Like life itself, one needs the wisdom to make a better and timely judgement when analysing football – and the biggest ingredient in accumulating wisdom is time.
This writer has been a football follower since watching one of the famous Fifa World Cup finals: the 1998 version in France where the French, who were the host nation, upset favourites Brazil in an eventual 3-0 drubbing.
This writer still remembers that night vividly: he witnessed that clash with his dad and was rooting for the Brazilians, and to be quite frank, primarily because they boasted who I still feel, and probably will forever feel, is the best he’s seen do it: Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima – simply known as the Brazilian Ronaldo these days, within their ranks.
Some would disagree, but ironically, Ronaldo’s compromised health during that night was largely the reason the Samba Boys lost.
But that’s a discussion for another day.
Having said all of the above, it’s been 21 years now watching the beautiful game and the biggest takeaway from the time is that the more you consume something, the more you start noticing all the things about that particular thing, which are not obvious. That particular thing is football in this case.
Which brings me to my topic at hand: why Lionel Messi is the greatest of his time (GOT).
I’ve listened to many debates, some of them I’ve been a part of, particularly when it comes to arguably the biggest debate in all of the modern sports: Lionel Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo.
And all you hear in these debates are points like: Who has the most goals? Who has a better support system? Who has the better coach? Who plays in the harder league? Who has the most trophies?
Ronaldo scored yet another Champions League goal when his team Juventus drew one-all with Ajax in their quarter-final clash – taking his all-time tally for the competition to 125 goals.
This has sparked a frenzy on social media, with a number of the stat pictures emphasising the goals gap between the Portuguese superstar and his adversary in the tournament.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to dismiss Messi’s closest rivals’ achievements in order to make the Argentine magician’s case, because Ronaldo’s achievements are great.
While Ronaldo does the obvious elements as well as Messi, if not better, I feel the Barcelona marksman does the ‘unobvious’ a little better.
While Ronaldo had to grow into arguably the best player of his generation, Messi has always been among the greatest.
The first criteria I use, however, is the simple eye test: who I believe is superior by simply watching them both perform.
The No 10 appears to create, instil more intimidation to his opponents and score with more ease. Not to mention that he’s become a more prolific free-kick taker as well.
While he and Ronaldo both have five Fifa Ballon d’Ors honours, Messi got to that number first, and he’s younger.
While Ronaldo is being compared to Messi, the latter is already compared to the best who’ve ever done it – the likes of Pele and of course, Diego Maradona.
Last but not least, the two have clashed in more than a handful of occasions and the diminutive wonder has shone more: a la 2009 and ’11 Champions League finals and the lion’s share of the El Clasico battles they’ve been involved in.
This, of course, will not mean the debate ends but it will all be clearer when both of these once-in-a-generation players hang up their boots. And perhaps by then, wisdom would’ve caught up with many more football followers in the Lionel Messi era. – @SabeloBoksburg
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