When one reviews the achievements of Lionel Messi In more than 20 years of career at the top of world football, he concludes by proving right those who argue that the Argentine is the best player of all time.
Pelé, Diego Maradona, Alfredo DiStéfano, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff transformed football and did things that no one had done before them.
This quintet of prodigious players also has in common that each of them filled the fields with genius for around two decades. All of them also made their professional debut when they were teenagers and dazzled at first sight.
The appearance of Pelé and his conquest of the world title with the Brazilian team in 1958 at just 17 years of age led to him being baptized “O’Rei” in his country.
Pelé’s subsequent exploits with his club, Santos de Sao Paulo, and his consecration in the early 1960s as two-time champion of the Intercontinental Cup, which was then contested by the champion clubs of South America and Europe, helped him to be recognized. as The King of football around the world.
Furthermore, we must consider that Pelé is the only player to have won three World Cups, formerly called the Jules Rimet Cup, and it is very difficult for anyone to match that feat.
Years later, the brilliant emergence of Maradona allowed the Argentine to be placed at the same height as Pelé.
Cruyff and DiStéfano did not win a world title and although their contribution to total football, which is played now, was decisive, they did not have that global impact that winning a World Cup grants.
Beckenbauer, for his part, was a defender and although he went on the attack and scored goals, he apparently looked less, but on the field he was an unsurpassed organizer and with an unmatched impact on the team.
Messi belongs to that league along with these five of the most memorable players that football has ever produced and he has also achieved so much that this serves as an argument for many to place him a little higher than those geniuses who preceded him.
His feat in Qatar 2022, when he led Argentina to win the third World Cup in its history, caused the total surrender of critics and fans.
At 37 years of age, Messi has just been chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the MLS and took the Landon Donovan Award; He had previously been selected to the American League ideal team in the 2024 season.
The star played 19 of the 34 games with the Inter Miami In the regular season, he scored 20 goals and gave 16 assists; six times he was the Best Player of the Match.
In a prodigious career spanning more than two decades, Messi was champion wherever he was. Only one thorn remains in him for Inter Miami having been eliminated in the first round of the 2024 MLS playoffs, despite having swept the regular season with a historical record of 74 points.
“We had the big dream of being MLS champions this year,” Messi said when he received the Landon Donovan award days ago. “It didn’t happen, but next year we will come back stronger to try again.”
The record that makes Messi great
Messi’s collective and individual awards are close to 100 and include world title, Olympic champion, eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or for Best Player in the World; one Copa América, one Finalissima, one U-20 World Cup, four Champions Leagues, three club World Cups, three European Super Cups, 10 titles in the Spanish League, seven in the Copa del Rey, eight in the Spanish Super Cup, two leagues of France, a Champions Trophy and a Leagues Cup, among others.
Messi has been blessed with that incomparable magic to dominate the ball and has the merit of never having disappointed the gods. He always behaved like a thorough professional. His stable family life and a protective environment created the most favorable conditions for the star to develop his full potential.
Although he is at an age in which most footballers retire, Messi is still decisive. The coach of the Argentine national team, Lionel Scaloni, follows a plan for the star to reach the 2026 World Cup.
The owner of Inter Miami, Jorge Mas, aspires to have Messi when the rosanegro club inaugurates its new stadium in 2026. The star’s contract with the Surfloridans is until the end of the 2025 season.
The coming year is full of challenges for Messi and Inter Miami: the FIFA Club World Cup, the CONCACAF Champions League, the Leagues Cup and the MLS. The best preamble for those great battles that await him is to have closed 2024 as the best player in the United States.
