Who is the GOAT? Now that Lionel Messi has the chance to win his last missing major prize, the debate is heating up again. Is the Argentinian the best ever if he wins the World Cup later? We did the survey among different generations of football animals, who experienced the other contenders from the front row.
Paul Van Himst (1943): “Pelé really had something special”
According to four-time Golden Shoe Paul Van Himst, only this World Cup should not be included in an assessment. “The qualities of the player should decide who is the best ever.”
Who is that according to the Anderlecht legend? “Personally, I don’t choose the best ever, but the most complete of them all. And then I still think that’s Pelé.”
I still think Pelé is the most complete of them all.
“Running ability, heading game, finishing… Pelé had it all. Of course I also put Messi among the best, together with Cruijff and Maradona.”
Van Himst played several times against Pelé in friend matches, both with Santos and the national team. “Pelé had something really special,” he recalls.
Paul Van Himst with Pelé and Johan Cruijff.
Frank Raes (1954): Pelé, Maradona and Messi tied
“You called me for the very best, so it will be about Maradonna?”, Frank Raes starts the conversation with a joke. Raes is an icon among sports commentators and was involved. Who does he consider the ‘greatest of all time’ (GOAT)?
Frank Raes can’t really choose between ‘the three greats’: Pelé, Maradona and Messi. “All three are in the same place with me, but at the very top of course. In my opinion they have the same quality, namely a kind of helicopter view. They always knew or know where everyone is on the field.”
“Moreover, all three excelled as individuals and as a team player. Pelé and Maradona were certainly true captains, but Messi has also started to develop that in recent years.”
If anyone should be educating the new generation, it would have to be Pelé.
A World Cup does not change Raes’ opinion: “It makes no difference to me that Messi will win the World Cup later, because that depends so much on the country in which you were born. Take Haaland, for example: he will probably never win a World Cup because he Norway plays. That doesn’t make him a lesser football player.”
But if he could choose who he would prefer to see live one more time? “But Pelé. He was the most complete and the limited images there are, show incredible things. If anyone should educate the new generation, it must be Pelé,” concludes Raes.
Youri Mulder (1969): “I say with full certainty that Messi is the best”
“In my youth, Pelé was still the greatest icon, everyone said he was the best ever,” says analyst and ex-football player Youri Mulder about his generation. “Now I say with full certainty that it is Messi.”
Mulder places him above Maradona, Ronaldo and Zidane. “He has been performing so well for such a long time. Except for maybe 2 less years, Messi has performed phenomenally year after year. That is why he is the best ever for me, even without a World Cup title.”
It was even more difficult for Maradona to play football than for Messi now.
“Purely in terms of talent, Maradona is closest to Messi, but he only lasted about 7 years. Although it certainly also played a role that it is even more difficult for Maradona to play football than it is for Messi now,” Mulder thinks. “The attackers have been much better protected by arbitration in the last 10 to 20 years.”
His compatriot Johan Cruijff and Pelé also rate Mulder less highly than Messi, although he does make a comment. “In their time there was so much more space than in today’s more defensive football. Cruijff could use that space to change a lot of ideas about football, more than Messi could.”
According to Youri Mulder, Messi is already the best ever, even without a World Cup.
Gert Verheyen (1970): “Statistics make Messi and Ronaldo special”
Verheyen is our expert in this field, who was born in the 1970s. He played with Club Brugge against the great AC Milan with Kaka, but also as a Red Devil against Brazil with Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
“They are all fantastic players, but what makes Messi and certainly Cristiano Ronaldo so special are those incredible statistics. When you look at the number of goals those men have scored and assists they have given, it is mind-blowing. “
I am firmly convinced that the best of the past would also have been the best of today.
But who is the best of all time? Impossible to answer, according to Verheyen: “I always find that such a useless discussion. Firstly, because everyone is different, which makes comparison difficult. That detracts from the person who just loses weight.”
“Secondly, because every player is a child of his time. It is often said that players from the past would not be able to compete now, because the game is faster, for example. That is simply not true. I firmly believe that the best of would have been the best of today in the past.”
Frank Boeckx (1986): “Messi doesn’t need the World Cup to be the greatest ever”
Analyst and ex-goalkeeper Frank Boeckx is a contemporary of Lionel Messi. “I have consciously experienced his entire career. I hope to be able to tell my children that Messi was the greatest ever.”
A player who has also been able to follow Boeckx well is Zinedine Zidane. “He was more of a stylist and for me it’s about being an inspiration to your generation. Messi, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, had more of that. They combine genius with professionalism.”
To convince the last critics or doubters, Messi’s world title can do help.
Now another World Cup to wash away all doubts about Messi? “For me he no longer needs that to be the greatest ever,” says Boeckx. “But to convince the last critics or doubters, that world title can help.”
Tessa Wullaert (1993): “Difficult to pick someone out”
Tessa Wullaert was born in the 1990s and grew up watching Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on television. But she can’t decide between the two: “It’s really hard for me to pick one. I just count them both among the very best.”
“They are two attackers, but they are very different. They each have their own trophies and stats, which makes it difficult to compare them. It’s not that all records are in one name, so I don’t want to detract from the others by putting one above the other.”
I don’t think he’s the first to be on the training field and the last to leave.
But she admits that Messi is a very special player: “Messi has that exceptional dribble, that 1 on 1, those slaloms… that’s really pure talent.”
“But I don’t think he is the first to be on the training field and the last to leave. I can imagine that is not the case with Ronaldo.”
