I’m trying to be completely objective if the fanboys can please try to do the same. In 2020 and 2021 lewandowski was the best player in the world winning the sextuple one year and then breaking a 40 year old bundesliga scoring record. I get the award was cancelled in 2020 but for 21 the narrative was messi finally got his international trophy so he has to win balon d’or. But Argentina literally have the most copa Americas in history they won it 14 times before messi, he had 4 tries in 6 years to win it. 15, 16, 19, and 21. So was it really that impressive that he won a tournament that him not winning up to that point was literally a failure because of how good Argentina were historically? Im not trying to argue about who the best player ever is or what he’s done in the past. Can someone just objectively tell me that it was impressive and not just journalists being emotional and voting for their favorite player and the narrative instead of the actual best player?
The problem with this post (and the majority of modern fans these days) is 1 sided bias towards goals when it comes to regarding the best player award. Goals are important and decide the victory, but goal scoring is not the only aspect of the game. Defense and playmaking are equally important and integral parts of football.
Compare Lewandowski and Messi’s stats from 2021. It will become pretty evident that Lewandowski scored more goals, but Messi himself scored a decent number of goals (he won the Pichichi that year). But Messi wasn’t just scoring goals. He was also playmaking at a high level. Not to mention, he won the highest MOTM that year.
As for Copa, then it is an international trophy, and of course, it will carry the weightage at least equal to UCL and it was Argentina’s first major trophy in 28 years so it became even more crucial. Add Messi’s Copa POTT and Top Scorer award, his case becomes equally or more solid than Lewandowskis.
People regarding this often argue that Messi also won Ballon D’or in 2012 simply for breaking the calendar year goal tally record. But they forget he was also playmaking during that time as well. Assisting, making through balls and key passes. He was basically playing 3 positions that year (10, False 9 and 8), and he was unplayable in all those positions.
Gerd Muller made the season and calendar year goal tally record in 1972. But Beckenbauer won Ballon D’or that year because while Muller was the best striker during that year, Beckenbauer was the best player overall. Such was the case of 2021.
Bro in 2012 he was playing with the greatest midfield of all time. I don’t understand why people think Messi somehow is the only reason teams succeed he’s a great player that shines more when he has other great players around, he’s not playing by himself out there he had stacked teams for over a decade. I think the fact that he didn’t win a UCL after Neymar left and the midfield disbanded kind of showed his limit without an amazing team around him.
Trying to talk reason on the subject is impossible my friend. The Messi fans can’t handle the truth, and they will outnumber everyone else. He is good, but look what happened when he left Barcelona. He needs a system built around him, and he can’t succeed without it. But the truth is too much for them, and that’s why he wins the ballon Dior yet again. Look at it as a way of creating a story, where Messi is the hero. Him winning his last golden ball will be the perfect way of ending that story, or movie in the future. His time in PSG will be forgotten, the team that couldn’t carry him. Factos is factos.
That World Cup win in his mid 30s with a team that was not a bookmakers favorite going into the tournament really shows his “limits without an amazing team”… 🙄
A team in which every player plays in europes top 5 leagues and was unbeaten for 35 games. They literally were the first or second for bookies from the beginning of the tournament.
It’s all according to the journalists’ preference, there’s no standard criteria that applies to all cases.
Don’t try and be ″completely objective″. The ballon d’or is a subjective award, always has been and always will be. It’s literally impossible for a best player award to be objective.
As for your argument, record winners means nothing. The Copa America is a highly competitive competition and winning it means a lot for any country, it doesn’t matter how many times they’ve won it before. Would you use the same argument if Brazil sweep all before them and romp to a 2026 WC win? ″they’re record WC winners already, so it’s not impressive″? No, because that would be silly. Brazil’s previous wins wouldn’t make a 2026 win any less impressive!
The narrative? Bro Lewadowski just got unlucky that year because the ballon dor was canceled. He won the sextuple and had the best year out of everyone in 2020, but it never meant he had to win the 2021 ballon dor. For the 2021 ballon dor, Messi was leading in every stat and had a great year individually. Just because Argentina have won the most copa americas in history doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good tournament by them.
It wasn’t impressive & that was the general feeling at the time. On top of that, as much as I love Messi, it was Di Maria who single handedly won Argentina Copa America, not Messi. Messi was quite poor. Same thing happened in the WC final. Di Maria on the pitch & Argentina are dominating 2-0. He comes off & Argentina are losing 3-1. It shows just how important Di Maria is to Argentina & why many Argentina fans who aren’t fanboys consider him a bigger legend to Argentinian football than Messi has been.
Who in their right mind considers di Maria a bigger Argentina legend than messi, are you OK?😭
Most Argentinians beleive it or not. They’re not saying Di Maria is the worse player. They’re saying for Argentina football team, Di Maria has done more for Argentina than Messi. Di Maria is why Argentina won the Copa & WC. They value players who win them trophies extremely highly.
https://youtu.be/PzVZ0SnumFk?si=_o1ZJeH9w0Wra9ra
You are such a liar lol, the majority of these guys have Messi’s shirts. Why would they do this if Messi did. Nothing?
