Better than Muhammad Ali?
Better than Michael Jordan?
Better than Diego Maradona or Pele?
I immediately discount 'provincial' or 'non-world' sports participants - cricket, ice hockey, gridiron, AFL, rugby union, rugby league, baseball, etc, etc
Messi has won the Ballon D'Or 7 times, more than double anyone else except for Cristiano Ronaldo
You can compare them by how far above the other top players of their time they were. But I don't think there is any measure that would put Messi at the top in even football let alone across all sports.
Lionel Messi? Never heard of her.
He wrote the Ghostbusters theme song
… and spent some time Dancing on the Ceiling
Well, that's a lack of general knowledge
Messi is best player in the last 15 years and that is it. There are a number of better footballers in the history. He is not even the best footballer in the history so no he is not the greatest sportsman of all time.
I like him, but no, not even top 10 let alone top.
I remember reading a profile on him in a magazine ( i think Four Four Two) and I saw his first game for Barcelona as a sub at the age of 16. I was expecting magic right away but he was not that special that game. It was something he eventually grew into.
I rate him very highly as a sport person. He was even willing to take a pay cut to stay in Barcelona.
If you ask 100 people if they have heard of him, only about 10 would have. I only know him cause I play FIFA on switch.
U must live under a rock…
You can’t be serious? 100 random people or from your circle? Even my 5 year old niece knows him.
Is Lionel Messi
Yes.
His mum is always telling him to clean his ROOM !!!
Nice one Dad
I was in brazil last week, they hate him
Neymar on the other hand
I think you'll find that you're the only one beating anything.
Rug beating? Maybe there’s an Olympic gold medal winner for that you could nominate.
Or possibly synchronised dwarf throwing. I can’t keep up with every possible sport that gets added
The answer is definitely Bradman and Gretzky
Who?
Who is the greatest sportsman? That's easy: no one.
How do you compare a basketball player to someone who plays football? Or a boxer? And they were stars in different eras too.
Just enjoy their talent and performances.
This! Valentino Rossi for me, because I love motorcycle racing. But for a round ball fan they’d ask ‘who’ is this Rossi bloke?
Never heard of Messi until a few days ago.
Valentino who?
Fair enough not to include AFL or league, as no one else really plays them - but Rugby Union has a very competitive world cup and Cricket has a huge number of fans, in part due to how big India is.
You also rule out half the world - why not best sportsperson. I know males are usually stronger, but I would nominate Heather McKay, who absolutely dominated squash and never lost a match from 1962 to 1981 when she retired - for good measure she then played in the Australian Hockey team and won a racketball championship.
But I agree with the others Bradman was miles ahead of any opposition and still no one has come close.
Too many haters on here. If you can do half what he does, you would be earning minimum wage in the Premier League at about 15K per week. Yes he is the GOAT for football. No one even comes close.
You are probably correct, but the question is:
Is Lionel Messi The Greatest Sportsman of All Time?
GOAT of Football and hasn't won a world cup. :) Ok
Wait for the weekend mate!
Aged well
Tom Brady
Game played only in US… sure centre of the universe as usual.
I think GOAT tag needs to be only inside each sport code personally.
Did you just say Cricket is a non-world sport? Haha
I actually agree. How many countries out of the 220+ play cricket? If it wasn’t for immigrants from the subcontinent playing it in other countries, even less people would know about it.
More than half now are members of icc. It is definitely a world game.
Hmmm I didn’t know that, but I also know a lot of people who have gym membership. Doesn’t mean the go to the gym though.
@Ridiculous Panda: cricket now has an estimated 2.5billion fan base, compared to Soccer's 3.5 Billion. Cricket is now the second most popular sport in the world. If cricket isn't a world game then you would have to say no sport is.
There are many territories not recognised by the UN as a independent country that have their own sports teams. Plus the four separate teams that represent the UK.
220 was a guess though. Probably a bit fewer than that.
He wasn't even the best player in his team for the last game. Alvarez was robbed for MOTM.
The disrespect in this thread to David Foster, shameful.
There hasn't been any dominant players in football history to the degree of other sports, so you really can't argue for any footballer as the greatest athlete by measuring footballers against their peers.
Football GOAT wise, if Argentina win one more match then for me, he is undisputed. As for Cristiano, the fact that Ronaldo is usually measured up to Messi's achievements and ability, and not the away around, settles the debate.
Just to clarify - who's David Foster?
First search result on Google - Canadian musician: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster
Second search result on Google (and who I suspect you meant) - champion Australian woodchopper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_(woodchopper)
I've never understood why boxing can be on this type of list.
Why? each sport has a GOAT. No person can be called the greatest athlete of all time unless they can achieve greatness across all sports, which is impossible.
Messi might be the GOAT of Football
Ali would be considered the GOAT of boxing, but many others are also in the mix. It's not so clear-cut with boxing.
OP was the one the discounted a whole raft of sports, but included boxing
Only know of him from his infamous rolling skills from a few years back. Must be a bit of a clown?
