serghei
Senior Member
Ok, but in their prime:
Muller had 3 CLs in a row 74, 75, 76 + World cup 74
Van Basten 2 Cls in 1989 and 1990 and Euros in 1988.
What was Messi's prime?
2 Cls in 3 years or 3 Cls in 7 years?
Muller on his prime had only 5-6 CL attempts.
Van Basten had 4 (2 wins, 1 final).
So, even if you look at primes, when you remove emotions and Barca glasses, it is hard to say: Messi's peak was better titles wise.
Again, that's even without NT titles.
About Muller, ok, Germany was always strong.
But Dutch were eternal losers with zero titles ever.
Their only NT title ever came in 1988 with Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard.
Euro 88 had only 5 matches per team.
Van Basten scored 5, scoring for 2:1 against Germany in semis in the 88th minute and scoring for 2:0 in a final against Russia.
So, both Muller's and Van Basten's CL peak was equal or better than Messi's.
Yet, both of them paired CL streaks with World cup/Euros where both Muller and Van Basten were top scorers, key players and scored winning goals in semis and finals.
Yet our GOAT Messi has zero goals on a WC in his career, iirc.
The only thing in which Messi is better is consistency in La liga and longetivity.
And magical solo runs in his prime.
This is why you can't compare eras. Too many things are different. You can only look at what you see in your time. And based on that, Messi and Ronaldo are the best I've seen.
That's the best conclusion we're gonna get.