June 2016 has been a crazy month of sport and will not be quickly forgotten for off the pitch events either.
But despite the buzzwords of Iceland, Brexit, the Wallabies Whitewash and all the rest, there has been the reappearance of a familiar old chestnut as to whether Leo Messi can be seen as the best football player ever, or one of them, without success on an international stage.
One theory goes that as he has not managed to do what Diego Maradona and Pele did, the two players generally held to be the best two ever, then you can’t assert that Messi is the best ever – or as good as those two other legends of South America.
Times and television habits have changed, but think of Maradona and you likely picture him in the blue and white of his home country, leading Argentina to the 1986 World Cup. Think of Pele and it is probably him leading Brazil at the 1970 tournament.
But Messi is always going to be remembered in the shirt of Barcelona. That is understandable. After all, watching Pele and Maradona in action for their clubs was almost impossible if you did not actually go to the stadium or live in the countries where they earned a wage.
The many millions of Messi fans around the world can watch every single game he plays for his club – games in the league, cup and in Europe. That is a lot of action. Outside of the major tournaments, the Copa America and the World Cup, that usually come every two years, most don’t watch Argentina play.
Messi has been in four finals with Argentina and been on the losing side in all of them. It is not a surprise then that he called it an international day after the penalty shootout defeat, in which he missed his attempt, at the hands of Chile in the Copa America final at the weekend.
Perhaps he will rethink his decision when he returns to Spain – or perhaps not.
Was Maradona better than Messi? I think he was, but then I am blinded a little by the 1986 World Cup when he was just magnificent. That is how I will remember him, as an amazing player.
Messi will never have that, unless he goes to Russia.
But as above, it was hard to see Maradona outside the World Cups. He was a legend with Barcelona and then Napoli but seeing him week in, week out was tricky. You remember the good times.
It’s harder for Messi. He has to maintain levels of consistency to satisfy a global audience of his global standing that Maradona or Pele never did.
People who watch Argentina more than I do claim that Messi is more consistent for the national team than Maradona was, just he didn’t reach the 1986 heights – though I saw the Barcelona star at the 2010 World Cup and thought he was very good. Does that make him less of a player?
Messi must be eligible for the best player in history tag without winning the World Cup. If he is not then there is an obvious problem that only players who are born in countries capable of becoming champions.
While appearing in the latter stages on the global stage surely helps, you can’t exclude players from the discussion just because they were born in countries with little chance of ever coming close to winning the ultimate prize such as Estonia, East Timor and England.
The future best player in history may be a child in Bhutan or Bangladesh.
Messi has done enough with Argentina and especially year-upon-year with Barcelona to be part of the debate. After that, it comes down to personal preference.
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