Are you referring to this? Looks pretty bloody good there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfTqN9saMbg
Hang on looks like I mixed him up with Neymar! I clearly don't follow "football".
Kelly Slater
He is the arguably the greatest having won 11 world championships.
I am not aware of any individual who has won so many titles i their respective sport.
Agree he's up there. Also folks like Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson, Jesse Owens must factor pretty high
Phil (The Power) Taylor has 16 world championships, plus 80 odd other major titles in Darts.
Don't think anyone else comes close to that.
Lmao because he said sport
Nadal French Open 14 times
Wouldn't call soccer a sport tbh, basically just running on a treadmill with terrible acting.
Didn't this guy recently do a deliberate handball and got away with it?
No
This topic is a joke.
Messi as the GOAT sportsman?
OP may need to see a real doctor.
but… Self medication is clearly working..
May be a great soccer player but sportsman means on and off the field and from this world cup alone he seems like a complete (profanity)..
100% even if there is someone more talented at another sport, Messi does it for the world sport at the biggest stages.
Cricket, rugby league, rugby union provincial sports…. riiiiight.
Wrong question for this forum.
Mbappe is already better then messi
‘Already’ ?
Messi is 35, way past his prime
Next thing you’ll be comparing Mbappe to Maradona, Ohh wait..
Maradona plays handball not soccer
Edit* played
Mbappe is better than what Messi is now but Messi in his prime was better than all. And his prime was over a decade long. Greatest sportsman ever though? Probably not
Jahangir Khan, unbeaten in Squash for nearly 6 six years (555 games)
I believe in Australia we call it "stacks on"
Nicholas Latifi (aka GOATIFI)
not even close, the true goat is neo, forest or s1mple
You obviously like football.
“There are only three sports, bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering and all the rest are merely games” Hemmingway
Maybe he is the best gameplayer
I hate the fact that in football, people cheer for the one who scored the goal. Not the one who contribute or the goal keeper. That's reflected how society worked
The most difficult thing in football is to score a goal.
– Pep Guardiola
He's not even the greatest footballer of all time… I think he cements his place at a solid number 3, if he wins this world cup.
It’s entirely possible that Messi may be the best ever at soccer, but the fact that’s easily debatable isn’t saying much in terms of his status as ‘the greatest of all time’.
I kinda feel like the most valid way to measure ‘greatest sportsperson of all time’ is how dominant they are relative to the rest of their sporting fraternity. And in those stakes, Wayne Gretzky may be the best contender for the title as his dominance of his own professional sport is completely unparalleled across any other.
Not even close. If they changed the rules of the game for you maybe ie like for MJ who is in IMHO the greatest of all time.
All opponents feared him even the greatest of the generation. Federer redefined tennis for his era again ( admired by 2 more of the greatest Nadal and Dj) can easily be considered as one of the greatest way over Messi.
Are Greatest Sportsman of All Time legit in the past? Since who knows the drugs they took, and testing was less consistent and less accurate back then
No.
Kelly Slater gotta be up there.
50+ championship titles
11 world titles (more than any athlete in any sport - ever!)
30+ years as pro
Youngest and Oldest men's world champ in history
Down vote. It's surfing. His opponent is water, not elite athletes every week trying to break him.
Lol. his opponents are other pro surfers, doofas.
Don’t know about Lionel Messi, but Michael Masi is definitely up there, won a drivers championship without even racing a single race, except he did go motor racing…
Not even the best soccer player of all time…. so no, no where near the best sportsman of all time.
He's a great, no question there. But not the best in his game. You're discounting some true gods of sporting history, and that probably comes down to age.
That's not a bad thing, but that's what happens when a young person sees greatness. They've never seen it before.
My grandma knew who Jordan and Ali were, and she could barely remember her kids names at the end. That's greatness. Someone who hates sport, doesn't follow it at all, has lost most of her faculties- but still knows who those two greats are.
Real greatness transcends the sport. Messi hasn't done that. At least not yet.
Messi is faster, stronger relative to height, quicker, skilled, and smarter than all those past soccer ballers.
Dont worry, i'll be telling my grandkids about Messi so your covered there!
You have all overlooked the real G.O.A.T
It is Muzeeb !
I don't understand the constant need to find the "greatest" in anything, since it's highly subjective, and seems kinda pointless?
His great but i can think of a dozen or more i would vote for.
Lebron James or Michael Phelps or muhammad Ali in terms of tenacity.
I love how you discount cricket, when it is literally the second most popular sport in the world after soccer. And it's hard to say Messi is indisputably the best when Ronaldo has so many more goals than he does.
Add assists i.e. goals created per game and Messi is clearly ahead…
No, he's too messy…..I'll just see myself out.
Tiger Woods made golf interesting to watch. Enough said.
Jack Nicklaus
Santa Claus?
Better Slams record than Woods.
Messi is the best
I dont think you can compare former sporting legends (regardless of whatsport it is) with current players as technology has improved significantly as well as teams have become a lot more competitive. If you put Pele and Maradona against current Man City or Real Madrid, would they perform as well as they did back in their glory days?