Lionel Messi: The Greatest?

The World Cup of 2018 is likely to be Lionel Messi's swansong as an International player for Argentina, in what is his fourth trip to the finals, having made his bow in the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a fresh-faced 18-year-old.

It is fair to say that Argentina has been there or thereabouts in Messi's three previous tournaments, beaten by Germany on each occasion – in the quarter-finals of 2006 and 2010, and the final of 2014. That said, Messi did not play in the defeat to Germany in 2006, with manager Ricardo La Volpe plumbing for Juan Roman Riquelme in Messi's favoured position. The game ended 1-1 after extra time, but the Germans would triumph on penalties, 4-2. Four years later, the Germans took the Argentines apart, and ran out 4-0 winners against a team featuring Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Carlos Tevez in attack. In 2014, Argentina once again played Messi and Higuain up-front, and had Sergio Aguero in back-up. However, a tense affair ended 0-0 at full time, and it wasn't until the 113th minute when Mario Gotze grabbed the winner, condemning Messi to a runners-up medal.

Is this Messi's year? Is this Messi's World Cup? The bookmakers are favouring Brazil and Germany, with Argentina fifth favourites. They should progress from the group stages, where they are pitted against Croatia, Iceland and Nigeria, but we saw two years ago that Iceland's spirit is strong, when they upset the odds and beat England 2-1 at Euro 2016. But this is Messi, and that couldn't happen to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, could it?

When Messi eventually retires, he will go down as one of the greatest to ever play the game, but is he the greatest ever? Do you have to win the solid gold trophy in order to receive that accolade? On one hand the great Brazilian, Pelé, who many consider to be the best of all time, won it three times in 1958, 1962 and 1970, but spent almost all of his career with Santos in his native country, before moving to New York Cosmos and the North American Soccer League for three seasons. Messi, however, has won everything possible with Barcelona since making his debut in 2005. Nine La Liga titles, Spanish Cup six times, and the UEFA Champions League four times ensures that Messi has won more in club football than Pelé ever did, and against better opposition. Pelé himself once said that Manchester United legend George Best was the greatest player of all time, but the Belfast Boy won just two League titles and the European Cup with the English giants, and never played in the World Cup for his native Northern Ireland.

And then there's Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has won five League titles and five Champions League medals during his career with Manchester United and Real Madrid and has also bagged the European Championship with Portugal in 2016. Ronaldo has a better goals-to-games ratio than Messi, but Messi does more off the ball than Ronaldo.

So just who is the greatest player of all time? Should Messi win the World Cup this year, you would have to say he is. But three World Cup wins for Pelé is some feat, beating Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Italy in the finals themselves, scoring three goals in the process. You have to go back to the fact that Pelé was never really tested at club level, but did score an astonishing 619 goals in 638 games for Santos, while claiming 77 in 92 for Brazil. George Best was never going to win the World Cup, but had he played in one of the finals, you could not have counted him out. Currently, I am going for Best, based on Pelé's statement. But once Messi and Ronaldo retire, that's a whole new ball game!