DOHA — “Pray for the King,” Kylian Mbappe tweeted when news swept from a hospital bed in Brazil to the World Cup in Qatar that Pele was struggling with his health.
“I’m happy to see you breaking another one of my records in this Cup, my friend!” Pele responded. When Pele replies to your tweets, you know you’re worthy.
Although Pele had actually slightly misunderstood what Mbappe had achieved. The French striker notched up a fifth World Cup knockout stage goal with his double to down Poland in the last 16, and it was widely reported he had broken a record set by Pele 60 years ago.
But Mbappe hadn’t broken it. At 23 years and 349 days, he was the youngest player since Pele to hit five. Pele was, somewhat unbelievably, 17 years and 249 days when he did it, on the way to winning his first World Cup, in 1958.
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Perhaps the greatest thing about the great GOAT debate — the Greatest Of All Time, for the uninitiated — is that it’s a title that is impossible to quantify. Impossible to compare different players in different eras in times when football has been played so differently across the ages.
Because they are playing now, it’s usually Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo. Yet neither has won a World Cup. And though Pele never won a European Cup, because he dominated Brazilian club football with Santos, he has won three of those.
And which, really, is harder to win? A World Cup, every four years, considered the pinnacle of football, something that has eluded so many of the game’s legends. Or a Champions League or domestic title, available every year?
Four players have won five Champions Leagues, including Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Luka Modric. More have won four, in a group which includes Messi. Meanwhile, 73 players have won three or more Premier League titles. At the top of that list: Ryan Giggs has won 13, Paul Scholes 11, Gary Neville 8.
Yet Pele is the only human ever to lift three World Cups. And only 20 players have ever won two — something Mbappe is two games away from. The list includes only Brazilians and Italians, bar Daniel Passarella of Argentina. So Mbappe would be the first Frenchman.
Yet while Mbappe may be two games from greatness, he is still a long way away from GOATness.
The original Ronaldo – Ronaldo Nazario, as many call him – is one of the players to have won two World Cups, and has said he sees himself when he used to play in Mbappe. “Talk about how fast he is and how good he is, and how he’s remembered me when I played before,” Ronaldo said. “He knows how to use his ability, how to go faster than the others, he uses that ability to assist or score.
“I think France is the favourite one to win the World Cup, as I said before the World Cup started, and Mbappe for me is going to be the best player for the World Cup.”
Ronaldo came awfully close to matching Pele’s World Cup record. A winner in 1994, he was 22 when he lost in the final in 1998, and was 26 by the time he won a second in 2002. He did play in 2006, scoring three times, but it was to be his last World Cup and Brazil were beaten by France in the quarter-finals. Pele was 22 by the time he won two — with seven goals in six games (he was injured for much of the 1962 World Cup and scored only once).
By the time he won his third, at his final World Cup in 1970, his record stood at 12 goals in 14 games. Ronaldo’s is 15 goals in 19. Mbappe’s, currently, is nine in 12. Should France win their and Mbappe’s second successive World Cup, in Qatar, he could realistically have two, perhaps three, shots at compiling a record in football’s most prestigious tournament to rival even Pele. But if he comes at the King, he best not miss many chances.
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