Can Lionel Messi match Diego Maradona’s feat and end the GOAT debate?
Related Story: Is Neymar really Brazil's chosen one, or is he just empty flash? Related Story: Can Ozil prove his big-match credentials and help Germany defend its WC title?
Lionel Messi has nothing left to prove. He is arguably the greatest player of his generation (with only the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo creating any debate).
For many he is even the greatest player of all time.
Part of a Barcelona side who almost reinvented the game with their 'carousel' of football, he has consistently won club and personal honours for a decade and a half.
In the process, he's elevated the sport to an art form.
But his trophy cabinet has one notable omission, and Russia 2018 represents one of his last chances to fill it.
Is this year, finally, when he secures the World Cup winner's medal that even those outside Argentina are quietly willing him to win?
Messi's background was a humble one.
Born in June 1987 in Rosario, his father was a factory worker and his mother a cleaner.
His talent with a football was evident almost as soon as he was able to lace his own boots. Local clubs were monitoring him from an early age.
However, concerns were held over his physical development. Before he was a teenager he was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency. Medical intervention was prescribed.
But it was expensive. His local team, Newell's Old Boys, were reportedly unwilling to take on the cost of the treatment despite his promise, nor were Buenos Aires giants River Plate.
Barcelona, however, had deeper pockets.
In September 2000 the 13-year-old Messi, his father Jorge and agent Fabian Soldini flew to Catalonia for a trial.
At barely five feet tall, Messi was dwarfed even by similar-aged members of the youth team he trained with, including Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas.
After impressing, a match was organised to be played in front of Barca's technical director Charly Rexach. Less than 10 minutes of viewing time was enough to convince Rexach that Messi must be signed.
External Link: Lionel Messi napkin contract: tweet
"Anyone would have said the same," he later admitted with understatement.
Still, it wasn't a sure thing, and it required financing.
A sinecure was needed for Messi's father. The hormone treatment was an investment of thousands of dollars a month.
The club delayed producing an official contract. Messi's father became frustrated.
Over lunch in December Messi's father laid down an ultimatum to club officials. Sign him now or we go elsewhere. The name of Real Madrid was provocatively raised.
Rexach reached for a napkin and scrawled Messi's first contract — or at least the promise of a contract — on it.
That night an actual, legally binding contract was drawn up and signed. He has been at the club ever since.
Whenever his contract has been running down, press reports have linked him to other clubs with massive financial backing. He's had issues with the Spanish taxman.
But the bond has proved unbreakable, the success for both parties unrelenting. He has been the very soul of the club during its most successful period.
Thanks to the medication, he grew. Enough, at least, to not be pushed around, though his incredible balance and grace have been his chief weapons against rough treatment from burly defenders.
He raced through the various youth and reserve levels at the club — skipping five tiers in 18 months at one point — before making his first-team debut in 2004.
External Link: Newer Messi Getafe goal gif
In April this year Messi scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Deportivo Le Coruna that sealed his and Barcelona's seventh league title in the past decade.
It was barely remarked upon, such has been his habitual brilliance. His career has been an exercise in making the extraordinary simply routine.
Already a star by 2008, and productive in front of goal, his career moved up another gear again once Pep Guardiola took over the team.
Alongside Andres Iniesta and Xavi, with Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry ahead of him, they made a claim to be the greatest club side ever, with Messi the greatest among them.
In the 2008-09 season he scored 38 goals in 51 games as Barcelona became European Champions. Another Champions League win in 2011 was followed by a European record season of 73 goals in 60 appearances.
The records kept tumbling.
He also has an Olympic gold medal for good measure, from the 2008 Games in Beijing, and an under-20 world title.
When Messi first arrived at Le Masia, his agents sold him to the Barcelona hierarchy as the new Diego Maradona.
Few would argue they operate on the same elevated plane. But Maradona, of course, has something Messi doesn't: A World Cup winner's medal.
Comparing players across generations is difficult. But those arguing for Messi's pre-eminence are always hit with that 1986 World Cup win when Maradona single handily guided an ordinary Argentina side to the summit of the game.
In his 2006, 2010 and 2014 tournament appearances, Messi has not underperformed, contrary to the wisdom held by some. He is just judged by standards others are not. A victim of his own excellence.
External Link: Messi highlights reel: tweet
In 2006 the 18-year-old Messi was used largely off the bench. Four years later — under the chaotic management of Maradona — he did not find the net, though contributed bountiful assists in a team without structure.
In both those tournaments Germany ended Argentina's run in the quarter-finals; on penalties in Germany and more comprehensively in South Africa. In Brazil four years ago, it was the Germans again who denied Messi the title, this time, more painfully, in the final.
And so Russia presents itself as almost certainly the last tilt for Messi on football's grandest stage. The odds seem stacked against him, with Argentina lopsided due to an embarrassment of attacking riches but a slow, aging backline.
Those who claim Messi does not perform on national duty, suggest he is bulwarked at Barcelona by the quality around him, are guilty of twisting facts.
Argentina limped through qualification. But it was Messi who dragged them to the finals. In the eight qualification games he missed Argentina won seven points. In the 10 he played they earned 21.
In the final round of matches Argentina started the day outside the top four automatic qualification spots. A hat-trick from Messi against Ecuador booked its passage.
If Argentina fails again in Russia, it should not cloud Messi's legacy. That is already assured.
But, should they find it in themselves to win a third world title, after victories in 1978 and 1986, it will serve to end the perplexing sniping from critics.
The debate will be ended.
[contf]
[contfnew]
ABC .net
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
