Leo Messi and the greats of world football history at 35: why he is better than Maradona, Pelé, Cruyff and Di Stéfano

At 35, Lionel Messi has only one thing to settle: winning the World Cup with Argentina. He was second in 2014 and in Qatar he will play his fifth World Cup and also transform in the only Argentine footballer in doing so. Brand new champion of the French championship with PSG, he is not thinking about retiring yet. How many successes and records still await him? Who were the great players in history until they turned 35?

the Rosary He was for a long time among the five greatest players in history. In that privileged place there are two other Argentines: Alfredo Di Stéfano and Diego Maradona, seated at the same table as Pelé and Johan Cruyff. Contemporary, Cristiano Ronaldo He has supersonic numbers and will also play his fifth World Cup.

Messi and CR7 still have a chance to be champions aged 35 or over. They will not be a record, because there are four cases in history, none of the great nor contemporary. In Switzerland 54, the German Toni Turek celebrated with 35 years and 167 days. Four years later, in Sweden, Nilton Santos was 37 years and 32 days old. In Spain 82, goalkeeper Dino Zoff set a new record at 40 years and 133 days. Meanwhile, in Brazil 2014, the German Miroslav Klose completed the Olympic lap at the age of 36 and one month.

On 18 December, the day on which the Qatar final will be played, Messi will turn 35 years and 5 months. If he wins the title, he would be in fifth place. Meanwhile, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo will be 37 years and 10 months old and would deprive Nilton Santos of second place.

All football geniuses have had a different relationship with the most important event in the world. Alfredo Di Stéfano could not be there for a minute. In 1949 he emigrated from Argentina to Colombia, like almost a hundred professionals, and that exodus was one of the reasons (not the only one) for not participating in Brazil 1950 and Switzerland 1954. In 1958, already Spanish nationalized, Spain did not qualify .

In 1962 he was about to turn 36, he was part of the national team and was injured in the penultimate friendly: hamstring fatigue. A few days later he closed the list of 22 and was still included. He was unable to recover. La Saeta Rubia continued the business until the age of almost 40 (he retired to the Espanyol in Barcelona). From the moment he turned 35 until his retirement, he scored 103 more goals and won 4 titles.

At the age of 35, in 1975, oh king Pelé had already fulfilled all his dreams and his relationship with competitive football was already over. He played in Cosmos, in the Armed League in the United States with the idea of ​​putting down roots and projecting the sport in a country without a football tradition.

He hadn’t played for the national team since he was 31, one year after winning the World Cup for the third time. They tried to get him to be present at Germany 74, but he refused. He had already played four, the first at 17 and the last at 30. And he had kissed the Jules Rimet Cup three times.

Johan Cruyff played his only World Cup in 1974 and finished second.I was 27 years old. He had been a multiple champion in the Netherlands and shone in Barcelona. A traumatic family situation, the attempted abduction in September 1977 at his home in Barcelona, ​​separated him forever from long trips to international events or long rallies.

He resigned from the national team at the age of 30, did not participate in the 78 World Cup of major events and never had revenge again. At the age of 35, he returned to his country’s league, where he played for another two years and won four more titles.

Despite how little he took care of himself in life, Diego Maradona played up to five days before his 37th birthday, on his third return to Boca. The National team was closed even after the fourth World Cup, in 1994, when it was withdrawn because the doping controls gave him a positive result and he “legs cut off”. He couldn’t be champion in 1978 because César Luis Menotti left him out when he cut the list from 25 to 22. He got his revenge in 1986, when he led Argentina to win their second World Cup. He was second four years later. Before returning to Boca in 1995, almost a year before he turned 35 and while he was banned from FIFA, he was technical director of Mandiyú and Racing.

Cristiano Ronaldo turned 35 in February 2020. Since then he has played 101 games and scored 74 goals. He hasn’t lost any of his scoring skills. Like Messi, he will play his fifth World Cup and dreams of lifting the FIFA Cup. With the Portuguese national team, at least, he had the pleasure of winning the European Championship and the National League. He is the top scorer in history (815 goals) and the player who has scored the most goals for the national team (117). And he never stops scoring goals. Last season, at Manchester United, he made 24.

Messi, when his relationship with PSG ends, will play a few more seasons, certainly in MLS, as Pele did, but now more competitive. But in the national team he is even more valid, in search of the only title he is missing. The most valuable.