The GOAT continues to rewrite football history

[Smartvirus]

I wouldn’t even argue with the Ronaldo and Messi fans. Most are fanatics and hype everything their “GOAT” does. Personally, I think Messi and Ronaldo are two special players and I have enjoyed watching them play all these years. IMO this World Cup doesn’t necessarily determine who the better player is, the fact that they are still performing at this age shows that they are both built different.

Would agree with you on this every other day. They are both special players and some of the very best in what they do that football has ever have to offer since they are still playing. You can’t necessarily like football without enjoying how they both play, their individual quality and handling of the ball.
Trying to always put one ahead of the other would create some resentment like I find in most of the fanatics that would be out there, wishing one of them underperforms in a game so the other person looks better.
In the end, this is football, it’s what we all come out to watch, to see something spectacular and worth the time we give it, to be entertained and they do just fine.

[SatoPrincess]

I wouldn’t even argue with the Ronaldo and Messi fans. Most are fanatics and hype everything their “GOAT” does. Personally, I think Messi and Ronaldo are two special players and I have enjoyed watching them play all these years. IMO this World Cup doesn’t necessarily determine who the better player is, the fact that they are still performing at this age shows that they are both built different.

Would agree with you on this every other day. They are both special players and some of the very best in what they do that football has ever have to offer since they are still playing. You can’t necessarily like football without enjoying how they both play, their individual quality and handling of the ball.
Trying to always put one ahead of the other would create some resentment like I find in most of the fanatics that would be out there, wishing one of them underperforms in a game so the other person looks better.
In the end, this is football, it’s what we all come out to watch, to see something spectacular and worth the time we give it, to be entertained and they do just fine.

I just saw a clip of whatever show it was on Netflix where Gary, Alan, and Patrick Vieira were talking about Ronaldo’s performance in the World Cup and how his legacy will be spoilt if he fails to deliver in this WC. It’s silly really. I find it impossible to watch when former players now pundits are criticizing players who have achieved far more success than they did.

What’s this propaganda of Portugal is a better side without Ronaldo?

[Smartvirus]

I just saw a clip of whatever show it was on Netflix where Gary, Alan, and Patrick Vieira were talking about Ronaldo’s performance in the World Cup and how his legacy will be spoilt if he fails to deliver in this WC. It’s silly really. I find it impossible to watch when former players now pundits are criticizing players who have achieved far more success than they did.

What’s this propaganda of Portugal is a better side without Ronaldo?

It’s really funny how it always seems like the easiest thing to do, how they easily lay it out there, having to analyze every pass, every positioning, every runs and more, make it look so easy and how they would have done it but, they had a whole career to present themselves to be anything but special and never did. They forget the team work that is needed for any team to go through, they never see all of that because they are now pundits and can do some damage off the pitch, I really never take them seriously.

[alegotardo]

Lionel Messi has shown to the world once again for the outmost time and being the only player to have participated in the FIFA world cup 6th times, at thirty-eight (38) years he has once again showed why he should be considered as the Greatest player of all-time (GOAT) with an outstanding performance of 9.4 rating, 80 minutes played, 3 goals scored and 5 shots against Algeria before walking off the pitch with the Man of the Match (MOTM) award once again.

Lionel Messi  (The GOAT) has also again shows that he still has it and should never be compared to any player in the world because there has never been and will never be any player on earth that will or will ever be better than Lionel Messi, there is also no player on earth that holds individual award than Lionel Messi and there will never be.

The result and performance of theis current FIFA world cup should end the debate and comparison of messi with any other player. Congratulations to the GOAT on securing the Argentine side with a victory and a bargged 3 point

Did you forget about Pelé!?
FIFA itself recognizes that he is the only player to win thre World Cups in 1958, 1962 and 1970... and in two of them he was the main protagonist.
source

Furthermore, FIFA states that Pelé is the youngest goalscorer of the history, the youngest finalist in the World Cup and also the youngest to score in a final of history of the World Cup.
source

I agree that Messi is a giant player, but he will never be able to erase Pelé, who was the greatest football player of the world has ever had in an era when football was much more difficult than it is today, starting by the boots that weighed approximately half a kilogram... and today?

Anyway, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you seem to be more like a fanatic fan than someone who sees the facts.

[SatoPrincess]

I agree that Messi is a giant player, but he will never be able to erase Pelé, who was the greatest football player of the world has ever had in an era when football was much more difficult than it is today, starting by the boots that weighed approximately half a kilogram... and today?

Why does one have to replace the other? Why can’t we have same love and respect for the greats of the game? It’s a good thing players don’t retire jersey numbers in football because I’m sure some fans will be calling for their favorite player to have his number retired.

