Lionel Messi became only the third player to win a hat-trick of Ballon d’Or’s after picking up the prestigious award for 2011, putting himself amongst the list of greats such as Marco Van Basten, Michel Platini and Johan Cruyff. Messi, like the trio just mentioned, has never won a World Cup and his contribution on the International stage is nowhere near his Barcelona accomplishments. At only 24 years of age Messi still has plenty of time to achieve International success, with perhaps the best chance being in 2014 as the competition is held in South America. However, if Messi does not lift the biggest and most prestigous trophy in football, can he advance up that list and be classed as better, or equal to, Pele and Maradona?
Messi, without a doubt, will make the debate about the ‘best footballer ever’ about 3 players, rather than the 2 that are mentioned at the moment. If Messi does not win a World Cup, it may add a black mark over his name and may cause him to be second best, or third behind them both. If Messi does win a World Cup, there’s no doubt about it, he will be classed as the best player to ever grace the planet.
His Argentina side are not as good as they should be. They have the players, they just don’t seem to have the connection between them all. Unless they change their ways, the only way I can see Argentina lifting a World Cup trophy is if Messi carries them to victory. It’s possible, Maradona did it in 1986. During Messi’s time he has experienced many Quarterfinal exits at the World Cup and Copa America, while not scoring at either tournament from the past 2 years. There seems to be something missing, its a mystery. The Messi of Barcelona just isn’t the same as the Messi of Argentina.
Perhaps it’s the players around him. At Barcelona he has Iniesta and Xavi pulling the strings in midfield and feeding him the goals. Of course, Messi makes many goals himself but if he does it at Barcelona why can’t he do the same for Argentina? It could also be the coach. Argentina do not play the same as Barca do, perhaps Messi is just comfortable with the style that he has at club level.
Something just doesn’t click for him on the International stage, a player that has won 5 league titles, 6 domestic cups, 3 Champions Leagues, 2 UEFA super cups, 2 FIFA World Club Cup’s and 1 Intertoto cup should be able to see his side past the Quarterfinal stages of a International tournament, but his only success with Argentina is still the Olympic Gold Medal and nothing more.
It may sound like I’m slating Messi but I’m not. There is no player plying his trade at the moment that can match Messi’s ability, a goalscoring record of 366 games and 230 goals shows how unbelievable he actually is. Christiano Ronaldo is the closest to him in terms of ability and skill, but he is still way off of the mark. Messi will be mentioned as one of the greats, whether he wins a World Cup or not, but there is something about the World Cup.
It adds to the kudos of any player and is the greatest honour that can be achieved. Messi may go on to win many more Ballon d’Or awards, it doesn’t look like anyone can catch him, but unless something changes on the International stage, he may find himself behind Pele and Maradona in the hall of fame.
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George Best and Johan Cruyff never won the world cup, both great players.
Geoff Hurst is lauded in history because he scored in the World Cup final, but he was a very average player and England’s only world-class forward Jimmy Greaves was frozen out, so no, you don’t have to win the world cup to be considered a footballing great.