ive also NEVER claimed that 1) CR is the best in the world (certainly wasnt during his prime which coincided with messis prime) 2) that CR is the GOAT or that 3) CR is the best player of 2021 (which many of you claim messi is).
for that reason i dont expect him to win the CL or score or anything. hes old and thats that. he has a tremendous history of bein decisive in the CL, a history that is superior to messi's, but thats in the past.
on the other hand, many of you claim that 1) messi is the best in the world RIGHT NOW in 2021 and 2) that messi is the GOAT
such labels come with certain STANDARDS: i.e. ways of judging whether these claims are true. my ENTIRE point on the messi discussion HERE and in the messi thread is that if you are going to hold messi to those VERY high and DEMANDING standards, then they should reflect his performances in: 1) the CL, the ELITE competition, and 2) in decisive matches in Spain against a) Atleti and b) Real. since his very good performance against liverpool at home in 2019 messi has simply NOT demonstrated that.
hence the grandiose claims about him being BEST in the world. seem to me absurd and idealistic. you cant have your cake and eat it too: either he IS the best and SHOWS IT or he ISNT and we can relax our expectations of him--which i am happy to do because he plays in a WEAK team and is now OLD, past his prime
I also think you're holding unrealistic standards for what a GOAT tier player is in football (being decisive all the time)...because I think you're using basketball or other sports standards where one player can have a lot of influence on the outcome.
Football players also don't age well because they the legs are usually the first thing to go and football is about core strength and leg strength.
All of football's GOAT tier players have holes in their resume.
Messi - 10 league titles v RM, 4 CL, 700+ goals, 300+ assists, WC final but no national trophy
Pele - 3 WCs but mostly scored v no namers in Brazil (granted it was a strong league at the time but not modern CL)
Maradona - Huge peak in WC 86, impressive titles with Napoli but otherwise did nothing in Europe
R9 - Dominant WCs but no CL
CR7 - 5 CL, 3 PL, 2 LL, 1 Euro, 700+ goals but inferior H2H v Messi and Barca
DiStefano - 5 CL, nothing nationally
Cruyff - 3 CL, WC final but no national trophy
All have their holes in CV. You won't find a Jordan in football. It's too hard in a 11v11 game.