Lionel Messi is not just the GOAT after that World Cup final but the GOD
The GOAT debate is over. Done. Lionel Messi is the undisputed GOAT according to the Mailbox. Meanwhile, some people are glad it it’s all over.
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Argument over
The debate is finally over. It’s going to be a bit awkward at the office this week when Messi gets back to France.
Ian, LFC Hartford, CT USA
…Question: Who is the GOAT in football?
Answer: Pe…, Mara…., Lionel Messi.
Dave (I hate him coz he scored some ridiculous goals against my team), Somewhere
…I know Ronaldo fans will do the usual and scoff at Messi’s success, they ridicule him at every opportunity. Not winning a World Cup was one of them. they’ll find something else no doubt. Anywho, let them call Ronaldo the goat if they want, Messi is far bigger than that. Messi is GOD
Alex (Liverpool fan in NY)
…On behalf of everyone with half a footballing brain who has known the answer since the question itself was first asked, thank living F*CK there never has to be another article or discussion about that again.
George
…A debate that was never even a debate, for me at least, is finally settled.
Not the all-time debate, of course – I haven’t seen enough of Cruyff, Pele et al, and half the footage I’ve seen of Maradona involves him gallivanting with Neapolitan gangsters, so my opinion on those guys is worthless.
Messi is clearly the best of his generation. Sure, when looking at raw stats (goals scored, trophies won), the other guy has a decent argument, but look deeper and it’s clear one towers above the other. Or just watch them play. Messi is a much better team player, in a team sport. Messi can do things that nobody else on the planet can do.
We all ran out of superlatives in 2010 or so, and have just been repeating ourselves ever since.
But this is football- and luck is a much bigger factor than most give it credit for. I’m a sucker for meritocracy- I love seeing the best win, and football frequently laughs in the face of meritocracy. This effect is no greater than in knockout football, in a tournament held every four years.
Because of this, I never needed Messi to lift a world cup to prove anything. Sadly, the rest of the world seemingly did.
Rightly or wrongly, true greatness lies wherever people believe it lies. Now, everyone knows where that is.
Bryan Stokes
…Messi the GOAT
Great game.
Messi’s GOAT status confirmed.
Alan
A cat nearly died!
Well I’m sorry everybody but as much as I loved that final, it was officially too much. Officially too much godammit.
I’m recovering from flu and it set me off on coughing fits on more than one occasion. Mbappe’s second had me spinning around the room shouting “what the fuck” which nearly killed our cat. And as for the last half hour…my heart will never recover. And I am neither French nor Argentinian.
The best final I’ve ever seen – of any competition. But too much. Don’t do that to me again guys.
Jack, 28, London
Conflicted
Quite simply the joint best World Cup Finals I’ve seen (joint with Italy 90) and the best final I’ve ever seen. What a classic match. And it happened in country and a season that should never have had the privilege. What do we make of that?
Simon Sharples
Five Fin________al thoughts
1. Mbappe > Messi
2. Someone posted that this World Cup would come with an * Asterisk, and that it was a cup they didn’t want England to win, or something like that… Well I guess the most fitting team won it in the end.
3. Is Lloris always that bad at stopping penalties? Heyzeus Christ!
4. France looked like they didn’t even turn up to begin with, to such an extent that I actually turned it off.
5. Messi > Ronaldo.
Si
That save!
That Emi Martinez save! 3 minutes from the end was the crux, the infinitesimal difference. With his ankle. Reserve Arsenal keeper ‘n’ all!
Peter (Happy that the best game was the final , that’s a rare beauty), Andalucia
ROMERO!
Ahem…
FOOTBALL!
That is all.
Jon (World Cup winning centre half at Spurs is it?), Lincoln
France were disappointing after second round
I didn’t particularity care who won the final tonight as all the teams I supported or had a soft spot for had already been eliminated. However watching France’s poor performance for most of the final led to me cheering for Argentina and really made me pause and reflect on the huge gap between their squad’s talent and the performances we got.
I think it’s fair to say that France had the best squad in the whole tournament and had excellent options in most positions. And yet once they coasted past their second round game, they became a different team. They got outplayed by England in the quarter finals (one hell of a red flag!), got outplayed to an even greater degree by Morocco in the semis and then were paralyzingly awful for about 70 minutes in the final. That’s really quite shocking for such an absurdly talented squad.
Of course you could argue that it’s only results that matter and France didn’t need to play well as long as they won games, but it’s such a mismatch between the wealth of talent they had and the performances we got and it finally came full circle in the final.
