Messi’s place in history assured regardless of outcome of final

The tone of most observers ahead of tomorrow's Fifa World Cup final is certain and prescriptive. The laboured attempt of Leo Messi's teammates at football stardom has been largely deemed a regrettable disaster.

Such observers clinch their argument by pointing out how decisive Messi has been in securing La Albiceleste a date with France's Les Bleus.

And, lest we forget, he has been; the penalty miss against Poland notwithstanding. By walking on water, Messi has invited comparisons; he with Jesus, his teammates with the disciples.

La Albiceleste’s demigod has gone about business in the Qatari Desert—much like Jesus did across 40 days in the Judaean Desert—with a wonderfully infectious enthusiasm and single-mindedness. 

Messi has successfully fought battles and temptations in recent weeks. It didn’t seem to occur to him that other players in Argentina's squad were scarcely at ease with themselves (à la Lautaro Martínez).

After the shock loss that Saudi Arabia inflicted, there was reason to believe—or, at least, to hope—that the little Argentine's swansong World Cup would go down extremely badly. Now—with the finale upon us—observers sense, presumably, that even those whose faith wavers in Messi, will remain apostles of the messianic role of Messi.

There is a latent danger though in elevating a single match to the realm of that that is career defining. There are those who are desirous of using the 2022 World Cup final as a referendum on the long-running Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo showdown. Messi, they add, can only lay down the gauntlet if he ends up a World Cup winner. 

This shouldn’t be the case. By now, it should be readily apparent to lovers of the beautiful game that Messi long established himself as the greatest player of his generation.

Not even Ronaldo can lace his boots. Heck, no living player can manage to take two different sets of Argentine outfits acutely aware of their own inadequacies to a World Cup final. 

Yet that is a sliver of what makes Messi such a juggernaut. The question as to whether his guile and feats—both so sweeping in scope—are deserving of the GOAT (greatest of all time) acronym ought to be carefully weighed.

To some it’s not clear whether Messi landing a World Cup title on Sunday will settle this ‘greatest ever’ debate. Your columnist, however, reckons that not even a win for La Albiceleste on Sunday will sway things in Messi's favour. With all due respect, Pelé and Diego Maradona—in that order—are in their own orbit.

And, from the looks of it, will be for a pretty long time.
The feats both legends pulled off will quite honestly take a beating. Pelé in particular was such a colossus.

The first of his three world titles arrived in 1958 after the Brazilian—aged just 17–scored a hat-trick in the semifinal and a brace in the final for good measure. Pelé was not just a scorer of goals, but also a cerebral presence as his involvement in 53 percent of the 19 goals Seleção Canarinho scored en route to winning the 1970 World Cup title showed.

Elsewhere, the superlatives used to describe what Maradona produced on the pitch were richly merited. The 1986 World Cup feat was stratospheric in every sense of the word not least because Maradona pulled it off with an Argentina side shorn of star dust.

It's highly unlikely that a win for Messi on Sunday will be adequate to topple Maradona in the pantheon of the all-time greats. 

Whatever the outcome (and it should not be forgotten that La Albiceleste comes up against a talented Les Bleus side, with Kylian Mbappé keen to stamp his mark), nothing should be taken away from Messi. What he has achieved on the international scene has been nothing short of extraordinary.