Fascinated by the extraordinary feats of FC Barcelona Argentine marvel Lionel Messi more and more fans as former and current players and coaches believe he has surpassed Pele and Maradona as the greatest player in football history. It’s easier to sell Messi to the younger generation, who believes the world began with the internet anyway and everything before is some kind of nebulous prehistory, but even people who are old enough to have witnessed both Pele and Maradona’s careers are rallying behind Messi, convinced that in sheer talent, ability and regularity of spectacular accomplishments the 25-year old magician is the best the world has ever seen.
Those who disagree are fewer and fewer-believe it or not they’re not all fans of Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo-and their last argument is, “well, he hasn’t won a World Cup with Argentina, so Pele and Maradona, both world champions, must be ranked ahead of him.” This argument is weak. Soccer is a team sport where 11 players contribute to the collective success. No player ever has won the FIFA World Cup by himself and none will.
Maradona in 1986 was probably the individual player who most influenced the outcome of the world tournament, but even he was surrounded by quality players like Ruggeri, Valdano, Burruchaga or goalkeeper Pumpido. Plus, remember everyone?, he cheated, scoring the first goal in the 2-1 quarterfinal victory over England with his hand, the forever infamous mano de Dios (Hand of God) goal. Yes, four minutes later he scored what was called The Goal of the Century, dribbling more English players than you can fit in a double decker and covering an acreage larger than the Falkland Islands , but his intention to cheat, incompetently or criminally rewarded by the referee, was instead worthy of a yellow, perhaps red, card.
Pele, who played in the 1958 and 1970 World Cups and was injured and not a factorin1962, had the chance to play on fabulous Brazilian teams which included legendary players like Garrincha, Didi, Vava, Zagallo and Djalma Santos in 1958, and Rivelino, Clodoaldo, Jairzinho, Tostao, Gerson, Carlos Alberto in 1970. Could Argentina have won the 1986 title without Maradona? Absolutely not. Could Brazil have won the 1958 and 1970 titles without Pele? You bet (they did it in 1962), probably blindfolded, too.
Pele himself knows that his World Cup argument doesn’t hold water, so about a year ago he tried to diminish Messi by saying,”we’ll talk about a comparison when he scores 1280 goals.” But this also smells, because anyone who wants to see a list of Pele’s goals can find it on the web site of his club, FC Santos, and they’re not what they seem. Almost half of them were scored in meaningless friendlies. The others were scored in the Paulista championship (the state of São Paulo) against poor teams; poor as in broke, here today bankrupt tomorrow. Brazil did not have a national league then, very few people saw those games that Santos won with scores like 10-1 or 7-0. There was no worldwide TV, no streaming. People just read in the paper that O Rey scored five goals, or three or whatever, and believed.
Pele never played for Real Madrid or Barcelona, Inter Milano or Bayern Munich. How would he fare today, in a tough league, under universal scrutiny? He would be great, undoubtedly, probably above Falcao, Ibrahimovic and van Persie, close to Ronaldo. If he were to play for Barcelona, surrounded by 6, 7 or 8 players from the reigning world champion Spain, he would be close to Messi, too. The question is -could he sustain an output comparable to Messi’s for five straight years, week in and week out and sometimes twice a week?
The anti-Messi crowd also claims that everyone at Barça plays for him. Of course they do. Even if they are world champions they know he’s better at scoring than any of them. Would you rather give the ball to Pedro? Would Barça be the team it is now with any other player in Messi’s place? No way.
Messi does not need a World Cup to prove he’s the best player in the history of football. He’s doing it with weekly miracles, making impossible things look easy. Yes, he does need to be the leader in qualifying Argentina for Brazil 2014, yes he must play well and prove his genius next year, which he did not do when he was 17 or 21. But to win the World Cup he needs a good team around him and a good coach to maximize what he can do, like Guardiola at Barcelona, because nobody wins a world title in football by himself. Not even Messi.
Vladimir Moraru played soccer for 15 years and has watched it for 60. He hasn’t seen a player like Messi and a team like FC Barcelona.
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