Been done to death but sod it... Can you compare players from different eras? Can you include or judge a player who played before you were born or able to understand what was going on? Is it purely about stats, about the player's impact on the history of the game and can you count a player as the best ever if their place at the very top was relatively brief?
Club= Messi NT= Pelé Magic moment/carrying the whole team= Maradona. Voted for Messi, if only for all his records (check them out).
It's simple for me. Messi's averaged 50 goals a season for ten years, and on top of that he's in the discussion for greatest dribblers, FK takers, passers, and chance creators to ever play the game.
GOAT should be a positional status. For example Messi is the best RW in history. Ronaldo is the best LW, Maldini and Roberto Carlos should have GOAT status as well. Name a better Left back and central defender.. I’ll wait. The problem with these GOAT claims is that they ignore half of the players in the game. A goalie can never be the GOAT, despite the fact that they have to deal with some of the most difficult positions athletically and technically. A defender or defending midfield will never wow the crowd, or score 50 goals in a season, but they could win titles for teams and control the pace of the game allowing players like Messi and Ronaldo to hit those 50 goal seasons and literally claim ALL the credit for TEAM trophies... yet they can’t be the GOAT, they aren’t recognized the same way. They play different roles and they’re effective in different ways for their teams, not always in ways that can be measured. That being said I think Messi may be the only player in history who has ranked so highly in so many categories.. I.E. Goals, Assists, KPs, Dribbling, FKs etc. I can't remember any other player who has been the top goalscorer and playmaker in europe simultaneously, so many times.
I agree with your general point that too many players are disregarded, but we could be here all day writing the names of left-backs better than Roberto Carlos. Maldini, who you mention, was better there for starters. Carlos was an absolute joke defensively and made some of the stupidest decisions you'll ever see on a football pitch. Could even just look at Madrid and say Marcelo was better.
That's a great point, my opinion is that he's one of the greatest attacking fullbacks ever, but his success depended greatly on the system the team played. He would be terrible in teams that don't dominate possession and his defensive skills are lacking. Anyways my point is that you cannot compare Maldini with Messi, or Ronaldo with Neuer, they aren't judged on the same criteria.
Diego. He was in a couple of less than great sides that won championships purely because he was like, give me the ball and I’ll do it on my feckin’ own.. Trevor Francis a close second, mind..
Needed to test himself in one of the stronger leagues imo, although Benfica were one of the best in Europe around that time.
the way i see it is that Messi is efficient, he's an athlete and the best ever in the modern game, but weirdly i just find him a bit dull. Maradona on the other hand was so naturally incredible, his talent was devastating, he played for fun and he played with a style that was almost art. If you gave the discipline and fitness of Messi to Maradona this wouldn't even be a question. So whilst Messi looks better on paper i'd always pick Maradona.
His talent is absurd, but I can't say I've ever found him remotely likeable. Everyone goes on about Ronaldo's ego, but Messi has tried to call the shots at Barcelona for years. And his sense of entitlement extends to the pitch at times. He's such a little shithouse on the quiet.
Yeah, for pure raw talent no one gets near Maradona, some of the things he did with a football were insane. I wouldn't say Messi is dull, but kind of see where you're coming from, if you're paying to see a game with just one of either player involved you'd pick Maradona for the excitement. I always remember seeing a video of Maradona (*on Grandstand or World of Sport) when he was first hitting the scene, I was mesmerised. * Perhaps we have to take this into account too, when Maradona was around we'd only see him live in big Argentina games i.e. World Cups or big european games for Napoli, Barca, etc so we only saw a fraction of his games compared to what we see of Messi, if we were to see as much of Maradona, perhaps a lot of minds (myself included) would be swayed.
I remember he hit the bar about 10 times on the run just for fun in training. I went off him after Mexico.