Also, the disrespect to Dibu Martinez is absolutely insane lol. He was just as impotent if not that Di Maria in the WC…
Thanks for the vid! And Messi shirts mean he scored the goal that won Argentina the Copa? Or that he played the best on the field for Argentina in the WC final? Of course people have Messi shirts over Di Maria. Messi is a national icon. English fans have Kane shirts yet he has won zero for England. Brazil fans have Neymar shirts yet he has won zero for Brazil. They are icons. Like Messi. Yet there are players for both teams who did more for the team.
If you wish to prove me wrong, go to Argentina. Interview Argentinians like I & my peers in the media have. We all came to the same conclusion. Yes Messi is more popular. But they see the real reason Argentina won Copa & WC was Di Maria.
Scoring the winning goal doesn’t mean you won the title for them. You don’t see Germans saying Gotze was their best player because he scored the winning goal.
He says he loves Messi lol. That’s like me saying I love Ronaldo but he is actually not good.
So many things wrong with this post that I don’t know ehere to begin…
Di Maria single handely won the CA? Messi legit contributed to 75% of goals and had the most goals,assets and MOTM but Di Maria single handely won it because he scored one goal? That’s the equivalent of saying that Gotze carried Germajy fo the title in 2014 because he scored
Same thing in the World Cup final? Correct me but Messi wss also brilliant and pretty much every other player, reducing all that to Di Maria is disrespectful to everyone that even Di Maria would’ve ashamed of hearing.
And your final argument is just horrible, everyone in Argentina idolizes Messi more than Di Maria. Only person who they light idiolize more is Marsdona.
Man said that when di Maria came off, they conceded 3 as if di Maria was playing centre back. Loool
They only scored one. I guess Di Maria was playing CF right by your logic? Cause I didn’t mention him playing CB at all.
I do worry about the comprehension levels of people these days. And you’re Sikh, meant to be one of the smartest group of people in the world yet you struggle to read & comprehend. It’s a shame.
Di Maria played only 1 match in copa and he subbed off before the match ended. What a shameless assh*le
I think you’re the only Messi fan that I have seen think logically on what has happened in finals. DI Maria is the only reason those two finals were won he’s the only one that shows up.
Did you watch either final???
Aside from the the fact Messi was brilliant in the WC one, did you not see how Dibu stopped several great chances by Brazil? Di Maria was not the only player who showed up, he was really good and one of our best players in both finals but not the best.
In WC tho, Di Maria was amazing but you’re really discrediting Messi. Secondly that’s not a perfect correlation when you say Di Maria, a winger got off and they scored goal, that’s more of a defense thingy.
Yes di Maria was like the bestest player while he was on pitch tho.
Messi did amazing things later too.
I’d love to carry on this convo but that other guy who was replying to every post of mine & now claimed he’s blocked me is a freak. He’s now sending me personal messages threatening me & has somehow found out my name, guessing he has doxed me but can’t be sure
I wish you good fortune. Shame it had to end this way.
oh holy shit dude. Sorry i hate how fanboying goes so hard, people get so personal over players who never give a shit about them lol
Top scorer,top assistor,player of the tournament? Add that too to the Copa America trophy in the campaign
So there is club football on the one hand, and international football on the other hand. If you give 50-50 weight to both, then winning a major international trophy is a big deal. Now if you say club football has more number of competitions, so it should be given 80% weight, that’s where I disagree with you.
Now if you say club football has more number of competitions, so it should be given 80% weight, that’s where I disagree with you.
Even if this was the case it wouldnt matter since Messi and Lewa didnt win any important titles with their club team anyways.
You talk about objectivity but you’re a Real Madrid fan. You can’t possibly see this without bias.
It’s been Messi or a Madrid player since like 2008 and I’m sure you were happy when the trophy went your way.
Not to mention, Messi wasn’t that great for Barca in 2021, and was horrendous in his first few months at PSG. The Copa America ended up being the deciding factor, even though this wasn’t the case in the past when players like Alexis Sanchez had killer campaigns that involved winning the same exact trophy. Sentimental value unfortunately plays a big role in deciding these awards, even though they should be looked at purely objectively.
It doesn’t help that it’s all these brain-dead journalists who vote for it (some of whom openly admitted to not voting for Ronaldo in 2018 because he had rape allegations against him, even though there was nothing definitive…)
Objectively, it was really impressive and he was still the best player in the world. That’s literally all there is to it.
My problem with the world cup being the deciding factor is that the world cup has been won by ONLY 8 TOTAL UNIQUE COUNTRIES, that’s pathetically low with the top 4 winning it over 70% of the time.
The UCL/cup is a much harder competition with 23 different winners, with its glory only being one below the World Cup.
Winning the world cup means more than just being insane, it requires an insane amount of luck to even be born in the right place at the right time. And even if you are eligible, it’s more natural to want to represent your country.
I hate city with all my gut but it is insane to me that the person who won one of the hardest leagues in the world and the hardest competition in the world while having a record breaking season isn’t being heralded as something more great.
Wouldn’t jt be the other way around? If the WC has been won by less teams shouldn’t it be harder to win one