24th June, 1987. In Rosario, Argentina, the delighted Jorge
Horácio Messi and Celia María Cuccittini were celebrating the birth of their
baby boy. Little did they know, that little Lionel, or Leo to those closer to
him, would become a global superstar and one of, if not the greatest footballer
ever seen on the planet.
Fast forward to 9th December, 2012, and Lionel
Messi fired in his 85th and 86th goals of the calendar
year in just 66 games for Barcelona and Argentina – breaking the previous
record set by the legendary German and Bayern Munich striker Gerd Muller in
1972. With 3 more games left to play this year, there’s no sign of his goal
scoring stopping just yet. This record means he is officially the greatest goal
scorer in the game, and shows just why he is, undoubtedly, the best footballer
of the modern era. A true and humble professional, the little Argentine is a
great amongst greats. But is he the greatest ever?
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| Lionel Messi celebrating his record breaking goal against Real Betis |
This is a question which has and will continue to be asked
time and time again. Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Di Stefano, Puskás, Best, the list
goes on. Everyone has different opinions, and it is extremely difficult (if not
impossible) to compare different eras of the game. When looking at this kind of
thing people consider who they played for, the amount of goals they’ve scored
and the trophies they have won, and Messi falls short in none of these
categories bar one – there is no World Cup on his CV. In the 1900’s International
football and specifically the World Cup was the pinnacle of the beautiful game –
but the emergence of the SKY era in the ‘90’s has meant that club football and the
UEFA Champions League has become the height of the game as we know it today.
Now International’s are seen by many, unfortunately, as an inconvenience, and
disregarded in favour of the more illustrious, money-celebrated domestic and
European football. So is the lack of a international trophy really that
important?
For Messi himself it will be. From what can be seen of his modest
personality the man from Argentina wants everything there is to win. For the
rest of us, however, it shouldn’t matter. George Best, another legend of the
game, never won a trophy for Northern Ireland. In fact he never even played in
the finals – but he is still regarded as a great. There is no way that a player
should bear the responsibility of dragging a ‘minnow’ country (in terms of the
overall standing of competitors and world rankings) to become World Cup
winners. Argentina is by no means a small country on a footballing scale of
course, but the comparison was just to show you can be ‘great’ without having
produced on every stage (not that Messi hasn’t produced for La Albiceleste – 12
games and 6 assists in 9 games for them this year speak volumes).
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| Messi with one of his 4 Ballon d'Or trophies |
To answer the question in the title, in my opinion, yes. He
is the greatest ever. At the tender age of 25 he has broken records galore,
become Barcelona’s highest goal scorer ever, won 3 Ballon d’Or’s (soon to be 4?)
and won countless domestic trophies for the Catalan based club – including
helping Barcelona win the very first sextuplet of trophies ever in 2009. His
playing style is unique and he is regarded by legends past and present as a legend. There is no doubting his talent.
Lionel Messi. The greatest.
