LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — After finally winning the World Cup, Lionel Messi made his strongest case yet to be considered soccer’s greatest player of all time.
After finally winning the World Cup, Lionel Messi made his strongest case yet to be considered soccer’s greatest player of all time.
It will never be possible to say definitively, though, even after Argentina’s 4-2 penalty shootout victory over France on Sunday in the final at Lusail Stadium.
Messi has been his country’s inspiration throughout the tournament in Qatar and scored twice in the game that finished 3-3 through extra time.
Kylian Mbappe certainly made Messi work for a golden trophy that had eluded him throughout his storied career. The France forward scored a hat trick as the defending champions came back from 2-0 down and then evened the match again after Messi made it 3-2 in extra time.
But this was Messi’s night and Messi’s World Cup.
For some, no one will ever surpass Pele, who won the World Cup three times with Brazil. Even in Messi’s homeland of Argentina, Diego Maradona remains, for many, the country’s ultimate soccer icon after captaining the national team to the 1986 World Cup title.
And for the past 15 years or so, Messi has had a personal rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo just to establish himself as the finest player of his generation.
Competition is fierce when it comes to determining the greatest of all time, or the GOAT, as it has come to be known. It can come down to the smallest of margins that separate players of such brilliance.
Messi’s failure to win the sport’s biggest prize has always counted against him when measuring his achievements against Pele and Maradona.
