Unlocking the GOAT Meaning in Football: Who Truly Deserves the Title?

The debate over the GOAT—the Greatest of All Time—in football is perhaps the most enduring and passionate conversation in all of sports. It’s a title that transcends statistics, though numbers are its primary currency; it’s about legacy, impact, and that intangible quality of defining an era. As someone who has spent years analyzing the game, both as a fan and from a more professional standpoint, I’ve always found the discussion fascinating, not just for the answers it seeks, but for what it reveals about how we value different kinds of excellence. The recent news about RJ Abarrientos, winning a Rookie of the Year award for the second time in his professional career, actually sparked this line of thought for me. Here’s a young talent, clearly exceptional, resetting his own rookie clock in a new league and excelling. His stated hope, that “a championship comes next,” underscores a universal truth in our GOAT calculus: individual accolades are magnificent, but they are often the prelude to the ultimate team achievement that cements a legacy.

When we talk about the usual suspects—Pelé, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo—we’re looking at a spectrum of greatness. Pelé’s case is built on an almost mythical status, three World Cup wins (1958, 1962, 1970), and over 1,200 career goals, a figure that, while debated, anchors his legend in sheer, overwhelming volume. Maradona’s claim rests on a shorter, more volcanic peak, culminating in the single most dominant World Cup performance in 1986, where he wasn’t just the best player; he was a force of nature carrying a nation. My personal leaning, I must admit, has always been towards those who marry sublime individual skill with decisive team success on the very biggest stages. That’s why, for a long time, the modern debate felt like a perfect dichotomy. Cristiano Ronaldo is the ultimate athletic phenomenon and goal-scoring machine—his numbers are almost comically good, like his 450 goals in 438 games for Real Madrid or five UEFA Champions League titles. He engineered himself into a trophy-winning machine. Lionel Messi, on the other hand, often seemed like a genius who arrived fully formed from another planet, his playmaking and dribbling defying physics. For years, his lack of a senior international trophy was the stick used to beat him in the GOAT debate, a glaring hole compared to Pelé’s and Maradona’s World Cup triumphs.

Then came 2021 and 2022, and the conversation shifted seismically. Messi’s Copa América win with Argentina lifted a monumental psychological weight, and his transcendent, storybook performance in winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup didn’t just add a missing piece; it completed a masterpiece. To lead his team, with that pressure, through that tournament, scoring 7 goals and providing 3 assists, including two in the final, was the definitive closing argument for many. It provided the perfect narrative arc. In my view, that World Cup victory was the ultimate tie-breaker in the modern era. It demonstrated an ability to shoulder the destiny of a football-obsessed nation and deliver, replicating what Maradona did in ’86. When you combine that with his 7 Ballon d’Or awards, his 672 goals for Barcelona, and his fundamental reshaping of how we understand the attacking midfielder/second striker role, the body of work becomes simply unparalleled. Ronaldo’s achievements remain colossal, historic, and he is undoubtedly one of the two best players of this generation, but the symmetry of Messi’s career, now crowned with the ultimate prize, edges it.

This brings me back to the idea of trajectory, which is where Abarrientos’s story resonates. Winning Rookie of the Year twice in different contexts shows remarkable adaptability and skill. But he knows, as we all do, that the next step is about translating that individual promise into collective glory. That’s the GOAT path. It’s not enough to be the best player; you have to lift your teams to the summit, repeatedly. Messi did it with Barcelona’s historic teams and finally with Argentina. Pelé did it with Santos and Brazil. Maradona did it almost single-handedly with Napoli and Argentina. We judge them not just by their highlights, but by the silverware that gathered dust in their wake. The data point that always staggers me for Messi is his total of 44 team trophies, a record for a male player. That’s sustained, team-based winning at an absurd level. So, who truly deserves the title? From my perspective, Lionel Messi now holds the strongest claim. His career offers the complete package: otherworldly individual skill, longevity, statistical dominance, and the crowning team achievement on the world’s biggest stage. The GOAT debate is wonderful because it’s subjective and eternal. New talents will always emerge, like Abarrientos, aiming to build their own legacy. But for now, the weight of evidence, the narrative of the career, and the sheer beauty of his football point to Messi. He hasn’t just entered the conversation; he has, in my opinion, authored its most compelling chapter.