Vamos Argentina
Sabes que yo te quiero
Hoy hay que ganar y ser primero
Esta hinchada loca, dejo todo por la copa
La que tiene a Messi y Maradona
(Translation: Come on Argentina / You know that I love you / Today you have to win and be first / This crazy fan, I leave everything for the cup / The one with Messi and Maradona)
Argentines, young and old, sang these lines loud and proud for as long as their team was in the 2018 World Cup. Some might ask what that imposter Lionel Messi was doing in a song like this. He won no major honours for his country, unlike the other man in the song. He has been nothing but a disgrace to the country he represents, one might argue. And so it goes.
But one has to feel for the Argentine fan. It has been a long dry spell for the South American country. They came close in 2014, but nothing could touch the high of 1986 when one little magician lit up Mexico like never before. The young fan had grown up, yearning to feel the magic; the old fan had arrived, yearning to relive the magic. Desperate for another saviour to lead them to la Copa. Greatness had taken them to the summit once, and when they demanded the same of his successor, there was nothing in store but disappointment.
Now, as their long-time hero Diego Maradona falls, they are left with a compatriot who will probably have to live the rest of his life under the shadow of a man he could not emulate at the World Cup. Almost as if it was his life’s mission to prove himself to his countrymen. Heavy, indeed, lies the head that wears the crown of Maradona’s successor.
For as long as football has existed as a global sport, the global stage has defined greatness. If one cannot do it in front of the whole world, you are asked to take a seat in the crowd, nothing more. For what Diego Maradona did in Mexico—and nearly repeating in Italia 1990—he was right up there. The Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) on an insurmountable peak.
Or was he? Because Pele did the same and won at THREE World Cups, didn’t he? Sure, he had a better team around him than Maradona, but would you dare say that the man who scored over 1,000 professional goals in his career, and who had a longer and more successful career than Maradona, doesn’t deserve being called the GOAT?
Which is the point. That the GOAT debate is a highly volatile, subjective argument that will never end. Heck, when it came to deciding who was the greatest of the 20th century, the football world was so divided that FIFA eventually conferred the title jointly to both players.
And yet, so many players—from Bobby Charlton to Ronaldinho to Roger Milla to Sunil Chettri—qualify as a GOAT for different sections of fans in different parts of the world. And each of these players, in turn, have their own preferences for who “the real GOAT” is. Moreover, if you haven’t noticed yet, they rarely stick to one. Both Pele and Maradona themselves have constantly changed their opinion over the last few decades.
While the World Cup is still the World Cup, “greatness” was redefined in the age of the cash-rich super clubs. Few will claim that the national teams at the World Cup are really the best teams in the world. And it is in this world that two men have been head and shoulders above the rest. What Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have done consistently for over 12 years against the super clubs of Europe is unprecedented.
And so, as football evolves—and indeed, as mankind evolves—“greatness” gets redefined with each generation. Who knows under what circumstances the next generation of players will have to prove themselves? Perhaps they will be up against supercharged athletes unlike ever before.
So, pardon the Argentine as he dreams of witnessing greatness again. Greatness comes in many forms and shapes these days, and each of us has an idea of what it ought to look like. For the Argentine, Maradona may be the GOAT. For the rest of us, he has done just about enough to be lodged in the pantheon of all-time greats.
