Just look at the relief and happiness from Messi's face and it is for everyone to see what World cup is meant for him. It is everything. He said already he would trade all his Ballon d'Or for a world cup trophy.
Nordic Ghost Yeti | Haaland at City
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
And Messi plays in a time where players don't go out drinking, smoking and snorting cocaine every weekend, so there's that
To be fair, Maradona was pretty elite in the snorting departement as well
People who saw the tournament chose him in the team of the tournament before the final was even played.
Yes, i did watch the tournament, more than once btw, cause is still my favorite WC till nowadays.
His Euro 2000 was even 100 times better.
Yeah true, but I'd imagine at that time the gap between the best players and the rest was probably bigger because it mostly just came down to natural talent, no sports scientists, dieticians, tactics being lesser. Not to mention much less money in the game, I'm not sure how much less but I'd imagine this impacted the smaller teams far more, as the biggest teams probably could still pay players enough to attract the best but as you go down the league, less players could afford to make a living just playing football, meaning a smaller pool to choose from
Maradona played against tough defenders and in times where you could break a leg, and sometimes not even get a red card.
Also when scoring rates were much lower than now, due to more defensive set ups.
The WC was the biggest stage at the time. In some ways it still is, even though CL is on par/eclipsed it today.
It's all about showing up on the BIGGEST stage.
Yeah and he said the same thing even when he hadn't won it. The world cup is by a comfortable distance the most important competition in the sport for many footballers. Winning it the way he did will be his proudest accomplishment by a country mile. Similarly, Maradona's exploits in 86 are by far the most important thing he ever did and the reason many had him as the greatest ever (or part of of the consensus triumvirate of Messi, Maradona, and Pelé).
Yep, I never saw Messi that happy celebrating a CL with Barca, not even close.
Ronaldo also was way more happy when he won the Euro 2016 than in all his CL wins with Madrid combined.
Winning with your countrymen will always mean more than winning a trophy with a superteam assembled with money, and playing for a club that isn't even from your country.
I think when Maradona died, someone said "I'm not sure he was the best, but his best was the best".
I struggle to imagine any talented football-mad kid growing up NOT dreaming of winning the World Cup.
I guess it may be different in England, as you may dream of winning stuff with your club too, probably the same if you are Spanish, but already doubt if you were German or Italian you'd put club over country.
The moment your country of origin means you would be playing for some big club in a foreign country, it's the World Cup and nothing else.
I guess it may be different in England, as you may dream of winning stuff with your club too, probably the same if you are Spanish, but already doubt if you were German or Italian you'd put club over country.
The moment your country of origin means you would be playing for some big club in a foreign country, it's the World Cup and nothing else.
I've never understood the infatuation with international football. I couldn't care less about it.
The vast majority of football players, football fan, in fact the majority of people in general, would disagree with you. It's by miles the biggest followed football competition in the world and nothing else comes even close. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.
Last edited:
I fail to see how any true fan of football could show no interest in the football World Cup. I'd say they were a fan of something else and it's not football. Maybe they are "glory seekers", a fan of a big money brand that they some how think they are part of and can go around shouting about cheaply to other people, but they're no fan of football in my humble opinion.
Its a remnant from a time when club football didn't have billions and billions of pounds in it and it was genuinely the highest level of football. But it's hard to change people's minds when they've grown up hearing that it's the pinnacle of football
It's by far the biggest and greatest football stage in the world today. It's as simply as that. There's no question about it, it's just the fact. There's nothing in club football that even comes remotely close. That's not talking about the past, it's talking about today.
Also, unlike club football teams, it doesn't involve buying titles like Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Barca, Real, Blackburn, Chelsea etc etc do and have done in club football.
On another note there's a difference a with a player playing well surrounded by all the best players bought in the world, dominating a league and a player turning up and showing true quality when your team mates are not the best in the world. So many players shine when surrounded by a team bought to win a title, a team dominating everything through steeling every other clubs best players , yet don't show up when not surrounded by the same for a national side. I'd question their true quality. Sadly some people make excuses for them. There are some United players who today are regarded as the best ever, when taken out their comfort zone at a dominating United who had the best of everyone apart from Real and barca, were pretty rubbish for their national sides.
