Sir Alex Ferguson has formally settled the Lionel Messi vs Diego Maradona debate

Argentina’s dream of back-to-back World Cup titles resulted in heartbreak as Spain edged out Lionel Messi’s aspect 1-0 in New Jersey to be topped world champions.

It introduced the curtain down – fairly presumably for good – on Messi’s extraordinary worldwide profession, and whereas the outcome did not go Argentina’s means, the 39-year-old nonetheless leaves the event together with his legacy additional cemented.

Messi completed the 2026 version with 8 objectives and 4 assists, second solely to Kylian Mbappe within the Golden Boot race and simply behind the event’s help leaders, regardless of being saved comparatively quiet within the closing itself.

It extends his all-time World Cup file to 21 objectives and 12 assists throughout six tournaments – a mixed 33 objective contributions that no participant within the competitors’s historical past has come near matching.

That form of longevity will solely add gas to the controversy over the place Messi ranks among the many best of all time, a dialog that can rumble on for many years no matter Sunday’s outcome.

Some will nonetheless level to Pele’s three World Cup wins. Others will argue Diego Maradona’s peak surpasses something they’ve ever seen, whereas Steven Gerrard even claimed Ronaldinho was a more durable opponent than each Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Sir Alex Ferguson provides verdict on Messi vs Maradona debate

However we already know the place Sir Alex Ferguson stands on the Messi vs Maradona query.

The talk resurfaced again in 2019, following the demise of revered Scottish soccer author Hugh McIlvanney, when it emerged that he and Graeme Souness had clashed repeatedly over the very same query.

Based on a chunk written by The Instances’ Jonathan Northcroft after McIlvanney’s passing, the veteran journalist was adamant that Maradona was the superior of the 2, whereas Souness pushed again laborious in Messi’s favour.

When phrase of the standoff reached Ferguson, he backed Souness’s stance over McIlvanney’s, explaining that Maradona’s profession on the very high was only some years – a nod to Messi’s exceptional endurance in comparison with the shorter peak loved by his Argentine predecessor.

On condition that Messi has since gone on to win a World Cup, two Copa Americas and lengthen his numbers even additional at 39 years previous, it is laborious to think about Ferguson’s verdict has shifted since.

Whether or not it is Maradona’s particular person brilliance in 1986 or Messi’s sustained excellence stretched throughout twenty years and 6 World Cups, the controversy in the end comes right down to what every particular person fan values most in a participant.

Ferguson’s reply leans firmly towards longevity and consistency on the very high – traits Messi has continued to exhibit nicely into his late thirties, culminating in Sunday’s closing look on the most important stage within the sport.

Maradona’s genius, in contrast, is commonly remembered in flashes: a single event, a handful of unforgettable moments, quite than years of accrued dominance.

Each arguments have advantage, and neither aspect is more likely to persuade the opposite any time quickly. However with Messi’s profession now virtually actually full at worldwide degree, the numbers he leaves behind make his case as compelling because it’s ever been.

Three worldwide titles, an all-time file for World Cup objective contributions and a physique of labor that stretches from a teenage prodigy to a 39-year-old nonetheless inspiring a cup closing run twenty years later.

It is an argument that Maradona, or anybody else for that matter, merely can not match.