The GOAT conversation is always debatable. The older generation will say Pele was the GOAT as he won the world cup twice for Brazil. He also scored over 1000 goals for his career. That’s an amazing stats right? Wrong, Nothing compared to what Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are doing. Both have won 5 ballon d'or which is the award for best footballer. Things that these two are doing will never be repeatable. Cristiano have scored over 600 goals for his career and he’s not done yet. He led Manchester United to league title and won the champion league. He then was signed by Real Madrid for a world record fee back then for $100 million. Now, clubs are spending stupidity amount of money on players. $100 million transfers is not a big deal nowaday. Ronaldo is also the all time goal scorer for Real Madrid. He had a crazy goal ratio for Real Madrid. He won 3 champion league with his tenure with Real Madrid. He signed for Juventus last year for a fee of $100 million again which is highest fee for a player over 30 years of age. His dedication will never be match. He grew up poor and his dad was a drunkard. He worked and worked for his goals. Instead of hating on him, we should appreciate his greatness as he won’t be playing much longer. As for me, the GOAT is definitely Lionel Messi. We will never see a more complete player than Messi. He can dribbles, pass, and score. Most players can only do one of the three but he can do it all. We will never see a player that can pinpoint  a pass like Messi. Soccer is complex game but Messi makes it look so easy. Dribbling past 4 or 5 players like they are practice cones and scoring like a practice shot. He is the first player in history to reach 90 goals in a calendar year. He also has the most goals in La Liga history with 300 goals and he’s just getting started it. Sports writer and ex professional footballers discredited him for never leaving Barcelona and not winning a major tournament with Argentina. People say that Premier League is the best league in the world. Well, Lionel Messi holds the record for most goals against the top 6 clubs in the premier league. He had never lost a match against the giant clubs in the premier league when they meet in the champion league. Lionel Messi could play in any generation. Watching him dribble the ball is like listening to Beethoven play piano, so graceful. He took Argentina to 4 major tournament finals but he couldn’t win it because his supporting casts wasn’t even enough. He took an average Argentina team and basically carry them on his back to the World Cup Final where they lost to Germany in extra time. The people of Argentina will never put Messi ahead of Diego Maradona unless he wins a major tournament for them. People forget that Maradona had a all time squad when Argentina won the world cup back in 1986. Messi isn’t a cheater like Maradona. Maradona is nicknamed “the hand of god” for intentionally using his hand to score a goal back in the 1986 world cup. Can we really say a cheater is the GOAT of football? Messi childhood story is something extraordinary. He was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, He moved to Spain where Club Barcelona agreed to pay for his medical treatment. He came up the academy all the way to the first team. He made his debut at age 16 and the rest was history.  We can’t compare Pele and Maradona to Ronaldo and Messi. Pele never played in the highest league and his 1000 career goals was fixed. It was reported that 390 goals of 1000 goals was in a friendly games. Nobody takes a friendly games seriously. Messi and Ronaldo rarely play friendly games as they are resting their body for the real one to start. The standard of football wasn’t as good back then. The players were slow and they didn’t make enough money to fully dedicate their time to playing football full time. Another thing, Pele never won the golden boots at the world cup. The golden boot is the top scorer at the world cup. Messi won one. The main reason why Pele is not the GOAT is because all of his goals weren’t captured on camera. All Messi and Ronaldo career goals are captured on camera. We never see a player like Messi and Ronaldo again. Their individual accomplished and team accomplishment will never be achievable. Instead of debating who’s better, we should just appreciate their greatness as they won’t be playing any longer.