GOAT of football

As Lionel Messi finally lifts the ultimate prize in football, his case to be the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T) becomes the strongest it ever has been.

His trophy cabinet is now complete, and with it is his case to be the greatest to ever play the game. The fact that Messi has kept his magic alive for such a long period is the ultimate testament to his greatness. Crucially, he always rose to the occasion, with his exploits in the 1986 World Cup widely considered to be the greatest individual performance in a football tournament. However, knee injuries at the turn of the century robbed him of some of his early magic, even though he played at the top level till 2007. In the 1998 World Cup final, Zidane was the man of the match, scoring two headed goals when heading was probably the last skill he was renowned for. Yet the brilliance of Zidane lies in the fact that he was a complete footballer. While undoubtedly one of the greatest to ever play the game, the FIFA World Cup trophy-sized hole in his cabinet was often cited as the biggest gap in his career. From Pep Guardiola’s incomparable Barcelona team of the late 2000s and early 2010s to the World Cup winning Spanish team of 2010, Cruyff’s legacy has touched modern football unlike any other player. If Pele was a symbol for the purity of the beautiful game, Maradona was its fallen angel. Possibly the best paid athlete of his era (1956-77), he averaged just about a goal a game for his entire career, scoring a whopping 757 goals in 831 official games. At the same time, many modern fans raise questions about the context he played in – specifically, the level of the competition he faced. [Messi wins the biggest prize](https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/football/for-argentina-a-win-more-than-football-messi-8331632/) that eluded him for his whole career, for many fans, he also settles the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) debate, once and for all.