With the headline “Is Lionel Messi the best player in football history”, Spain’s Marca newspaper expects a change of king after the 2022 World Cup final.
This newspaper compares Messi with players considered the greatest in football history, including Pele (Brazil), Maradona (Argentina), Johan Cruyff (Netherlands) or Di Stefano (formerly playing for Argentina). , then played for Spain, because at that time there was no rule that you could only play for one team).
Messi is among the stars of world football history (Photo: Marca).
Marca wrote: “Suppose Messi lifts the World Cup at 10:00 p.m. on December 18, will the greatest player in Argentine football (Spanish newspaper automatically determined that Messi is greater than Maradona in Argentina)? Is he the greatest player in football history?”.
“Below is a list of the most illustrious legends in soccer and what they have achieved” – the Spanish newspaper added.
Messi is about to reach the only title he lacks in his career: the World Cup championship.
1. Lionel Messi (Argentina). If Messi wins the World Cup, he will at least surpass Cristiano Ronaldo in the current race in terms of titles. The Argentine player has played more than 1,000 professional matches, scoring 11 goals in 25 matches at the World Cup finals (as of before the final on December 18).
Maradona is the closest player to ever bring the World Cup back to Argentina (Photo: Getty).
2. Diego Maradona (Argentina). While Messi achieved success at the club level, Maradona earned cult status when winning the 1986 World Cup. However, Messi has better overall stats than Maradona. The golden boy scored 345 goals in 678 matches (Messi’s number is currently 791 goals in 1,002 matches), including 8 goals in 21 matches at the World Cup.
Pele is the only player to win the World Cup three times.
3. Pele (Brazil). Pele is the greatest talent at the World Cup with 3 championship titles (1958, 1962 and 1970) after the 4 tournaments he attended. Pele’s goal index is almost the same as Messi’s. Pele has 753 goals after 813 professional matches, including 12 goals after 14 matches at the World Cup.
Johan Cruyff is the main nucleus of the legendary total play style (Photo: Euro Sport).
4 / Johan Cruyff (Netherlands). Cruyff did not have any World Cup championships, his best achievement was second place in 1974, but he is associated with revolutionizing football, creating the total play style of the Dutch team in 1974. Cruyff’s philosophy also laid the foundation for Pep Guardiola’s seductive, beautiful attacking football style (tiki-taka) later on. He scored 424 goals in 754 matches, including 3 goals in 7 matches at the World Cup.
Di Stefano laid the foundation to help Real Madrid become as great as it is today (Photo: Euro Sport).
5. Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina and Spain). He is the greatest star in the history of Real Madrid (Spain), having scored 468 goals in 643 matches in the club’s shirt. Di Stefano won 5 European Cups (today’s UEFA Champions League), laying the foundation for Real Madrid to become the number one team of the century. However, Di Stefano was not successful in the national team, he only won the 1947 Copa America once and never played at the World Cup.
Ronaldo has been Messi’s biggest rival for more than 10 years (Photo: Getty).
6. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal). Any comparison of Messi would be incomplete without Ronaldo. The Portuguese striker always tries to match Messi in terms of statistics. Ronaldo has 820 goals in 1,143 professional matches, with 8 goals in 22 World Cup matches. Ronaldo has 5 UEFA Champions League titles compared to Messi’s 4, but Messi surpasses Ronaldo in most other important statistics.
