The GOAT debate will never end. That’s for sure.
It didn’t end in 2019. It didn’t end in 2022. And it won’t end even after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi retire.
Neither Messi nor Ronaldo will be the undisputed GOAT for all generations. Time doesn’t work that way.
The generation that watched them will always have its opinion. But the generations that never saw them play will grow up with new heroes, create new standards, and crown their own GOATs. The generations after them will do the same.
After all, it’s difficult to fully appreciate what you never witnessed. Watching highlights is not the same as living through an era.
A hundred years from now, Ronaldo and Messi will be remembered the way we remember Alfredo Di Stéfano, Garrincha, Ferenc Puskás, Johan Cruyff, George Best, Eusébio, and Pelé today…. footballing icons whose legacies have stood the test of time.
Time doesn’t end the GOAT debate. It simply passes it on to the next generation.