Black Nate Grey
The God Emperor of Mankind
In terms of pure technical talent and ability, Lionel Messi is the greatest of all time. The only ones I could consider on his level in this category are: Pele, Maradona, Ronaldinho and possibly CR.
But exceptional ability isn't the sole prerequisite to being the GOAT. We're not like American sports fans either were stats are the sole the determining factor.
Its a a lot more complicated than that.
Its the reason why an argument like Pele vs Maradona is seen as legitimate. Logically it shouldn't be. Pele had far better statistics, accomplishments and did more for the game than Diego ever did all while having that exceptional ability and doing incredible things things with it. But Maradona did things with the ball that matched and exceed what Pele could do, and to top it of, won a WC with an average team. In comparison to Pele who played with absolutely stacked teams.
Its also the reason why Ronaldinho's name is in the running. Lets be honest he had at best 2 GOAT level seasons. But its that period between 2004-2007 that everyone goes back too that just has you
. The shyt he was doing was otherworldly, literally playing street football on the pitch and succeeding, winning titles and inspiring the current crop of footballers to play with flair. The late 90's to early 00's was plagued by creatively dead, unimaginative football both tactically and individually. He was the main reason we see players like Neymar, Hazard and Isco flourish today, the ones who thrive on entertainment and humiliation.
Football is the only sport where GOAT is subjective. Its not relatively unanimous like in Basketball (Jordan) or Hockey (Gretzky).
You will find people who say R9, Zidane, CR are the goat and they would have valid reasons to think so.
Personally for me its fluid, some days its Pele others its messi, etc.
But exceptional ability isn't the sole prerequisite to being the GOAT. We're not like American sports fans either were stats are the sole the determining factor.
Its a a lot more complicated than that.
Its the reason why an argument like Pele vs Maradona is seen as legitimate. Logically it shouldn't be. Pele had far better statistics, accomplishments and did more for the game than Diego ever did all while having that exceptional ability and doing incredible things things with it. But Maradona did things with the ball that matched and exceed what Pele could do, and to top it of, won a WC with an average team. In comparison to Pele who played with absolutely stacked teams.
Its also the reason why Ronaldinho's name is in the running. Lets be honest he had at best 2 GOAT level seasons. But its that period between 2004-2007 that everyone goes back too that just has you
. The shyt he was doing was otherworldly, literally playing street football on the pitch and succeeding, winning titles and inspiring the current crop of footballers to play with flair. The late 90's to early 00's was plagued by creatively dead, unimaginative football both tactically and individually. He was the main reason we see players like Neymar, Hazard and Isco flourish today, the ones who thrive on entertainment and humiliation. Football is the only sport where GOAT is subjective. Its not relatively unanimous like in Basketball (Jordan) or Hockey (Gretzky).
You will find people who say R9, Zidane, CR are the goat and they would have valid reasons to think so.
Personally for me its fluid, some days its Pele others its messi, etc.
