The World Cup: A Flawed Decider of Greatness
It was a fairytale ending to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, depending on which side of the GOAT debate you belong to, as Lionel Messi finally lifted the most prestigious trophy in international football. Just like Pelé did. Just like Maradona did.
In the aftermath, there was almost a general acceptance in the football world that this was the moment that finally cemented Messi’s status as the greatest of all time.
But this is a notion that needs to be discarded.
If winning the World Cup is the one true decider of greatness, then why is Pelé not the undisputed choice as the GOAT? After all, he won three of them.
International football glory is largely dependent on dynamics that are akin to the privilege that comes with being born to a wealthy family. No matter how great you are as an individual, what chance do you have if you were born in San Marino?
Success in club football on the other hand, is a fairer reflection of individual quality and personal choices. One guarantee in club football is that the best players in the world will always have the opportunity to play for the best clubs. If they make the right choices when that opportunity arrives, it maximizes their chances of winning the most prestigious silverware.
George Weah was a Ballon d’Or winner, yet he never even came close to playing in a World Cup. He remains the only Ballon d’Or winner to never play in the World Cup. Does this automatically make him the worst Ballon d’Or winner in history? Does this place him below inferior players such as Stéphane Guivarc’h, the striker who famously led the line for France without scoring a single goal as they won their first World Cup in 1998?
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, finding anyone who was confidently tipping Croatia as potential finalists would have been as difficult as finding the severed wing of a mosquito on a beach. Yet, led by Luka Modric, they achieved the unimaginable. How then does one fairly weigh up this achievement against that of a player like Andres Iniesta, who won the 2010 World Cup with a Spain team who were the overwhelming favorites for the tournament? Ranking both achievements without being partial to either side would be nigh on an impossible task.
There is a slight possibility that a player like Erling Haaland might never play in a World Cup, simply because he represents Norway. Winning the World Cup with them would be within the realms of Leicester City winning the Premier League. This is not to say that he is equally as talented as all the greats that came before him, but does this automatically rule him out of any conversations that may arise, no matter what he goes on to achieve?
If any tournament at all is to be used as the ultimate litmus test for greatness, it should be the one that is objectively where the highest level of football is played. Hint: It rhymes with the Pantheons Teague.
This blasphemy might have some romantics frothing at the mouth, but by all objective metrics, the highest level of football is indeed played in the UEFA Champions League.
Which tournament is guaranteed to feature the best players in the world at least once in their career? Which tournament is guaranteed to involve a large percentage of the best managers in the world pitting their wits against each other? No disrespect, but in the last two World Cup tournaments, the list of managers who have reached the semi-finals reads: Didier Deschamps, Lionel Scaloni, Gareth Southgate, Roberto Martínez, Zlatko Dalić, and Walid Regragui. These managers have a combined total of one league title in major leagues, although Walid Regragui does have a CAF Champions League under his belt.
The World Cup may be the most coveted trophy due to its unique history, rarity and the sheer passion of representing the hopes and dreams of a nation, but that aside, there is not a case that can be made for its supposedly undisputed superiority that the Champions League does not edge it in.
Players like Xavi Hernandez have even made compelling cases that the European Championships might be a more difficult tournament to win than the World Cup. If anyone has the right to give his two cents on the matter, it would certainly be him. But that is an argument for a less emotion-fuelled day.
The beauty of football is that it is anything but stagnant. The status quo changes regularly. If the failed European Super League had taken off, it would undoubtedly have usurped the Champions League at the pinnacle of club football. A couple of decades ago, Serie A was the most prestigious league in European football. Now it is little more than a stepping stone and retirement home for the greatest players and managers.
It is about time that the football world begins to acknowledge that a World Cup win is not the only ticket to the table of greatness.
This is not to poke holes in Messi’s claim. Far from that.
Messi was already being called the GOAT by notable names as far back as 2012.
https://twitter.com/waynerooney/status/177501243822968833?s=46&t=1nLeVUgZz0dfPdobZubZHg
In the ten years that have elapsed since then, he has won more Ballon d’Ors than Luis Ronaldo and Johan Cruyff, more Copa Américas than Maradona and Pelé combined (they won zero), more Champions League titles than Maradona and more league titles than Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho.
Before Sunday, Messi had won every major trophy available to be won, with the exception of the World Cup, as well as every individual accolade he was eligible for. If you took away his goalscoring prowess, you would be left with the greatest creator of all time (Sorry God). If you took away his creativity, you would be left with one of the greatest scorers of all time.
Yet his status is decided by whether Gonzalo Montiel of Sevilla is able to convert a penalty.
The idea that the outcome of a single match, or tournament, should decide a player’s status, has always been a flawed one. Too many things can go wrong in a match that are out of any player’s control. What if Messi had scored a hattrick in the final, yet lost because Emi Martinez had been unfairly sent off in the first ten minutes and France had scored a decisive goal that should not have stood?
It is a fickle method of deciding greatness, to say the least.
Furthermore, how strong is your claim if it can be deflated by taking out just one piece of silverware? Yes, I am talking to you, Maradona (RIP). If you were to take out any single one of Lionel Messi’s numerous trophies and individual accolades, his claim would still be just as strong as it is today. The same applies to the likes of Pele and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, if you took out Maradona’s World Cup win, you would be left with three league titles (One in Argentina), a UEFA Cup (Now Europa League), a Copa Del Rey, and a Coppa Italia.
Looks funny in the light, doesn’t it?
Obviously, the late great Diego Armando’s career cannot be discredited, and he played under much harsher conditions than modern players do. But if we were to put his claim under the strict scrutiny of current standards, his legacy might pale in comparison to many. Arguably if he had played in this era and garnered the same CV as he did, he might have been viewed less favourably; Perhaps as a Ronaldinho-type figure — the greatest ever to a small set of fans, but not strong enough to mount a bold claim.
So if Maradona could get away with having a far inferior track record for all these years, why did Messi have to do five times as much to attain the same level of recognition? And no, the eye test is not an angle you want to pursue against a player like Lionel Messi.
And this is what any player’s GOAT claim should be based on — collective achievements across their entire career. Cristiano Ronaldo should feel slighted, to say the least, by how much of his legacy is being determined by happenings of the past couple of years, with little consideration for the fact that he is understandably past his peak. Not many of the greatest players of the past were still playing at such a high level beyond the age of 33, which was when he won his final Champions League title.
But this is not a day for Cristiano Ronaldo. He may have to begrudgingly settle for anywhere between number 2 to number 5, depending on how skewed your biases are.
This is a day for Lionel Messi.
As the dust settles on the greatest World Cup in recent memory and many rush to finally crown Messi as the greatest of all time, here is a timely reminder that this coronation took place long ago. You are only just catching up.