Turiyo Damascene, Kigali, Rwanda
Come in Didier
The English FA should do everything to get Didier Claude Deschamps to be their next manager. Can make the big calls in the big games. Yeah they lost in the end but they got to the end. Next manager. BIG TIME!
Luke (No reason to see England do well)
Nine World Cup things
I’ve not spoken about the World Cup really, but decided to put down 9 things that stuck in my mind now it’s all done and dusted.
1) None Love
The One Love armbands are a joke. They don’t mention pride, don’t feature the pride rainbow (the colours are different) and don’t say anything that someone who hates LGBT+ rights can’t assume is for them. It’s a message more relevant to Bob Marley fans than actual queer folks.
People who hate gay people agree with the sentiment “one love” because they don’t believe that same-sex people are in love. They think it’s a choice, a fetish.
Then, of course, FIFA makes a big show of banning it and makes a rod for their own back. Which is kind of classic fascism when you think about it.
2) Germany’s protest wasn’t a protest.
The whole narrative of this thing has annoyed me. The “concentrate on the football crowd”, sure. But also the German team’s defenders.
They weren’t being silenced. They were told that if they wore a bit of the wrong kit then one of their 26 players would catch a booking. Fine? Like if you actually care, do that. Nobody’s actually stopping you, are they? They wanted the credit for protesting without actually facing consequences.
Contrast that with the Iranian players quite literally placing their lives and liberty in jeopardy and it all looks a bit wet doesn’t it? Pathetic.
3) Wales were shite.
Hi, I’m Welsh. This was disappointing. From squad selection to the actual games this all felt a bit one last day out for the lads.
I love Rob Page for getting us here, but qualification was dire, and the tournament was worse. It feels like all of that was on him tactics, tempo, selection. Job’s his though, and at least the Euro qualifiers are only like £20 a ticket.
4) England Fans and Their Managers
You guys. I mean. come on, have a bit of perspective is it?
I’m 36. I have seen a lot of England teams and managers and the very idea that Southgate isn’t literally the best thing to happen to you is bonkers to me.
5) Ronaldo
Hahahaha hahahaha haha
6) Good for football?
I dont know what that phrase means but I wasn’t happy to see Morocco get to the semi finals.
I wasn’t happy to see a country the criminalises gay people get to a semi final in a country that does the same.
How is that good for football? That phrase just feels like one of those patronising little epithets handed out to the “minor” nations when they do a good sports thing. F*** Morocco, and their low block.
7) Got my GOAT
I don’t like Lionel Messi. He is a wonderful footballer and imo the best player of all time.
But every time some pundit or journalist insisted that everyone wants to see him lift a World Cup I threw up in my mouth a little.
That tiny, tax-dodging, ambassador for the Saudi Arabian tourist board can piss right off. Why would I want such an odious personality to feel joy? Cos he kicks a ball well?
Lots of players do that, most don’t even have the privilege of playing for nations that *could* win the World Cup.
The only good thing to come out of him winning is that Ronaldo will be even sadder than he already is.
8) Mbappe
He lost tonight but this lad, with this squad, could win 3 more world cups and I don’t think we’d question it.
9) The price of glory
And to top off my cheery post. Let’s all remember that thousands died so that a nation infamous for providing safe haven to literal Nazis could lift a trophy that looks like a kids half-term paper-mache & tin foil art project.
Now let’s all get back to club football where everything is perfectly moral and above board.
Man City for the title anyone?
Geraint, (I think I might actually be done with football), Swansea City
The World Cup of nothing
So, I’ve not watched a single match of this tournament.
No highlights, no clips, no visits to F365 or other football sites, no conversations about the games, a total football blackout.
I know as much about Qatar 2022 as I do the Asian Cup of 1972.
It’ll always be a nothing tournament, something that happened far away when I wasn’t paying attention.
Has my stance changed anything for the migrant workers? No.
Did FIFA notice I wasn’t consuming their product? No.
Did I feel like I was missing out? No. If anything I’m now wondering whether I only watched football out of habit.
I’ll get back into it to some degree, but not with the same interest as before.
It all now seems a bit…meh.
Dario
…Quick question to the enablers…
How did you feel when Messi was made to wear ‘something else’ whilst lifting the World Cup for the first time? The first time in World Cup history that a nation’s captain has lifted the World Cup with something covering his national shirt?
Was it worth it to stick it to the libs about equality? Was it worth it that the World Cup winner had to dress up in the garb of a sportswashing nation, covering than their own, hard fought for shirt? After all, ‘it’s their country and their laws and we should just follow them if we’re in their land’.
Thank f**k it’s done.
James Outram, Wirral