget theres other man about before him uno. How many times has Messi done a madness in situations where the cards are stacked against him? Like I’m talking Barca or Argentina as a team aren’t the better team and they need Messi to step up. How many drillins has he done? 8 times out of 10 he chokes. Yes, he’s beat Real Madrid several times. He’s won couple UCL’s (where they were always the favourites, can I say). La Liga’s galore. Internationally, not even one Copa America. And he’s got one (undeserved) world cup runners up medal. That World cup was probably the worst World Cup in terms of quality since the 1940s. He was out ere beating Bosnia and Nigeria, marginally scoring more goals than Ahmed Musa. The first top team (Who were shit during that WC compared to previous ones — I say this as a fan) were Holland, and that match was a draw that went to a penalty shoot out. Everyone is out here saying yh but if Higuain could finish he’d have won a world cup. You lot KNOWWW that it would have been the most underserved World Cup win ever. Then FIFA had the cheek to give him player of the tournament too.
Another example, Barca Inter in 2010. Inter were on 10 men. it’s 3–1 on aggregate, if Barca score two goals they go through. Where’s your guy?????? Nowhere to be found. PSG Barca Neymar dragged them man through and they’re giving Messi some sort of standing ovation. Am I being too harsh? If we’re talking GOAT you neeeeed to be clutch. We’re shoe-horning this man in because the mesmerising skills he does make us want him to be goat, but he just isn’t on smoke like other man
Let’s take Cristiano Ronaldo. The man wins games on his jack jones. I have never seen a man more confident in winning tough games. Last world cup, spain score 3 and this guy is like I’ll just score another 3. Athletico Madrid are beating Juve 2–0. Return leg this man phones his family up like ‘yo make sure you man come through I’m gonna do a madness’ and he scores a hat trick. Man like Ronaldinho, unstoppable in his prime. As in, you could put a coalition of the greatest defenders in the world football history against this guy and he’d nutmeg 8 of em and chip it in the goal with a smile on his face. I sincerely believe if he had even a tenth of that Ronaldo Messi workrate he’d have been the scariest thing we’ve ever seen since Kim Jong Un with a remote control. He got a standing ovation from Real Madrid — as a Barcelona player. He had a whole generation of kids wanting to be like him, even more so than any other player. Zinedine Zidane was the epitome of coolness under pressure. The man could thread a pass through midfield under sniper fire if he wanted to. Diego Maradonna winning world cups while he’s having coke parties the night before. R9 we can’t even talk about because what he did was just silly.
IDEK who my goat is. But Messi lacks too much to be considered the goat. Most talented player of all time I can have. But goats climb against gravity, whereas Messi, more often than not, falls.
