Cathal Dervan, Editor
There’s a Tommy Tiernan reference and a scene from a chipper in Belfast starring three great Dutch footballers to come but first a statement formed by opinion, not fact - Lionel Messi is not the greatest player who ever played the beautiful game. Now read on as they used to say in the days when typewriters carried the words to the page.
Let’s start with Tommy and the scene in one of his very early stage shows when one of his genius real life characters pronounces, behind the bike sheds in our old Navan haunt St Patrick’s Classical School, that Status Quo are the best band in the world - because his brother said so.
The definition by Tiernan’s character was very definitive and there was no suggestion that Thin Lizzy, the Rolling Stones, Stiff Little Fingers or even local heroes The Bogey Boys could give Quo a run for their money.
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No chance…
That scene came to mind as the world debated the greatness of Messi earlier this week when the Great One - not the greatest one - announced his international retirement after 207 games and 125 goals in the most famous light blue and white stripes of them all.
Many comments were passed on a career that has seen the little one earn over a billion dollars and every honour available to him with club or country, all of them complimentary and the majority of them gushing.
Those only coming to terms with their love of football as Messi and Ronaldo exploded onto the European scene and then the world stage in the early 2000s were treated to the emergence of two of the best players the game has ever seen, fighting it out to be regarded as the football world’s number one star.
That Messi was awarded that crown, and indeed the title of greatest player ever, by so many of those commentators as the ink dried on his retirement statement this week is no surprise. But is it realistic?
I’m not sure. That declaration of greatness brought me back to a trip to Belfast in August 1988, just a couple of months after Joxer went to Stuttgart and Ireland beat England, drew with Russia and lost to an offside Dutch goal in our first ever appearance at a major tournament.
The reason to visit Belfast, then still a troubled city, was a burning desire to see one of the world’s greatest players live in action as George Best’s career was celebrated at Windsor Park in front of a sell-out crowd of 27,000 fans and in a game featuring great players from all over Europe including our own Liam Brady, Pat Jennings and a very young Michael O’Neill.
My desire to travel North was a simple one. I wanted to see George play football, something I was too young to experience when he was at the height of his talents, not even when he played briefly for Cork Celtic in the League of Ireland in 1975.
Instead, I had to make do with the 42-year-old version of George as he dragged his ageing legs and a few defenders around Windsor one last time, even scoring a brilliant chipped goal over Allen McKnight of Northern Ireland and West Ham.
And speaking of chips - guess who ended up in a late night chipper around the corner from the Europa Hotel that night with my Star colleague and photographer Noel Gavin and a handful of footballing legends including Dutch masters Ruud Krol, Johnny Rep and Johan Neeskens? Yes, yours truly. It was no time to discuss their own greatness.
My desire to see George play was a simple one. For years I had been told by everyone old enough to remember that he was the greatest player who ever played the game. So I really wanted to see him play for myself.
I’m still glad I did. Did he look like the greatest player ever? No, of course he didn’t. Was he once the best player ever? I don’t know simply because I never saw him in his prime, short and all as that was.
He’s not alone in that regard. I have to rely on other people to tell me if he was better than Duncan Edwards, Pele or Alfredi Di Stefano. Unlike today, there’s no real YouTube footage available to prove them right or me wrong.
Which is exactly why I can’t agree that Lionel Messi is the greatest player ever - simply because that is subjective. Is he one of the best players I have been lucky enough to see live on more than occasion, most recently when Argentina were given the shock of their World Cup lives by Pico and Cape Verde? Yes, he is.
Better than Ronaldo? Yes. Better than Maradona, who I was also fortunate enough to see play football when he was still worth the admission money? Maybe.
The best ever? Nobody can ever say that for definite in my opinion but everyone is entitled to their opinion.
What I can say for definite is that Thin Lizzy were a better band than Status Quo - no matter what Tommy Tiernan’s brother thinks!
AROUND THE HEADLINES
Irish on the move: Browne’s Preston return off, Ogbene completes Lincoln loan move - Irish Examiner
Forty-seven full-time academy jobs created in LOI since State’s investment - Irish Times
Irish star seals Derby County return on season-long loan from Brighton and Hove Albion - Irish Sun
‘I decided in February 1958 that I was leaving Man United and coming home, the week before the Munich air disaster’ - Irish Independent
Every done deal on transfer deadline day - BBC Sport
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It’s Wednesday Week (to keep up with the northern music references), so it’s Kevin Bannon joining Cathal Dervan to discuss all things EPL. The window slammed shut last night, here they cast their eye over some of those movements while keeping an eye on what’s ahead this weekend.
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