re: Where does Lionel Messi rank in tGOAT athletes discussion in the world?

ESPN trotting out the hyperbole that he is unquestionably the greatest “athlete” in history.

My eyeballs almost rolled outta the back of my head.

Also Muhammad Ali. Who else could defeat Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Joe Frazier? What a great boxer he was, and at heavyweight at that.

I think Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time, but for most of his career he was neck and neck with a contemporary player which makes him kind of an interesting place.

Gretzky and Jordan stood so far above their contemporary field.

Messi’s legacy is leaping past Ronaldo’s at this point because of World Cup outcomes at a stage in his career where Messi was already past his peak level.

It’s hard to find an analogy. Brady continuing on and putting to bed any argument with Manning and all other historical greats is probably the most similar. Or perhaps Djokovic surpassing Federer and Nadal in the end.

That said, being the GOAT in the worlds most popular sport is > than being the GOAT in a sport most of the world doesn’t play.

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Gretzky and Phelps are pretty unassailable as greatest “GOATs” in any sport

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In very exclusive sports.

I hate soccer but can’t argue that being the best in the world at the most popular sport is incredible.

All things being equal, my thinking is it’s more impressive to be a little bit better than “10,000 competitors” than to dominate “100 competitors.”

Messi is the soccer GOAT but when you combine athleticism and technical skills, most college and pro football, baseball and hockey players are above him. So are the basketball players with actual skills instead of using just they're size.

We're talking the frigging sport of Flopping aka Futbol, yes it's a recognized global sport but the sport itself is pathetic, boring and perfectly geared toward women with chin hair and low voices and men with low T and a bun.

To summarize, Messi is a great soccer player/flopper but what red blooded American seriously cares about a sport invented by the Brits in the 19th century? The UK's most popular sport is low T Soccer and the nation is on the precipice of falling to the Islamists. NO THANKS!!!!!!

I think that's fair. Millions of kids and adults see Messi as a god. Amazing that a basically non-verbal adult can achieve what he's achieved.

Well, that depends on your definition of athlete. Messi is great at his sport, but not nearly as great of an athlete as Bo Jackson or even someone like
Christian McCaffrey. Give McCaffrey as soccer ball for his 3rd bday and he's the greatest soccer player of all time.

He's a soccer player so he's capped at a pretty low level

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Where does Lionel Messi rank in tGOAT athletes discussion in the world?

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Up there.