Qatar 2022. Greatest ever!!!!!!

Messi. All! Time! Great!

World cup final. OMG!! THE BEST EVER!!!

They hype is nauseating. A feel good fairytale created by marketeers to sell stuff. Driven by paid influencers and social media virality. And fuelled by flavor-of-the-month fans.

Where is the nuance?

Has the Greatest Ever brigade seen Maradona at his peak? Or Pele in full flow? Does the 1966 final ring any bells?

This is not a Messi vs Pele/ Maradona comparison or any hankering for a bygone era.

The point is that it is impossible to compare top atheletes/best matches across generations. There will always be a recency bias. Can you really appreciate the atmosphere when England took on Germany in '66 with the World War II memory still fresh?

No doubt that Qatar world cup was Great. And no doubt that Messi is one of The Greats.

Just not The Greatest. There is no metric to measure that.