[Mr_Brilliant$]

Lionel Messi is undoubtedly a great player based on how he typically handles the ball, making something meaningful with it while causing chaos for his opponent, and I'm happy for him being the 38years old player who participated in the World Cup 6times. However, his accomplishment is still incomplete if he does not win the 2026 World Cup.

Messi is the GOATED, no doubt about that man..  I am happy for him as well, bruh..
For me regardless of him winning the 2026 World Cup or not, I would say his accomplishments are already complete.. He has done enough and achieved things most players are dreaming of.. I hope he win the cup though, but winning another World Cup would be amazing and add even more to his achievements..

[Bright0515]

Isn't this just an over-hype. Don't get me wrong, I love Messi. He is one of my fav players of all time. And yes, I consider him the GOAT because of his numerous achievements. But you can't say he is undisputed because of just this one game. Let's see his overall performance in the tournament before we jump into conclusions.

Maybe Algeria is a bad matchup for him, and he completely dominated because the game was in his favor (didn't watch the game BTW). So let's not just use this 1 game to draw our conclusions.

I also think he is over hyped as well, and one reason why I think people just want to overhype is because they are supporters and they use this as a comparison between him and Ronaldo. Messi has achieved a lot and so does his rival, this will forever remain a tough debate among football fans. I didn't watch the game as well to know what the hype is about, the world is not over yet. The main reason why he is being overhyped is just because he outplayed Ronaldo which doesn't really make any sense to me when he hasn't won the trophy.

[OsaiEmma]

There is something missing in that term GOAT. I have been hearing and seen the term referring to a great player but the P is Missing in the acronym. If GOAT stand as Great PLAYER Of All Time, where is the P in the GOAT? Well Messi is great player. He played well and took the World Cup in 2022 and the way they started the opening match, they will play the final with France.

Actually, it means Greatest Of All Time, no "Player" there. This term is used in every sphere of life not just football. And that is why there is no 'P' in it.

~snip

Regardless of the team they played against, he has proven himself once again to be the greatest footballer of all time. This is not about hype, it is about reality, his performance at this age is superb and he scored three goals in one single match, I don't like joining the conversation of who is better between him and Ronaldo, because I know that both of them have talent and they have individual brilliance even though they play in different position, but with this performance against Algeria, I believed that Messi is the greatest footballer of all time, and I will not be surprised if he lead Argentina to another world cup quarterfinal or semifinal again this year.

We should be expecting more of good performance from Messi, and also from Ronaldo because I will expect an impressive performance from Ronaldo in their next match because they need to win their next match to qualify to the knockout stage of this tournament.

I can't believe you'll use just this single game to say that. And its against who, Algeria of all teams to come to this conclusion. That doesn't make sense to me. Now lemme give you a run down of their stats:

Argentina:
Rankings: 1st
World cup appearance:89
World cup won: 3

Algeria:
Rankings: 28th
World cup appearance: 5
World cup won: 0

Now, do you see the difference. Algeria is not a team one will use to gauge the credibility of Messi. If he had underperformed, that would have been really disappointing. Although he hit some mile stones, and made some records in that game. But that game alone won't make me say "That's why he is the GOAT". If you have said something like, "He is the goat because of the numerous records he broke and mile stones he reached in that game", then that would have been a perfect GOAT statement.

[MFahad]

Lionel Messi is undoubtedly a great player based on how he typically handles the ball, making something meaningful with it while causing chaos for his opponent, and I'm happy for him being the 38years old player who participated in the World Cup 6times. However, his accomplishment is still incomplete if he does not win the 2026 World Cup.

Messi is the GOATED, no doubt about that man..  I am happy for him as well, bruh..
For me regardless of him winning the 2026 World Cup or not, I would say his accomplishments are already complete.. He has done enough and achieved things most players are dreaming of.. I hope he win the cup though, but winning another World Cup would be amazing and add even more to his achievements..

The greatest of all time the greatest Argentinian footballer the Lionel Messi is the one if the greatest footballer in the history of football and Argentina. He is famous for his ball control and dribbling skills. He is a 38 years old guy and yet giving a top notch performance over all formats. He participate 6 time in the international FIFA World Cup and represent his nation Argentina. He perform very key performance and achieved so much in his career and still compete in the world Cup 2026. I would be happy to see his lifiting another world Cup and adding more to his achievements and he is the greatest player of the history of the football and there is no doubt in his greatness.

[ZeroVinsonN]

Lionel Messi has shown to the world once again for the outmost time and being the only player to have participated in the FIFA world cup 6th times, at thirty-eight (38) years he has once again showed why he should be considered as the Greatest player of all-time (GOAT) with an outstanding performance of 9.4 rating, 80 minutes played, 3 goals scored and 5 shots against Algeria before walking off the pitch with the Man of the Match (MOTM) award once again.

