To claim that Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo are somehow lacking something as footballers seems very perverse.
These are the twin tornados of today's footy landscape, chasing each other in a statistical arms race, tearing up records, making the impossible mundane.
But as their third World Cups come around, there remains a sense of incompleteness, of a final summit still to climb.
What separates Argentina's Messi & Portugal's Ronaldo from footballing immortality? Definitely not goals, whether in quantity or style, or club honours, or individual accolades won. By those measures both match Pele & Maradona, arguably surpass Zinedine Zidane & Johan Cruyff.
What it is missing is a World Cup: not a brilliant solo objective, nor a single great win, but a event that they have dominated & defined.
Diego Maradona achieved that grail in 1986, dancing & driving Argentina to the title. Pele perhaps did it two times, as spearhead in 1958 & embodiment of his team's brilliance 12 years later. Even in defeat Cruyff (1974) & Roberto Baggio (1994) owned a event.
This is the power of a World Cup. Reputations are transformed. Legacies are gilded.
"Mexico changed my life, literally," says Gary Lineker, whose six goals won him the Golden Boot in 1986. "It made a giant difference to me - a player going from who was not assured of a beginning place in the England team to suddenly, after that World Cup, being known by everybody wherever I went."
Messi & Ronaldo have achieved far more in club footy than Lineker. Between them they have Champions League trophies & all six of the last Fifa World Player of the Year or Ballon D'Or awards.
Unlike Lineker they are already global superstars. Yet unlike the former England striker, or his successor as Golden Boot winner, Italy's. they lack such a clearly defined peak.
Deep in to their careers, at an age where pace & influence are yet to fade, they will never have a better chance.
In 571 minutes at World Cup finals Messi has scored objective, the same number as Matthew Upson & Gary Breen. In 754 minutes, Ronaldo has over the England & Ireland centre-halves. To put that in to goalscoring context, Denmark's comparatively prosaic forward Jon Dahl Tomasson has. Pele ended with 12, & the Brazilian Ronaldo had 15.
"For the true greats of all time, you have got to make a name for yourself at a World Cup, in the event you are lucky to have been born in a country where you can," says Lineker.
These are the twin tornados of today's footy landscape, chasing each other in a statistical arms race, tearing up records, making the impossible mundane.
But as their third World Cups come around, there remains a sense of incompleteness, of a final summit still to climb.
What separates Argentina's Messi & Portugal's Ronaldo from footballing immortality? Definitely not goals, whether in quantity or style, or club honours, or individual accolades won. By those measures both match Pele & Maradona, arguably surpass Zinedine Zidane & Johan Cruyff.
What it is missing is a World Cup: not a brilliant solo objective, nor a single great win, but a event that they have dominated & defined.
Diego Maradona achieved that grail in 1986, dancing & driving Argentina to the title. Pele perhaps did it two times, as spearhead in 1958 & embodiment of his team's brilliance 12 years later. Even in defeat Cruyff (1974) & Roberto Baggio (1994) owned a event.
This is the power of a World Cup. Reputations are transformed. Legacies are gilded.
"Mexico changed my life, literally," says Gary Lineker, whose six goals won him the Golden Boot in 1986. "It made a giant difference to me - a player going from who was not assured of a beginning place in the England team to suddenly, after that World Cup, being known by everybody wherever I went."
Messi & Ronaldo have achieved far more in club footy than Lineker. Between them they have Champions League trophies & all six of the last Fifa World Player of the Year or Ballon D'Or awards.
Unlike Lineker they are already global superstars. Yet unlike the former England striker, or his successor as Golden Boot winner, Italy's. they lack such a clearly defined peak.
Deep in to their careers, at an age where pace & influence are yet to fade, they will never have a better chance.
In 571 minutes at World Cup finals Messi has scored objective, the same number as Matthew Upson & Gary Breen. In 754 minutes, Ronaldo has over the England & Ireland centre-halves. To put that in to goalscoring context, Denmark's comparatively prosaic forward Jon Dahl Tomasson has. Pele ended with 12, & the Brazilian Ronaldo had 15.
"For the true greats of all time, you have got to make a name for yourself at a World Cup, in the event you are lucky to have been born in a country where you can," says Lineker.
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