Sports Desk not sold on GOAT debate, happy with Qatar but worried for season ahead

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will go down as one of the most intriguing editions of our times.

The tournament was never short of drama and got tongues wagging right from when Qatar won the bid and they have not stopped even with the ongoing celebrations in Argentina.

Even we, on the Nation Media Group Sports Desk, are divided on whether this is really the best World Cup ever.

Our sports editor Ismail Dhakaba Kigongo and chief football reporter Andrew Mwanguhya believe so because of the many shock results and the thrilling final that capped it all.

“I have always been convinced by older colleagues and fans that the 1990 tournament is the best ever,” Kigongo says in our internal discussions.

“I can now make counter arguments that 2022 has surpassed that. First, there were the shocks, the Morocco fairy-tale, then the climax was better than any. Two of the greatest players – Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe – went for it until the 120th minute and then a nerve-wrecking penalty shootout.”

Mwanguhya was equally blown away by the football but he could not help bringing in more of the off-field wins.

“France 1998 was my first World Cup to watch and I have since watched all subsequent ones.

South Africa 2010 was special for me, being the first on African soil. It also beat the odds to prove wrong naysayers, especially from the developed world. Qatar has faced the same narratives from naysayers but have stood up to the bullies and held the first ever one-city World Cup and did so in spectacular fashion. The Arab world united, Africa rallied, and those that believed good things only happen in their countries were pleasantly shocked at the development, order and hospitality.”

But Allan Darren Kyeyune, who you probably know more for athletics and cricket but cracks it everywhere, insists the short attention span of humans is at play on the football.

“I have no favourite World Cup. All come with different packages. The moments count more than an entire championship but it is just that there is a lot of excitement, so people forget history,” Kyeyune counters just like Ennyanda editor Swaib Raul Kanyike who loved the drama in Qatar but found the many penalties a turn off and describes the entire showpiece as “soft, not my thing.”

For Denis Bbosa, a reporter and analyst on NTV’s Omumuli Gwe Mizanyo, 1998 is still it.

“Nobody gave hosts France under Aimet Jacque a chance and Brazil behaved every bit as world beaters until they were humbled 3-0 in the finals. For many people, then, it was inexplicable and many conspiracy theories swung around.

Unlike today when match formations and VAR rule the game, then it was more of pedigree and sheer player deftness. Croatia served the same upsets as this edition, Nigeria gave a bit of Morocco Magic. Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo Da Lima led the star cast in giving the delight that Messi and Mbappe have provided this time round. The Dutch impressed and broke my soul in the same breath with a semi-final finish,” Bbosa said.

GOAT debate rages on

So if Messi has provided the magic expected of World Cup greats – as Bbosa opines – and the kind that culminated into his Argentina winning the Holy Grail for the first time since 1986, does that make the seven time Ballon d’Or winner, the greatest footballer of all time (GOAT)?  

“To zero down to the GOAT honour, you need to have a well-documented yardstick for all the football greats over the past 80 years. In terms of trophies and awards he is peerless at the top. In terms of football ingenuity and influence, the jury is still out on how he compares to Diego Maradona, Pele, Zidane and Johan Cruyff.

All said, he now earns the bragging rights to dine at the highest table in football and his milestone will take ages to be equaled,” Bbosa offered.

One of our sub-editors Innocent Ndawula shoots this fence sitting down right away and starts a line of radical objections.

“Messi is without doubt a superstar. But GOAT remains a far cry, for me! Those coveted honours sit with the ‘immortal’ pair of Brazilian king Pele and Argentine ‘messiah’ Maradona.

Messi sits among the greatest in all sport. No man has defied the burden from an expectant nation as well as a great rival on pitch like the modern-day savior. Messi’s latest heroics have left Cristiano Ronaldo in his slipstream and along the way he has just managed to simplify the debate from four to three,” Ndawula shared on phone from Rwanda, where he is on cricket commentary duties.

For Kyeyune, it is an outright no.

“It is a hot air phase. He’s won it after five tries. Pele did it easier, Maradona won it easier in 1986 than Messi’s laboured nights in Qatar.

Some of his penalties, granted, were given but not entirely convincing, nearly zero checks by VAR. Otherwise, it would have been a different story. This is his most laboured piece of silverware, at 35. That doesn’t take away the gem he is but creates a layer of advantage over eternal rival Cristiano.”

Kanyike believes Messi has the sum of teammates to thank for last weekend’s triumph unlike Pele and Maradona whose teams would probably never have been a threat without them.

“What makes him rank above Diego and Pele, for instance? The penalties?

Argentina played for Messi in this world cup. Every player sweated and bled for him. Then the penalties. Maradona played for the team, lifted it alone until his ban. Pele? Same with Brazil,” Kanyike said.

Mwanguhya believes the win “definitely elevates Messi to the club of all-time greats that includes his country-mate Maradona and Pele” but does see an end to the debate.

“Messi truly stands shoulders above the rest - of his generation although Portugal's Ronaldo - for his sheer push of the button and all round successes - will always be mentioned when discussing today's greatest.”

This is more subtle than the view of George Katongole, arguably the most versatile reporter on our desk.

“I am defiant. The greatest ever are Pele and Maradona. The rest can find their places in history. Messi is only comparable to Cristiano,” Katongole shared cheekily.

His divergent view, however, faces quick rebuttals from Sharifah Nambi, a reporter on NTV, and Isaac Ssejjombwe, who is good at juggling entertainment and sports, the debate is closed.

