DML wrote:I got a lot of criticism in the past for suggesting Messi needed to win the big one to be called the greatest ever, but now that its happened its really more apparent that I was right to think that. No question, no debate now - he stands alone. Kind of incredible.
No, because there’s no genuine reason the greatest single player of all time could only be able to represent a minnow on the international stage. Your argument would mean the outright best could only ever come from one of the countries that actually have a chance of winning the World Cup every four years, which is too restrictive. This would mean Ballon d’Or winners the likes of George Best, Andriy Shevchenko, or George Weah could never be in contention to be the ‘Greatest Ever’, even if they had all had significantly better careers beyond ones that at points won them the prize of being the best in the world at a given point in time. All because they wouldn’t have been able to drag Northern Ireland, Ukraine, or Liberia to the World Cup title even if they were ten times the players they were.