10
Mar
2012
World Cup Titles Seem To Be Overrated
Ok, I got your attention.
Guilty as charged. As I did something that many SEO's want to do in an effort to bring you in.
I have been hearing that Lionel Messi has to win a World Cup in order to become one of the greatest players in history. To me that is not an insult to Messi, what we're doing is looking to put the period in the middle of the sentence.
Comparing players from different eras is a bit unjust to both sides. This is why I will not go that route. What I do think is unjust is to say that players like Michel Platini, Zico, Sócrates, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Johan Cruyff are not great players because they never won a World Cup. i understand that they are not Pelé or Maradona, but the time in which all of these played, the World Cup was the be all and end all of tournaments. The schedules as well as the level of competition in the World Cup was one that made it worthy of being the greatest sporting event on the planet. This I am saying mostly due to what goes on between the lines, not the stress we place on the extracurricular in the modern game.
In short, winning a World Cup will put him in the highest echelon of football's Olympus. Let there not be a doubt about that one. Let's not get carried away and think that if he does not, he is a complete failure. At this point, Messi does not need to prove to us how great he is. If he wanted to retire tomorrow, whe would already have his name etched in as one of the all-time greats- with or without a World Cup title.
At the same time, let me throw this one ouf for you. What is a more competitive tournament in this era of football- the World Cup or the Champions League? The best players on the planet play that tournament and not only that, we have seen the best player in the world be annointed based on his performance on that tournament's greatest stage.
Just think about that one for a second and then you let me know what you think.
It took Michaelangelo over four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. That is more reason to try to be fair with him. His canvas still has lots of spaces that he has still has not even touched at this point. What we still tend to forget is that Lionel Messi is stil 24 years old. Yet with all that, he's just eight goals away from becoming the all-time leading scorer. He's also two years away from possibly making history in Brazil. Will it happen? Only time will tell.
Yet if you hear people talk about Messi being amongst the all-time greats if he adds the Jules Rimet Trophy, I would clearly have to disagree- he's already amongst them.
As always, you guys are the best!
