After Johan Cruijff, Diego Maradona and Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer has now also passed away. Is it correct to consider that quartet as the 4 universal football icons? Or how does a footballer evolve from star status to label icon? Sporza Daily dribbles to an answer.
Football legend Filip Joos nods at the list of the 4 names, although he also spontaneously thinks of Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.
“But the current generation has not seen them play football and there are fewer images available of them,” opens the commentator in Sporza Daily.
“Cruijff, Maradona, Pelé and Beckenbauer: I can live with them as the 4 universal or worldwide football icons, although each country has its own icon. Think of Rik Coppens or Paul Van Himst with us.”
Joos admits: if we had asked him the question about a year ago, there might have been a top 3. A podium without the recently deceased Beckenbauer.
“Or so I think, right? I’m not saying that he doesn’t belong in the list, but death helps to become iconic. It’s a little bit – not pun intended – the finishing touch.”
As an icon you do something that was not previously associated with that role. Then you are a great athlete.
Philip Joos
“And also because Beckenbauer was a defender. With the other 3, everyone immediately thinks of a phase. You have less of that with Beckenbauer.”
“It helps that you do something with your role, that you have changed your sport. Thanks to Stephen Curry, the NBA started to focus on three-pointers. Thanks to Beckenbauer, a defender no longer became a demolition worker, but someone with a construction company.”
“He was not the only one or the first, but he was the most elegant. And therefore the most iconic. You do something that was not previously associated with that role. Then you are a great athlete.”
Franz Beckenbauer has also scored as a coach, but his contribution to his status is smaller.
“The coach Beckenbauer did not leave an indelible impression on me. Cruijff did. Of the four, he is the only one for whom becoming a coach did contribute to Cruijffdom.”
Flood of images
Why does the iconic list actually stop at those 4 greats? Filip Joos: “Because they lived in the perfect era to become an icon. There were images, but there was no absolute abundance. If there is, it is fatal for your imagination.”
“You are only an icon if you appeal to the imagination. If you don’t know everything. The mystery, the somewhat elusive. That is very necessary. This is how you achieve that status in our minds.”
That seems like bad news for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. “I look at what happens in the mind of the viewer and who unconsciously judges. Then those other names have something unique. Precisely because of the more limited availability of images.”
“Those men (like Messi and Ronaldo) are no longer mysterious. We know everything about them. I think Cruijff and co also had small sides, but we don’t know that or much less. And that helps. The mystery helps.”
We know a lot about Maradona about his excesses. “He has ruined himself and that also helps, of course. Being a pop star and footballer can also help. It doesn’t have to be perfectly polished. Preferably not.”
Pelé in Maradona.
Contemporary script writers
“It also has to do with the age of who is speaking now,” Filip Joos admits. “Between the ages of 12 and 16 you are susceptible to idolization. Then I hope it stops.”
Messi and Ronaldo will certainly have an advantage among the youth. “Of course you cannot say that Messi is not an icon, but for those living today, those other names sound more like an icon in terms of status. And that really has to do with Instagram and the like.”
“Look at Maradona and all the stories. These are stories that you do not generate yourself. That is what is happening now with the current generation. Those men are all in charge of their own stories, they have script writers.”
“Then you get something licked. Something they want us to think. And Maradona, Cruijff, Beckenbauer and Pelé did not want what we thought. No, we thought because of what they did and they were.”
“They have really created a fault line and you cannot expect that from Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. It has all become a bit more prosaic and less poetic.”
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Wait another 50 years
Sports historian Jurry van de Vooren gives his interpretation: “A sports icon is someone who has been by far the best in his environment,” says the Dutchman.
“Someone who has had an enormous influence on the development of sport, has been successful and often in multiple guises. As an athlete, coach and director, as a marketer. All different perspectives.”
“If you look at that, you have that foursome, which has been successful and influential in every way.”
We can’t say the same about today’s stars. “We don’t know yet what will happen to Messi and Ronaldo in their careers after they become professionals.”
“Will they become influential as a director, politician, analyst or coach? That will influence how we will remember them. We will only know that in 40 to 50 years.”
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