When calling Messi GOAT is no longer enough

Until the 85th minute of Thursday’s semifinal, Argentina were trailing England by a goal, and a spot in the final seemed to be slipping away. The clock seemed to be carrying Lionel Messi away with it.

Every second whispered the same thing: perhaps this was the end.

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Then Lionel Messi raised his head. A pass from the maestro found Enzo Fernandez, who unleashed a thunderous strike.

Argentina were level, and the Argentine end of the Atlanta Stadium erupted. In added time, Messi’s cross reached Lautaro Martinez. Header. Goal. Argentina were in the final.

Messi did not score in the biggest match of the tournament so far. Yet he wrote its ending.

Perhaps those few minutes best explain this version of Messi. He no longer needs to dominate an entire match. Sometimes a glance, a decision, and a pass are enough.

England had contained him through the middle. Messi then drifted right, and Argentina began finding a way through. The equaliser came from that side. So did the cross for the winner.

He changed his position, and the match shifted with him.

Messi is Argentina’s gravity. Even without the ball, the game bends around him. When he moves wide, defenders follow, and space opens elsewhere. That pull unsettles opponents and lifts his teammates. His refusal to accept the ending seems to spread through the side.

The comeback against Egypt carried the same force. Argentina were two goals down with 11 minutes remaining. Messi crossed for Cristian Romero, scored the equaliser, and then watched Enzo complete a 3-2 win in added time.

He has eight goals and four assists at this World Cup, contributing to at least one goal in every match. Across six World Cups, he now has 21 goals and a record 12 assists.

Numbers cannot fully explain Messi. Still, they tell the same story: when he scores, the match becomes his; when he does not, yet the match somehow finds its way back to him.

The younger Messi used to tear defences apart. He would collect the ball near midfield, leave several opponents behind, and continue as though they had never been there.

That running has diminished. Now he walks, waits, and reads the field. Then the ball reaches him, and every calculation changes.

He once raced ahead of time. Now he can stop it with a pass.

For years, we called him the GOAT: the Greatest of All Time. It seemed football’s language of praise ended with those four letters.

Yet beside Messi, even GOAT feels inadequate.

So, GOAT and Godfather come together here in another name: the GOATfather.

The word is not entirely new, but beside Messi’s name, it seems to find its proper meaning.

A GOAT is the greatest among his peers. The GOATfather is the measure by which greatness itself is judged.

Whenever a gifted left-footed boy glides past defenders, Messi’s name is mentioned. When a young player sees a pass everyone else has missed, the question follows: could he be the next Messi?

Football does not merely remember him. It searches for him in every new wonder.

GOATs reach the summit.

The GOATfather decides how high the summit is.

Pele and Diego Maradona came before him. Other extraordinary players will follow. But Messi leaves behind a standard no future claim to greatness can avoid.

He never had to call himself a king or demand a throne. He simply placed the ball beneath his left foot.

A touch. A turn. A pass. A goal.

He repeated the extraordinary so often that we stopped watching merely to be surprised. We began waiting to see what he would do next.

Messi’s story was never made only of victories. There was the 2014 World Cup final, more defeats, tears and the burden of carrying a nation’s unfulfilled hopes.

Still, he returned.

Again, and then again.

When he lifted the World Cup in Qatar four years ago, the trophy did not make him immortal; he had become that long before. It only made the story complete.

That could have been enough.

But he came back once more. At 39, in his sixth World Cup, he has taken Argentina to another final. He no longer needs to break opponents apart alone. Sometimes it is a goal, sometimes a pass, and sometimes simply his presence that reminds Argentina there is no end before the final whistle.

Messi can be kept quiet for a while. His runs can be stopped. His passing lanes can be closed.

But he cannot be declared finished.

At the hardest moment, he still sees what has not yet appeared to anyone else.

That is why he is more than Argentina’s captain and more than the finest player of a generation.

He is the GOATfather: the man future greatness will not move beyond but begin from.

What else can we call you, Lionel Messi?

Beside you, every name eventually becomes too small.

Arafat Rahaman is a journalist at The Daily Star. And of course, a fan of Leo Messi. He can be reached at [email protected]