Why does Messi needs to win a major tournament in order to be compared to Pele and Maradona?

[contestgamer]

Goatseye said:

BraLoD said:

And that Pele winning 3 freaking world cups from 4 (Brazil hadn't a single cup before Pele), doesn't count because Brazil had a great team but somehow all of Messi achievements playing by the strongest club of the world counts for him to be the best ever.

He quitting from Argentina last night was pathetic, he will really never match Maradona and ffs Pele should not even be in the imaginary realm of this discussion, the guy can't even accept losing and will rather let his country down than to try again.

You can only play for a country that understands you and don't rip you apart for every little thing that happens in national team.

Argentina doesn't have a coach, a system and a defense. Ronaldo does half of what Messi does for his country but you won't find ONE newspaper, criticizing him. 

Messi has more goals than Maradona, more assists, plays in more positions and has more trophies as an individual player. This discussion is shielded on the work of a team to nominate one individual as the best there is. 

Ronaldo dragged a garbage team to the semi's of a Euro, a much tougher competition than copa. Ronaldo has done pretty well internationally, although he could do more. But he hasn't announced that he's going to retire because he's so mentally fragile that he can't take the criticism and heat and would rather give up than fail again. That is pathetic. Can you ever imagine Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan doing that?I mean holy crap that's weak and you can't deny it. Out of hundreds of players across dozens of international teams, it's Messi that makes headlines for an unprecedented quittal on his national team. Come on man, this is right up there with Lebrons "decision" as one of the most pathetic moments in sports history.

Messi can rack up all the numbers he wants in meaningless games. Ultimately you play for trophies - that's the measure of a player, not how many goals he scored against garbage teams. That one Maradona goal against England? It'll be remembered by more people than 400 of Messi's goals because of the stage, style and competiton it was scored in.

And he knows it - I guarantee you that Messi would trade in 300 of his goals for just one in the last WC finals. Messi has proven himself at club level, with an all time stacked team built around him. 

Although I rank Messi above Ronaldo all time, I have to admit that if I was building a team from scratch I'd pick Ronaldo before Messi - because he has more individual weapons to effect any given game against any given team and he won't quit on me after a finals loss. Messi is the greatest system player of all time, but he is lacking the intangibles to be the greatest inidvidual player. He's mentally weak.