“He has completed football. Granted, Pele might have won the World Cup thrice, but Messi has won everything in football, set records, some that might even stand for some good years,” Nambi said as Ssejjombwe added that: “competing at the biggest and highest level for over fifteen years can never be compared to anything.”

Dhakaba agrees: “The arguments against him are bound to fizzle out because that’s all everyone held against him. Messi is a once-in-a-generation talent – the kind we should be proud to have seen in real time. Surely, he belongs to the Pele- Maradona band.”

Abdul-Nasser Ssemugabi, who reports regularly for Ennyanda too, believed Messi was GOAT even before the World Cup.

“I don't subscribe to the obsession of comparing players of different generations. Pele is old enough to have been Maradona's father. Likewise Maradona was just two years younger than Messi's father. If we are looking for GOATs I wonder why players like Zidane, Da Lima, are left out!

Anyway, I think Maradona addicts will not think otherwise. Nor will Messi diehards, like me. I just read and watched tapes about Maradona, but I have lived the Messi magic and heartbreaks. I have felt his impact for 17 years. With or without the World Cup, he was my greatest,” Ssemugabi said.

What we, however, agree on is that a winter World Cup was never a bad idea and if Saudi Arabia won the bid to host the 2030 edition, they would have us backing them.

Another winter World Cup?

Ndawula offers some insight: “Qatar 2022 will be hard to match. Saudi Arabia showed raw passion led by King Salman bin Abdulaziz who declared the next day a national holiday after that jaw-dropping 2-1 win over Argentina. The prizes he offered his contingent were a clear indication of the nation’s unwavering financial muscle. Fifa generated an estimated $7.5b in revenue from Qatar and the allure of smiling all the way to the bank again with Middle East hosting could prompt backing a Saudi bid.”

Nambi agrees: “I will not be surprised if it happens because despite all the criticism against Qatar they managed to organize a World Cup that will go down in history as the best in organisation.”

Ssejjombwe believes that “Qatar hosting the World cup in the winter meant it could be done. The tournament went on smoothly and it also favors us (Africa) when it comes to viewership time.” The last argument is later backed by Bbosa.  

Kyeyune believes the “Middle East will get to host again” but he doubts it will be soon as he cannot see “Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup in any of the next four editions.” Mwanguhya and Bbosa think as much.

“It would be nice if it happened in Saudi Arabia but with the first world countries hounding off anything not theirs, I doubt it will be soon,” Mwanguhya says.

Then Bbosa adds that: “The English are still riled and cursing Qatar. (Former Fifa president) Sepp Blatter paid dearly (with his job) for his attempt to have all continents have a chance to host the World Cup.

The Saudis tend to have their wish with the oil money but Europe, and Britain in the lead, will die trying to stop their audacious bid.”

Ssemugabi does not see a way back to this – at least not in the next “four decades, unless the same factors that gave it to Qatar happen again. (I understand Morocco had ticked all the boxes for the 2026 bid but we know who won it).

As Qatar promised, they gave us a good tournament. But the West wants us to forget Qatar as soon as possible. And I don't see a repeat in the near future.”

Dhakaba does not think even the hard nosed Fifa have the guts “to award hosting rights to an Arab country or even shift the World Cup from its traditional European summer window” again and makes the mathematics even simpler.

“With 2026 going to North America, 2030, 2034 and 2038 are bound to go to Europe (at least twice) and South America then maybe the Far East thereafter.”

So back to club football but…

The curtains have drawn on the World Cup and we now brace ourselves for club football. The excitement is still the same but there are worries. Some like Dhakaba are waiting to see if Napoli and Arsenal can regain the momentum they had before the World Cup.

Kyeyune and Kanyike spell doom, especially for Arsenal and “teams with thin squads and lack of strength in depth. Injuries are en route and for some, already biting.”

Ndawula expects “player fatigue to creep into many camps across the European leagues. Case in point for the English Premier League (EPL) players; Hugo Lloris, Julian Alvarez, Ibrahima Konatez and Emiliano Martinez have literally just over a week to recover just in time for the league’s resumption” but believes it is all manageable.

“The European media prefers to refer to such instances like dire complications but like in the aftermath of the Coronavirus, governing bodies showed all could be managed with a tweak in the playing conditions say more substitutions; three to five,” Ndawula adds.

Nambi believes “only the clubs that had players in the latter stages have to worry while some players who had picked up injuries before the World Cup like Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba and Sadio Mane have used the time to recover”

Ssemugabi believes Manchester City could be the biggest beneficiaries of the World Cup period as some of their stars, except Julian Alvarez, quit quite early, to join their mates like Riyad Mahrez, and Erling Haaland who did not travel to Qatar.

“Liverpool also had Mohammed Salah, Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino staying while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez played few minutes in Qatar.

But the World Cup could have given clubs a practical view into the January window. You think players like Enzo Fernandez – the best young player – Muhammed Kudus of Ghana, Netherland’s Coady Gakpo could change addresses soon,” Ssemugabi says. Bbosa adds Josko Gvadiol, Goncalo Ramos and Dominik Lucadovik to the list

Mwanguhya argues “the in-form players from the World Cup could transform their fortunes to their clubs or they could burn out and their clubs miss out and the break could have been a welcome breather to struggling sides.”

Bbosa as a fan of Bayern Munich only blames the winter World Cup for injuries to key players like Sadio Mane and Manuel Neuer.

Fortunately for him, “the Bundesliga returns on January 20 – almost a month after yet the English Premier League will roll on like the World Cup never happened.”