Lionel Messi  (The GOAT) has also again shows that he still has it and should never be compared to any player in the world because there has never been and will never be any player on earth that will or will ever be better than Lionel Messi, there is also no player on earth that holds individual award than Lionel Messi and there will never be.

The result and performance of theis current FIFA world cup should end the debate and comparison of messi with any other player. Congratulations to the GOAT on securing the Argentine side with a victory and a bargged 3 point

This kind of exaggerated sensation is a very popular narrative, especially among loyal Lionel Messi fans, especially after he performed brilliantly by scoring a hat trick when Argentina managed to beat Algeria and he also set a record as the first player to appear in 6 editions of the World Cup. However, behind the sky-high praise, the debate about who is the greatest player of all time (GOAT) is always very subjective.

As a die-hard Messi fan, you think Messi consistency in winning individual awards such as his record 8X Ballon d'Or, his trophy collection and his magical performances at the age of 38 prove that he is the best player of all time. On the other hand, fans of other players have arguments from their own point of view, they think that the greatness of a football player has many dimensions and cannot be locked in just one player.

I think your claim "there will never be any player on earth that will or will ever be better than Lionel Messi" is often used to express the admiration of his fans, but in football, debates like this will always be alive and driven by the tastes and preferences of each player's fans.

What's the point of football without fans arguing on who's the better footballer, it's all a part of what makes it enjoyable, without it then why like football in the first place, if everyone prefer only one player the everyother game without that player would be meaningless.
I definitely don't see Messi as the best player, definitely won't call him my GOAT but he is an amazing player and no one can deny something that obvious.

[Daniel91]

Lionel Messi is undoubtedly a great player based on how he typically handles the ball, making something meaningful with it while causing chaos for his opponent, and I'm happy for him being the 38years old player who participated in the World Cup 6times. However, his accomplishment is still incomplete if he does not win the 2026 World Cup.

Messi is the GOATED, no doubt about that man..  I am happy for him as well, bruh..
For me regardless of him winning the 2026 World Cup or not, I would say his accomplishments are already complete.. He has done enough and achieved things most players are dreaming of.. I hope he win the cup though, but winning another World Cup would be amazing and add even more to his achievements..

Yes, Messi is a great footballer and when he finally won the world cup with Argentina 4 years ago he became a legend for Argentine fans.
However, he is always compared to Maradona and there are always big debates about who is the bigger and better footballer.
Maradona also brought Argentina 1 world cup title and to end the debate about who is the greatest between the two forever, I think Messi will have to win 1 more world cup title with Argentina.
So far Argentina is doing very well with Messi and this does not seem like an impossible scenario.

[Ever-young]

What's the point of football without fans arguing on who's the better footballer, it's all a part of what makes it enjoyable, without it then why like football in the first place, if everyone prefer only one player the everyother game without that player would be meaningless.
I definitely don't see Messi as the best player, definitely won't call him my GOAT but he is an amazing player and no one can deny something that obvious.

Everyone sure does have their unique preferences, what I may define as BEST, may not even be good enough for the next person, so no matter how much evidence you tender just to make them see your viewpoint on why you feel that person is the best, they’ll never see it, even if the truth is obvious, it’ll all still end in an argument lol. Just the way everyone is allowed to pick their favorite teams, that’s exactly how they are free to pick their favourite characters/players too and that’s exactly what makes it pretty fun.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I agree that Messi is a giant player, but he will never be able to erase Pelé, who was the greatest football player of the world has ever had in an era when football was much more difficult than it is today, starting by the boots that weighed approximately half a kilogram... and today?

Why does one have to replace the other? Why can’t we have same love and respect for the greats of the game? It’s a good thing players don’t retire jersey numbers in football because I’m sure some fans will be calling for their favorite player to have his number retired.

Well, I quite agree with you, though I don't think it would have even made any sense if players who retire do that with their number, football to me is majorly for sports, fun and entertainment and not something to be taken that serious, even a president of a country is replaced when he or she passes on, how much more can't a number be replaced with another player when the player who used to known with that number retires?

And the comparison of Pele and Messi shouldn't be if I am asked, and the reason is because every player have their time, those in pele's generation had their time and in that time, Pele turned out to become the best, and now is our own time and in this time, Messi is the best so far.
So it makes no sense bringing up the argument of who is the world best footballer because if was say Pele was the world best, then where is he today? Shows that no matter how good a player is, he or she will not play forever, so makes sense we appreciate and celebrate those bests we have today and forget about those that are gone because they are not contributing anything to today's football.

[Tetu100]

No doubt, Messi is one player that is actually incomparable, he's skills are exceptional and pretty amazing, and also he has secured numerous award and setting numerous records over the years. But is seen you are making it look as if no country can ever produce that level of player in life which is not that cool to me. Their is this saying that the beautiful once are not yet born. This is also applicable in this case, people are also coming up.

