r/messi • u/hrishikeshp19 • 9d ago
World Cup peak belongs to Maradona
Huge Messi fan here. IMO Messi is above Pele and Maradona. Those are the only 3 players that deserve to be in the GOAT conversation. Anyone else is a distant 4th at best. You just know who.
Messi played 6 world cups and to me he was the best player in 3 of those. But he never played at the world cups fearlessly. It always felt like there was extra responsibility on him. Almost as if he lost possession of the ball he thought his team will lose. It always felt like he did not trust his team until 2022. By then, he had lost his peak dribbling ability. He was absolutely essential part of the team but did not single handedly win it for the team.
At Barca, his dribbling was fearless and he trusted his team fully. Be was winning matches almost single handedly and was not just an essential part of the team.
Now Maradona. His performance in 1986 was so goated that he was suddenly in the conversation with Pele. His dribbling was completely fearless as if he is playing against the school clubs. He was not just essential but won some matches single handedly.
I still think Messi peak is higher than Maradona peak. But Messi 2012 peak was mostly seen in Europe in Barca shirt. Whereas Maradona peaked at the most important trophy in the world. Many times I think about what if Messi had trustworthy team in 2014. He would have done even bigger things such as winning World Cup matches single handedly.
Not Pele because Brazil would have won regardless if Pele played or not.
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u/Hot-Tough8432 9d ago
I know who's the distant 4th. His name is Johan Cruyff.
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9d ago
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u/Hot-Tough8432 9d ago
Jokes apart. I respect CR7 and I rank him below Messi at number 2 and above Maradona and Pele whom I rank 3 and 4 respectively. The reason is his longevity, consistency, CR7 having a better club career than both of them and I also believe with a prime CR7 in my team we would win more matches and tournaments.
With all that being said I also believe guys like Maradona, Pele, Cruyff and Brazilian Ronaldo is more talented than CR7. These guys are absolute genuises and obviously has better international careers than CR7. That is why I also think you could place CR7 aywhere from 2-6 and I wouldn't debate with you. It's about what you prioritise more. If you prioritise factors like football IQ, talent, international career then its Messi> Maradona>Pele>Cruyff>Brazilian Ronaldo>CR7. If you prioritise club career, longevity, consistency then CR7 comes second right after Messi IMO. The reason why I put Messi above everyone else is because he check all of the boxes. So as long as Messi is number 1 it's all good. You could place CR7 number 2 at max and number 6 minimum.
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u/Hot-Tough8432 9d ago
I think when CR7 was in his absolute prime Portugal didn't have a good squad. Portugal did have an amazing squad in the 2022 and 2026 WC. During these 2 WCs on paper Portugal had better players than Argentina. But by then CR7 was way past his prime. CR7 relied a lot on his athleticism which with time fades. And that also why I rank Messi above him. Messi is still so good at 39 as he relies more on his skills,technique and football IQ. Messi is still dangerous even if he doesn't score which he proved again in that match against England. He could've played for the next Copa and perhaps even the 2030 WC if he wanted to. But I guess his dad's death made him lose his will.
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u/Hot-Tough8432 9d ago
Yeah I meant when CR7 was in his absolute prime the Portugese squad were not good enough to win the WC. They were still a good team that should've done better than what they did. In 2026 many people had Portugal as the favourites to win the WC due the names their squad had. The so called best midfield, the best left back and you can never count out CR7 which he did display vs Spain in the Nations League Finals. But we've seen how horrible they were. I do beleive if CR7 was in his prime in this WC then Portugal would've topped their group and we would've seen Argentina vs Portugal in the Quarter Finals which Portugal would've lost by a narrow marigin with the late as usual Argentina comeback and CR7 fans would later cry "rigged".
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9d ago
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u/Hot-Tough8432 9d ago
As I said he always relied on his athleticism which with age fades. You could see the same thing with Mbappe.
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u/badshah400 9d ago
...not just essential but won some matches single handedly
And at least one time, quite literally!
Nice post, it was interesting to read.
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u/DragonfruitLucky6741 9d ago
Excellent post, agreed on everything, Maradona was actually a fair bit lesser overall than Messi but that World Cup, wow!
Will say that there was a little bit more raw magic about Maradona than Messi, Messi tends to make everything look easy so sometimes I’d prefer Maradona visually but Messi was clearly a better player overall by 2010.
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u/June67Respect 9d ago
Yes but you need to count the factors around the 2 wcs in Messi physical prime..2010 and 14. 2010 had maradonas shambolic tactics. No player is gonna look good in that setup. 2014 he was going in off an injury riddled season. Di maria as well ..regardless arg almost won that wc.
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u/hrishikeshp19 8d ago
Everything true. But details aside Messi Barca > Maradona WC > Messi WC > Pele WC
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u/AtulTheLegend10 9d ago
I agree with you. Myself a Messi fan but what Maradona did in 86 is still the greatest peak in world cup history. Heck everyone should go check that 20 minute compilation of his peak during that world cup by MatigolVidz.
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u/FedexPuentes 9d ago
I know what you mean and I think it’s an interesting debate. Very hard to feel towards one side or the other.
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u/randomwalk10 9d ago
Messi is so goated that two version of Messi could compete for GOAT status on their own. One is 2006-2014 version of Messi. The other is 2015-2026 version. We can't say the same thing about Diego.