Is Messi the first two time golden ball winner?
Ronaldo plays Portugal who had not been internationally relevant for 30 years before his career, and won’t be internationally relevant for another 30 years once he’s gone. Messy plays for Argentina. One of the five best footballing nations of all time.
Yes and also the first since Romario to actually win that year’s World Cup which is rather remarkable.
Oh, well, there used to be the Figo generation too. They lost the final to Greece in the European Championships in 2004, they could not believe it.
And there was also Eusébio, don’t forget
Portugal had a very good roster when Ronaldo came up (Figo, Deco, Carvalho) and currently has a very good roster (better than Argentina on talent alone, IMO).
Yes, but he had some lousy squads in between, where he was the only reason they did anything (Euro2012 SF). Even in their win in 2016 against France when he was injured, he was the reason they got there.
(Deschamps has now lost a major final to both Messi and Ronaldo).
I agree they were weak for a while in between. But it’s a stretch to say Ronaldo took them to the 2016 final. They finished 3rd in their group where Ronaldo scored in only one game! Then he didn’t score against Croatia or Poland in the round of 16/quarters. Yeah, then he scored against Wales in the semis. Meh.
Yikes!
Yes, auto correct. I’m really sorry about that.
Of all the players we normally think of as GOAT, or the guys at the top table, DiStefano never played a WC period, Cryuff played one WC final where he was a non entity for 89 minutes, Maradona played two, was probably on PEDs, and never did much at European level (he was great for Napoli though), Pele won three, but he had a great side with him, who won one without him playing, R9 played two, but again like Pele, played with one of the greatest teams and Messi, whose Argentina have sort of underachieved until 2021. CR7 has won one Continental championship , one nations league, and been to a continental final and a WC semi final. With usually weak teams.
Except for Pele, Maradona and Messi, I think he has had the best international career of the lot. Even more than R9 maybe?
Incidentally Messi was brilliant today, better than Mbappe IMO (despite the hatrick). He was always always a threat for 120 minutes, and until Mbappe exploded onto the scene in the 80th minute he was a non issue.
Happy for Argentina, sad for an injury-ridden France.
I would also like to gently push back against Portugal’s “irrelevance.” I thought they fielded one of the two best midfields in the tournament (Croatia being the other).
It was his assist which won the game against essentially the same Croat team which went to the WC final in 2018. For Portugal in that tournament, he was being triple teamed all tournaments long and he used that to create chances for other players.
If you mean European clubs, a Barça fan might disagree. If you mean in the national team, well, Argentina and Europe…
I meant European competition. He never won a European Cup.
His assist was a trivial square ball. Sanches carried the ball up the field and Nani made the much much harder pass into Ronaldo than the final assist.
Yeah, sure, he was a target for defenders, but I just don’t buy a tournament where they won one game against Wales and had to rely on 3rd place tiebreakers because they finished behind Iceland and Hungary, to be that much of an achievement.
Still the 3rd best player of all time.
Messi with his mama,
He won the UEFA Cup with Napoli 1988-1989.
What an incredible game… particularly amazing given that it was utterly one-sided for the first 80 minutes. But once France decided to show up, holy mackerel. Definitely one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve ever watched.
It wasn’t one-sided for 80 minutes. France started playing much better at about the 70-minute mark. But yes, surprising considering how listless they had looked until then. Coman coming on seemed to give them a lift. I was surprised they took Griezmann off, but good call by Deschamps.
What will France be like in 4, errr 3.5 years.
Mbappe will still be there, he could be there for three more cups.
Lloris is gone surely. He will be 40 next WC and while keepers can still play at that age, he will be unlikely to be the best France has. Grizeman will be 35, so iffy, but possible. Kingsley will be around as will Pavad and both Hernadezes. Varne might be (he will be 32) and i tuning it’s unlikely Giroud, Benzema and Kante will be.
Maybe Zidane takes over.
They’re still going to be really good. Potential lineup:
--------------Kolo Muani (maybe the biggest question mark?)
Mbappe----Nkunku—Dembele/Coman
--------Camavinga–Tchoumeni
–Mendy—Konate–Upamecano–Pavard
------------------Maignan
Basically that entire lineup would be in their typical prime ages. The striker situation is really the only one that is even potentially a weakness. And they have like 12 world class centerbacks. Really obscene.