Moreover, their were also some other goat that was there before him, people like Ronaldinho, pele`, Diego Maradona and many others. Football shine is aways seasonal, some day somebody else can just replace him or even do better than him. However, he's loved by some many including me, but that will not stop me from pointing the fact when someone is being over hype.

[Somto9Light]

I also think he is over hyped as well, and one reason why I think people just want to overhype is because they are supporters and they use this as a comparison between him and Ronaldo. Messi has achieved a lot and so does his rival, this will forever remain a tough debate among football fans. I didn't watch the game as well to know what the hype is about, the world is not over yet. The main reason why he is being overhyped is just because he outplayed Ronaldo which doesn't really make any sense to me when he hasn't won the trophy.

There’ll always be a debate on this particular, I mean everyone can’t have the same best player, to some, Ronaldo will always remain the best player, and others won’t agree, some draw their conclusion based on their past glory, while others use their present performances to really judge who is the best. Personally, I believe the both players are really great and iconic players, both unique and outstanding in their own respective ways. I’ve watched Ronaldo and Messi play countless times, and I wouldn’t agree that either of them are overhyped.

[Judith87403]

Messi is the GOATED, no doubt about that man..  I am happy for him as well, bruh..
For me regardless of him winning the 2026 World Cup or not, I would say his accomplishments are already complete.. He has done enough and achieved things most players are dreaming of.. I hope he win the cup though, but winning another World Cup would be amazing and add even more to his achievements..

Yes, whether he wins the World Cup or not, he has already achieved enough over the years and don't think it will affect him if he didn't, although it will be of a great honor if he still wins the World Cup, as it will added to the ones he has won so far in his life, but at this time, he is playing with zero pressure as he has already achieved enough. And also, most people have already concluded the debate that he is the GOAT, as it give the fan's a pleasuring moment each time he is out to play.

[ArabBTC]

No doubt, Messi is one player that is actually incomparable, he's skills are exceptional and pretty amazing, and also he has secured numerous award and setting numerous records over the years. But is seen you are making it look as if no country can ever produce that level of player in life which is not that cool to me. Their is this saying that the beautiful once are not yet born. This is also applicable in this case, people are also coming up.

Moreover, their were also some other goat that was there before him, people like Ronaldinho, pele`, Diego Maradona and many others. Football shine is aways seasonal, some day somebody else can just replace him or even do better than him. However, he's loved by some many including me, but that will not stop me from pointing the fact when someone is being over hype.

Well to me Messi is really who people say he is, he is certainly not overhyped in anyway, to me i call him wonder kid because he is completely full of wonders, despite his age and achievements he is always ready to break new records, Messi is someone that i have watched from the onset especially from the period when FIFA once compared him with Mikel Obi and i can beat my chest and say that Messi really deserves every honor that he has been given, he is an extremely exceptional player, he doesn’t need any particular squad depth to perform, initially most persons said it was just because he was in Barca that was why he was doing well but today he has travelled round the world and is breaking new records everyday, he is just too good i can never agree that Messi is overhyped.

[criptoevangelista]

For me, it's only a matter of time before Lionel Messi is truly crowned as the greatest football player of all time. He already has practically every relevant trophy in football; all that's missing is the World Cup all-time scoring record, which will happen soon, and the highly anticipated 1,000th goal in official matches. He is truly a legend and perhaps the last one we've had the joy of watching. In my opinion, these are records that will never be broken by another player.

[Gozie51]

The result and performance of theis current FIFA world cup should end the debate and comparison of messi with any other player. Congratulations to the GOAT on securing the Argentine side with a victory and a bargged 3 point

And one more thing. Do you know what that is? If Messi can help the Argentine team to win the world cup back to back then the noise and argument won't have any voice. Only two countries have that record for now and those are Italy and Brazil. So that is another record that will be on top of his mind.

But no doubt for me Messi is the GOAT. He has shown a performance that is outstanding and records to break. From goals to assists, to trophies of different levels. He is certainly one of the best that the world has produced in football.

[Pandu Geddon]

And one more thing. Do you know what that is? If Messi can help the Argentine team to win the world cup back to back then the noise and argument won't have any voice. Only two countries have that record for now and those are Italy and Brazil. So that is another record that will be on top of his mind.

But no doubt for me Messi is the GOAT. He has shown a performance that is outstanding and records to break. From goals to assists, to trophies of different levels. He is certainly one of the best that the world has produced in football.

And we probably won't see a football player as good as him for the next few generations. Right now, we do see good and expensive players. But none have the performance and talent like Messi. He plays with his talent, not just playing well.