irishone correct as usual

Honestly irish?  '66 and Sir Stanley Rous takes a bit of beating.
Well done Messi - legacy now assured.  Absolutely outstanding he was - in every round bar the first.
He only has two more to win to match the GOAT.

judging the goat race purely on international football is a joke. its fixed by geography........only 8 countries have ever won it. someone like lewondowski - who is nearly mbappe's equal - has no chance of ever winning the world cup. you have to analyse a players international and club career........its a once every 4 year comp which is a knockout and as i said fixed by geography.
that being said pele also had a great club career. he won their champions league twice and won the 2 legged world club game (v euro champions of europe) twice, scoring bags of goals. and he has had the best international career ever........so for me, its between pele and messi. maradonna did not do enough at club career. there were maybe 5 or 6 great years but he didnt have the dedication of pele or messi to have a great 12-15 club career. everyone goes on about maradonna's 2 seria wins and eufa cup win for napoli assuming he did it all by himself - he didnt.........careca scored 6 goals when they won the eufa cup, maradonna scored 3.........how can you compare their careers in european club football......messi was top scorer in la liga and the champiopns league nearly 10 times...maradonna scored 13 goals in 32 games in the euro and eufa cup  - messi 129 in 160. yes the game has totally changed but seriously ask yourself the question.......if maradoona was born in 1985 like messi, would he have had such a great club career- scoring 700 goals. the answer is no because he didnt have the dedication. the quality of players diego had with him for argentina in 1986 is similar to messi in 2022.......you diego fans are not seriously going to tell me that these argentina players are world beaters.......messi was defo the best player in this world cup. ok not as good as diego in 1986..........also messi didnt test positive for performance enhancing drugs in a world cup did he?.......no one ever talks about that.
messi's long term success and the frequency of his great performances put him ahead of diego. but comparing to pele is more difficult.
ronaldo is not in the discussion.......he played in 5 world cups but never did anything above average. great club career though.

Btw, if your idea of being the GOAT is focussed mainly on goal stats then Harry Kane would be ahead of Maradona.

Maradona probably wouldn't be in the top 100 on that basis.

All players can do is be the best of their generation.

Pele was clearly the best in his as was Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane & now Messi.

Pointless trying to come up with an overall GOAT as football is vastly different now to Pele's time.

Then, 2 footed tackles & potato field pitches were the norm.

Lewandowski has inflated figures in a micky mouse league dominated by one team, there's top heavy then there's the Bundesliga, they outspend everyone on wages to attract the best players, nobody else can compete, he's a good striker but he's not in the World Class bracket, you choose many over forwards over him. Didn't he once score 40 goals in a 36 game season, nobody in England has every scored more than 34 in 38, and we've had Henry, Suarez, Van Nistlerooy and the like, Haaland looks like he's shaping up to but I'd hazard a guess he'll probably end up around 34/35 bar injury.

bdj - I know you love your stats to prove a point but they don't tell the whole story.

Going by your logic, Lewandowski is better than Maradona simply because he's got a superior goals per game ratio.

Get this, nobody gives a fcuk about his club career, his medals, his goal ratio or his cocaine habit.

What most people look at is whether he was the most gifted, talented footballer ever.

The only player to rival him for pure unadulterated skill is Pele.

one thing that the pundits and genuis's on here have not been talking about is the shocking lack of discipline from the argentine players.......they could have had 2 or 3 sent off..........there were some shocking and blatant take downs.........the argie offendors would then fling themselves to the ground as if they had been fouled.........they were bad v holland as well........

As I've said if greatness is purely about goal stats, then even Harry Kane is well ahead of Maradona.

https://twitter.com/fun88eng/status/1605231038615142401?s=19

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Great result for Argentine football. Shame about the 100% inflation rate which will still be there next week. And we go on strike when it hits 10%!