Opinion – PVC: Rivalry between Messi and Lewandowski reaches the World Cup

by

Messi did not vote for Lewandowski in the Fifa The Best award election last year. The Pole was elected the best player in the world, with the Argentine in second place. The result was reversed in France Football’s Ballon d’Or trophy. Second place pissed Lewa off: “I have no reason to hide my dissatisfaction,” he said.

Lewandowski was elected by Fifa in the last two awards, and his predecessor was Messi, in 2019. If the duel for the throne of the greatest star became between the eternal Argentine and the Pole, this Wednesday (30) the big game of the Cup of the World can make Lewa send Messi back to Paris or Messi send the Pole to Barcelona.

The globalized Cup is so much fun that the Argentine will not land in Buenos Aires and the Pole will not land in Warsaw, in either case.

A recent rivalry has developed between the Argentine genius and the Polish striker. That must be the definition, because Lewandowski is a top scorer. Messi, much more than that.

The last 15 years have seen history pass before us in Messi’s duels with Cristiano Ronaldo, a kind of Pelé x Garrincha in the 21st century.

It’s different with Lewa.

In 2011, when Messi won his third Champions League and claimed his third best in the world award, Lewandowski scored eight goals for Borussia Dortmund’s German title. Of his 33 appearances, he started 18 from the bench. He was a substitute for Lucas Barrios, later champion of the Copa do Brasil with Palmeiras and Libertadores with Grêmio.

Lewandowski, the best on the planet, was Barrios’ reserve! Jürgen Klopp was the climber.

Today, Lewandowski is better than Messi!

Or is it better like this: Is Lewandowski better than Messi?

At the end of that 2011 season, with Messi champion of Europe and Lewa reserve in the German title, Argentina and Poland played in Warsaw, with a Polish victory by 2 to 1. Lewandowski was in the starting line-up and did not score. Messi was on vacation, preparing for the Copa America that his country would host.

It was the last game between Argentines and Poles.

The confrontation has history. Anyone under 40 may have forgotten, but Poland has made many a great team cry, as much as watching “The Pianist”, Roman Polanski’s masterpiece about the German massacre in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II.

Argentina lost to Poland by 3-2 in the opening of the 1974 Cup and only qualified in second place in a bracket in which Italy was eliminated. Grzegorz Lato was the playmaker of the game, with two goals. Four years later, the second group stage began with Argentina 2-0 Poland, two goals from Mario Kempes.

In 2010, at the Santiago Bernabéu, Boniek was ahead of me. I held out my hand and said, show my son his three goals against Belgium in 1982. He smiled sympathetically.

If you don’t know who Boniek is, look up Poland 3 v 0 Belgium on YouTube now. Today, the world of football does not know who Poland was, third in two World Cups. But everyone knows who Lewandowski is.

The question is whether he is even better than Messi.

Is not. But it can eliminate the greatest star of the 21st century in the first phase and condemn the greatest genius of the Champions League of the last 20 years to ostracism in Cups.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you