Whatever happens now, this will be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup.
Messi, 35, has confirmed publicly that he will finish his “World Cup journey” in Sunday’s final. It will be his last chance to win the one trophy that has so far eluded him in his remarkable career.
The Argentina superstar is already lauded as one of football’s all time greats - but where does he stand among the likes Pele and Diego Maradona? Here, Mirror Football's chief football writer John Cross and chief sport writer Andy Dunn, argue for and against as Messi being the greatest of all time.
JOHN CROSS - LIONEL MESSI
The greatest players elevate teams to glory.
Diego Maradona was the reason why Argentina won the World Cup in 1986. Pele won three World Cups with Brazil but definitely had a stronger supporting cast list.
Lionel Messi has lifted what is quite an average Argentina side to a different level and is the reason why they can win the World Cup on Sunday.
That would be a fitting end for Messi’s international career at the highest level because he now stands alone as the greatest of all time.
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Every time you see Messi play, you realise you are in the presence of greatness because he lifts you out of your seat with his scampering legs dancing across the pitch.
His control, skill and dribbling abilities are mesmeric and opponents simply cannot get the ball off him. He scores spectacular goals, thrills and entertains.
Messi won so much in his incredible career with Barcelona, he is enjoying one last adventure with Paris Saint Germain and everyone who ever goes to see him play leaves the stadium feeling privileged to have watched the greatest No10 of all time.
What he does with Argentina is even more remarkable. He unites and lifts a whole nation as every Argentina fan comes to worship their hero.
He has broken records at this World Cup and, despite his age, he looks on a one-man mission to carry Argentina single-handedly to the trophy on Sunday.
And yet here’s a confession: I haven’t always thought he’s the best. Until recently, I thought it was Maradona because of his genius, strength and incredible individuality. He was a one-off, a special player and a maverick.
I’ve seen him live and it’s an experience you never forget. I can’t say that I saw Pele live and I get that he won more. I even went through a phase of being in the Cristiano Ronaldo camp in the Messi v Ronaldo debate. He would win games with his sheer strength of will. But as time goes by, you realise Messi is unparalleled. Sorry, but that debate is not even close now.
No-one can touch Messi. No-one can get near him on the pitch. Or the legacy and memories he has created off the pitch. He is also a team player in a way that Ronaldo never was or is. The Brazilian Ronaldo was a phenomenon. One of the all time greats.
But Messi, Pele and Maradona stand above the rest as the three greatest players to have ever played the game. They define eras of football and we are so lucky to have watched and lived through the Messi era of greatness.
Football evolves and it is so hard, nearly impossible in fact, to compare eras and different times because players run more, the game has changed beyond all recognition and it is now far more technical and physically demanding.
That is why Messi is so incredible. The game is much tougher now - and yet Messi still stands out above everyone else as the greatest.
But if Argentina win the World Cup on Sunday, then it will be remembered as Messi’s World Cup and a fitting final chapter in the greatest career of all time. And even if they don’t, Messi still stands alone as the best of the best.
ANDY DUNN - PELE
Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer I have ever seen in the flesh and by some distance. But the greatest footballer of all time is Pele.
I was not around to watch Pele in person but I was not around when Shakespeare wrote plays and I know he is the greatest playwright of all time.
I've read and watched his stuff and I've read about and watched Pele's stuff. On his World Cup body of work alone, Pele is incomparable. Messi had a nice assist and a well-taken penalty in Argentina’s semi-final win over Croatia.
A 17-year-old Pele scored a HAT-TRICK in a World Cup semi-final and followed it up with two goals in the final for good measure.
It was to be the first of three World Cup winners’ medals and there is enough decent footage of Mexico ’70 to conclude that Pele produced, arguably, THE greatest portfolio of performances in one tournament that football has ever seen.
Nowadays, his contribution would probably be measured by goals and assists - four and six, as it happens - but watch the film and you will find the beauty is unquantifiable (as it is with Messi).
Maybe if you see Pele dummying the Uruguayan keeper, Ladislao Mazurkiewicz (and then missing but that’s almost irrelevant), you will realise that genius is not the preserve of the Messi and Ronaldo era.
Ah, but football is quicker now, more physically demanding, blah blah, blah. Imagine if Pele had enjoyed the protection the world’s best players are given now. Imagine if Pele had been looked after by officials in the same way Messi and Ronaldo have.
Again, dig out the grainy footage of Portugal’s Joao Morais kicking Pele out of the World Cup at Goodison Park in 1966. Nowadays, he would have been jailed, never mind sent off, but English referee George McCabe gave him a ticking-off.
One of the arguments that has some credence is that Pele did not come over and play against Europe’s best at club level. But, unlike now, that was not the accepted path. Tostao, Rivellino, Jairzinho, and many other greats did not take it. Brazilian club football was an elite standard and Pele was a giant in it.
For the national team, Neymar has just equalled Pele’s record tally of 77 goals but took THIRTY-TWO more games to do it in. The great thing about the greatest footballer I have seen in the flesh is that he does it despite an incredible weight of expectation on those narrow Argentinian shoulders.
But it is truly impossible to imagine the expectation on Pele, a Brazilian with African ancestry. He was a true trailblazer. And if you don’t want to accept he is the greatest footballer of all time, he is certainly the most important. On that, there is NO argument.
