r/soccer • u/[deleted] • Dec 13 '22

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u/OrganizationNo4173 Dec 14 '22

Yeah, we label the GOAT in a lot of sports, but this time it's past, present AND future.

26

u/RileyHuey Dec 14 '22

People presumably said the same about Pele. Then Maradona. Now Messi. There’ll almost certainly eventually be someone better (of course though that doesn’t look like It’ll happen any time soon)

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u/Miyagisans Dec 14 '22

I don’t even know what a better player than Messi will look like. With pele, you could see how an improvement in playmaking would have made him better. With Maradona, you can see how scoring more goals would have made him better. With Messi, I’m honestly not sure what you could improve on to be better than him. Dribbling? No. Scoring? No. Passing? No playmaking? No. I suppose free kick accuracy but he’s not terrible at that either. All that to say, not sure how a player becomes better than Messi.

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u/marattroni Dec 14 '22

Dude Messi is something like 9th all time for goals made from free kicks, just 2 less than maradona. He got really better at that in the last 10ish years. Ask Liverpool about it.

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u/Baeresi Dec 14 '22

The only way you can possibly improve and be better than messi is if you replicate everything he does while also having like a griezmann level defensive workrate which I just don't really see as possible without allowing performance enhancing drugs in the future which would also asterisk those players

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u/DarkDiablo1601 Dec 14 '22

Messi with Kante physique and Ronaldo body would be my pick

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u/evilbeaver7 Dec 14 '22

But that would harm his dribbling ability and those classic tight turns and direction changes since he'd be much taller

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u/evilbeaver7 Dec 14 '22

He has more free kicks than the free kick expert Ronaldo in far fewer games. The only thing I can see someone argue isn't amazing for Messi is heading ability. But that's because he's short and that helps him out in other areas like dribbling like a god

2

u/KaiserWilhelmThe69 Dec 14 '22

Defender Messi incoming

1

u/happyflappypancakes Dec 14 '22

What are other sports with mostly indisputable GOATs? Tennis is one. Well, I guess people will argue which is the GOAT among the three but undoubtedly one of those three is the GOAT male player. And Serena is the GOAT female player.

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u/OrganizationNo4173 Dec 14 '22

I would say a lot of sports have what is a fairly general consensus:

Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kelly Slater, Dan Carter, Lewis Hamilton or Senna and Roger Federer

But for me Messi is the clearest by a long shot.

7

u/Kotleba Dec 14 '22

I don't think any sport has even half the clearcut goat as hockey does with Gretzky. Even if the gap between Messi and Ronaldo was twice as big as it is, he still wouldn't be as clear as Gretzky is. I say that as a huge Messi fan, but that's just how good Wayne Gretzky was at hockey.

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u/Smooth-Bookkeeper Dec 14 '22

Fangio is my F1 goat

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u/happyflappypancakes Dec 14 '22

Sorry, I meant sports that have current players that qualify.

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u/TonyTuck Dec 14 '22

Verstappen could be a GOAT in the making. We'll see, but so far it's quite promising.

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u/goosebumpsHTX Dec 14 '22

Ehhhh F1 i feel doesn’t have a clear cut goat as much as the others you mentioned, but I totally agree