While club football around the world has resumed play again and fans are heavily supporting their respective teams, I can’t help but go back to that fairy tale night in the Lusail stadium on the 18th of December, almost a month ago now. It was a perfectly written World Cup final, and it felt like a conclusion to the greatest era football has ever seen. The greatest footballer to ever play the game came through on the biggest stage of his life, and delivered the one thing that was always expected of him.
I’ll start off by saying that I wasn’t supporting Argentina to win in the world cup. I just wasn’t. Their antics against the Netherlands were over the top, and they got a few questionable penalty calls. But I will also say this. I never had the impression they were going to lose a game they were playing. I always thought that mentally, they were just that bit stronger than their opponents.
And it’s that mentality that had often been missing before in the Argentina squad. This team was full of dogs. Players who believed they had the greatest of all time next to them, and that if they would just run and give every last bit in their gas tank, he’d lead them to that World Cup Trophy. They were selfless and did everything in function of the GOAT. And then add some elite shithousery going on, with Emi Martinez, Leandro Paredes, Rodri De Paul, Christian Romero, and even Leo himself showing quite an edge throughout the tournament.
All you then need are some opportunity ballers. Players who rise to the occasion on the biggest stage, because they don’t think about how a bad game could affect them. They think about what a big game on the biggest stage would do. Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez, Julian Alvarez all raised their stock quite a bit, and then they had the biggest opportunity baller in Di Maria. The Angel needed just one start, coming in the final, to ball out on the biggest night of his career. Add that with Messi being just phenomenal throughout the tournament, and that team was perfect to sustain their mentality throughout the tournament.
They were rewarded by raising the trophy, and you saw what it meant to them, and how thankful they were to Messi. And you could see how thankful Messi was for them. It was beautiful. They had to do their job, and Messi had to bring the magic. And that he did. They were parading him around and dancing and singing while they followed the new football God with the cup. And those scenes were also present in Buenos Aires. It felt like Messi had transcended to God level. What this means to those people, is breathtakingly beautiful.
End of an era
It felt like the end of an era, right? Messi finally getting what he desired most. Delivering the one thing he knew he needed to do for the Argentinian people. Doing what Maradona could. Doing what Cristiano couldn’t. That’s why many people feel like this is the end of the GOAT debate. Because what he just did, probably has the most sentimental value of anything to ever happen in sports. In anything really.
And if that is how you judge greatness, by how much emotional value a player could bring, then I won’t argue with you. It’s a very valid way of reasoning. How a player makes you feel is incredibly important as a fan, because that’s what we live for ultimately supporting teams and players. But if you look at it from another perspective, a purely footballing and toughness way, the Goat debate isn’t really over if you’re honest.
This World Cup doesn’t make Messi a better player than Cristiano Ronaldo. Both have done more incredible things than winning a world cup, as crazy as that statement may seem. Winning 3 UCL’s in a row is objectively harder than beating 4 teams in a direct knockout. Messi scoring 92 goals in a year is unbelievable. Ronaldo has 4 straight seasons with 60+ goals. He was the CL top scorer for 5 straight seasons, and was the top scorer in every UCL he won. Messi won 7 Ballon’s d’Or… We can go on and on.
Those things they did, we can’t just shove them aside. They captured our hearts for over a decade. Gave us the greatest rivalry we could have ever asked for, with El Classico’s that will live in the memories and hearts of football fans all around the world. That’s why to me it feels more like the end of an era, rather than the ending of the goat-debate. A beautiful and poetic ending.
Courtside 