I don't get the logic about the goat discussion...
How can a player be "losing points" because he didn't stop at the top of his powers. I mean leo reached a level for at least an 8 year span that other players haven't, ever. And secondly he kept, if not that level, but a pretty close to that, for 15 years. No one has ever come close to that.
In comparison to that, maradona's top level ended in a heartbeat. Leo is just held to impossible standards by Barca fans. Everyone else has accepted him as de facto no.1, not because of his last years, but because of the longevity and ceiling of his top years.
Again, it's subjective.
As I have wrote, you have a lot of factors:
1. Pele never played in a CL
2. Maradona played in a CL (Champions cup) 2-3 (iirc) times in his career because back then only 1 team per country played in it.
Messi and CR7 had a privilege to get 15 consecutive CL participations.
Of course that they have the highest amount of CLs won and the highest number of goals scored.
So, basically, Messi and CR7 had a huge advantage over all other players from the past in terms of CL attempts (to win it).
Also, the difference between big and small clubs in leagues was never as huge as today due to money from sponsors for reach clubs.
So, again, it is way easier to be a 30-50 goals per season player than in 80s or 90s.
What is the only thing that is the same as with Pele&Maradona= NT teams.
Pele has 3 World cups, Maradona has 1 one-man-show World cup.
Messi has lots of lost finals and atrocious numebers in key KO matches, more or less.
Again, I love Messi and he is the greatest legend of our club ever, but phrases like: "He is an undisputed Goat" are just lol when you analyze more factors without emotions and a bias.
About longetivity: he played in an era where EU is one country.
Where Czech, Croatian or Slovenian players are not foreigners anymore.
Also, he came from La Masia ranks in the era when it was allowed to "steal" kids.
Maradona, Pele, Ronaldinho never had a privilege to play in Europe from the age of 17.
In those days, when teams were allowed to have only 3 foreigners, no one was buying 18 years old kids for foreigners spots.
Teams used to buy proven superstars like Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario and similar.
So, if Messi would have played in 70s or 80s, he would have probably come to Europe aged 22 or 25.
And he would probably come to Porto/Ajax or other smaller teams first.
He wouldn't play CLs and he would have only 5-6 years in a top club like all other superstars pre 2005.
So, a lot of factors are totally different in a current era and they need to be taken into the account.
For example, look at the numbers from these players, goals per season:
59 Suarez 2016
55 Lewa 2020
43 Lewa 2017
42 Lewa 2016
41 Lewa 2018
40 Lewa 2019
40 Aubameyang 2017
39 Aubameyang 2016
38 Cavani 2013
38 Higuain 2016
37 Suarez 2017
36 Lewa 2013
36 Diego Costa 2014
33 Higuain 2011
33 Cavani 2011
32 Benzema 2012
32 Muller 2016
32 Griezmann 2016
32 Higuain 2017
31 Suarez 2018
31 Suarez 2014
31 Aubameyang 2019
31 Benzema 2008
30 Suarez 2013
30 Lewa 2012
30 Benzema 2019
29 Aubameyang 2020
29 Griezmann 2018
29 Higuain 2010
29 Higuain 2015
28 Benzema 2016
--------------------
28 Batistuta 1995
28 Batistuta 2000
27 Batistuta 1996
26 Batistuta 1999
I won't even compare Batistuta to Messi and CR7.
To make it more fun, let's compare him to a level below.
You could argue that Batistuta was of a level of prime Suarez.
But prime Suarez scored 59 goals in a current (inflated) era.
While Batistuta never scored more than 28 in any season in his career.
What is a bigger disgrace, even clowns in terms of finishing like Higuain or Griezmann have way better numbers than prime Batistuta.
So, according to numbers, all players from a current era: Messi, Cr7, Neymar, Lewa, Suarez, Benzema, Griezmann, Higuain, Aubameyang, Muller, Cavani.
How is that possible?
Again, as I have explained, football is different today:
1. the differences between rich and small are insane so it is easy to statpad on bottom table teams
2. there is more soft penalties today
3. football in general is more attacking than before so all attacking players from current teams are getting more chances and breaking all records
4. players play more matches than in the past, plus big teams play CL every season, so it is easy to break all records or TOTAL numbers scored and CL numbers, since they have way more matches
5. today ALL top players play in 1-2 top clubs in each country. In the past Maradona played for Napoli and Batistuta played for the 7th placed club, Fiorentina for almost his whole career.
Because leagues were even, quality was even and the wages in top clubs and 7th placed clubs were similar since there wasn't insane differences in wealth as today.
And now, numbers from today say that even clowns like Higuain and Griezmann are more lethal finishers than this guy, lol:
Or even Muller, Benzema etc.
But since people are too emotional about Barca and Messi, they don't want to take anything away and accept that a large part of his stats is due to a current inflated era.
Even in the season 2012-2013. Messi in the UCL had 8 goals. Spearheaded the round of 16 match comeback vs Ac Milan and then scored the first goal in the away leg against PSG in the quarter final. He was then injured for the 7-0 drubbing against Bayern. That season was better than 99% of champions league forwards in history and I've never even looked at it as being anything other than a crappy ucl year for him.
He was better than 99% of CL attackers in a history when Maradona, Pele, Van Basten and Batistuta have less CL seasons COMBINED than Messi/CR7 alone.
Prime R9 would destroy all washed up players no matter who that player is. Even peak Salah/Mane is better than current Messi.