Last edited:
I'd say in 20-30 years time, people who've grown up with club football as the uncontested best level of football, who can watch every game from around the world in high definition, rather than only seeing several players play at world cups and not the rest of the time, international football will be seen as more of an irrelevance
I mean look at the recent international break, how many people actually gave a shit, and how many would have rather given all our players a few weeks off and had no international football
Nah no chance, the scarcity makes it special the more of something makes it less special. National pride will always be a bigger deal than club pride, it’s a global game. The World Cup is the biggest deal in sport, you can’t compare. I’ve personally found the Champions League to be a big let down compared to the excitement of the World Cup, in fact the whole season has been overwhelmed by it.
May be. I doubt it. I highly doubt anyone live outside of England and Spain care more if EPL big 6 or Liga big 2 win the CL than their own country's performance in World cup.
Tbf this seasons champions league has been somewhat worse with stronger teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, psg being knocked out early. Plus there's only been 22 world cups ever, but the more that number increases the less it will feel quite as scarce. There was definitely a point in the mid 2010s where if real and Barca had played each other in the CL final it would have overshadowed any world cup game.
Well I mean yeah obviously, if a minnow wins the world cup it's going to be an absolutely huge deal, but theres only a handful of nations that ever actually have a chance. I mean I can't speak for them, but I'd imagine when Leicester won the premeir league, that was a far bigger deal for their fans than anything England could win
To a lot of countries, even qualify for the world cup, or make it to the knock out stage is already a HUGE deal.
Well yes, but equally there's a ton of clubs for whom making the knockout stage of the champions league would be a huge deal.
By chance, do you have a link to this "team of the tournament" you have mentioned twice now? I can't seem to find anything official and the only thing I can find where he is included seems to have been written by a 14yo who mentions everything about Zidane bar his WC performances. Also mentions he helped his team get past Paraguay which is quite a feat since he didn't play in that game!
And icing on the cake, it didn't include Deschamps who was massive in that tournament. From the 98 squad, I'd say Blanc, Desailly, Deschamps and Barthez were all better and more important than Zidane, and you could make a case for Djorkaeff and Petit too. You say you watched him in that tournament, I honestly recommend you go back and watch again, he wasn't great at all.
But you seem to deal in hyperbole with your "100 times better" quote, so maybe we'll just leave it at that.
Impressive that Ronaldo made the Top 17.Unstoppable. Someone here was saying he isn't as good as RvN.
Help is at hand. Zizou most definitely did not have a great tournie before the final. Here's a precise summary of his tournament:
https://footballwhispers.com/blog/world-cup-icons-zinedine-zidane-1998/
Everything you've said here is correct IMO
Aspirations of winning the World Cup are curtailed here by the likelihood of it ever happening, but any set of players that managed know they'd be anointed living gods, so if we're talking about the pursuit of absolute glory, there's no question whatsoever of players not knowing what it would mean for them and this country.
Is there a single player (not in the throes of separatism) that puts club football before country?
Fan-led notion, particular to this generation borne of Ronaldo and Messi's inability to win international trophies up until the very recent past.
everything you've said here is wrong. Like everything.
How would you go about finding this out? Apart from Bale with his Wales.golf.madrid flag, do players ever talk about which is more important?
There's certainly suspicions that players fake knocks to miss international breaks (I believe giggs was fairly routinely accused of this), plenty of players retirr from international football to prolong their club career, varane has just done it for us, and yes he's won the world cup, but he's also won 4 champions leagues.
Well he wasn't someone who was 'about goals' in the same way that Haaland is about goals, that's for sure
But that's not even the point. Maradona is not called the greatest solely because of the World cup.
Maradona was incredible.
You can watch his highlights against Belgium in 86.
His peak was higher than Messi's in my opinion
There's a difference between an international break and a major tournament. I bet Varane wouldn't give up the feeling of his World Cup win for the world. He played in two World Cup finals and a Euros final. That's a lot of emotional pressure.
He said of winning the World Cup "I still feel every emotion I felt that day, July 15, 2018. It was one of the most amazing and memorable moments of my life." Do you think he remembers the date of all his club trophies?
I mean probably his champions leagues, certainly his first one I'd be sure he will.
But what I'm saying is the other poster said how many players pick their club over their country, but how is that information going to come out, is any footballer apart from bale, going to say they care less about their club.
Their club pays their wages and for some footballers it's just a job, not loads but there's a definitely a number who don't care much for football bar the income it brings
It comes out by players talking about it and all the players I recall speaking about it said country was more important to them. Even being capped by your country is a huge honour to most.
And yet it's far more common for a player to retire from international football to prolong their club career than vice versa
What does that mean FFS? You can't retire from club football to prolong your international career!
The first two things people think of when talking about Maradona are 2 goals