Barcelona legend, Andres Iniesta, has insisted Lionel Messi’s World Cup win will not settle the debate on who is the greatest ever footballer.
Africa Today News, New York Messi has long been considered among the best of all time.
However, many observers insisted he needed a World Cup title to cement his status alongside the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona.
Iniesta, who played together with Messi for over a decade at Barcelona, has now said the 35-year-old’s standing in the game will always be up for debate despite Argentina’s thrilling win against France on Sunday.
‘For me, Messi is the best with or without [winning] a World Cup.
‘I am sure anyone who doesn’t view Messi as the best will find an excuse to keep seeing it that way, regardless of whether he won the World Cup or not,’ Iniesta told ESPN.
In a related development, Brazilian legend Pele have asserted that Messi ‘deserved’ to be a World Cup winner after Argentina.
Pele, a three-time World Cup champion, wrote on Instagram to celebrate the Argentine team.
He wrote; ‘Today, football continues to tell its story, as always, in an enthralling way. Messi winning his first World Cup, as his trajectory deserved’.
Pele also hailed French striker Kylian Mbappe who scored a hat-trick in the final which had ended 3-3 after extra-time before coolly slotting in a penalty in the shootout.
‘My dear friend, Mbappe, scoring four goals in a final. What a gift it was to watch this spectacle to the future of our sport.’
It was an iconic sight that finally — definitively — places the soccer superstar in the pantheon of the game’s greatest players.