Great posts, i highlight the key points:
. You can perform better and lose a tournament than someone who wins a tournament. Performances don't always equal winning.
Spot on, I agree 100%
Often a great pass or dribble makes a goal and the finish is not the hardest part, sometimes it is even the easiest.
Spot on a again, I agree 100%
Goal scored don't always equal good performance.
Often in a play that leads to a goal, the goal itself accounts for 10% of the overall action, while the rest, like assists, key passes, dribbling, and so on, account for 90% of the goal.
You can be MOTM without having scored any goals.
It's not about scoring goals and just the pure numbers, it's about playing football and there is MUCH more to it than scoring a lot of goals.
Obviously, considering Messi the GOAT (or goat along Pele and Maradona) has never been a matter of statistics and trophies won,
but having 2 eyes connected to a functionning brain: everyone who knows football can instantly see why Messi is a goat level special talent. He will always be remembered for how he played.
Stats and trophies come as extra.
What makes him the GOAT is his innate quantum football IQ combined with immense talent/technique, just as Pele and Maradona had.