LONGEVITY IN THE GAME

How long is long enough to go down as an all-timer?

One thing about human beings is that they love to draw comparisons between things in an attempt to find out which one is objectively better. The discourse around football is the same. Fans can’t help themselves getting into debates about who is better or which team is greater. These debates have persisted for a long time, including discussions about Pele v. Maradona, Zidane v. Ronaldinho, Messi v. Ronaldo, and even today's generation of players; there are still conversations about who is better than the others.

What interests me the most in the factors that are considered when having these conversations is the aspect of longevity. For some reason, longevity seems to be the be-all and end-all aspect. While I do think it’s important for players to have a long span of greatness in the game, I also feel that the importance of longevity is a little overstated and isn’t necessarily used in a fair way during the different debates that can be had. In a sense, people only use it as the definitive angle when it’s convenient for the player they are representing in the debate.

I also think achieving a career that spans over a long time is easier now than it ever was. And it’ll always get easier for the generations to come. The advancements in sports science in today’s world make it far much easier for players to have longer careers than the players who came before them. The quality of football pitches too has seen a host of changes and improvements as time has gone on. The only challenges that players today may face are the unfortunate occurrence of injuries or a lack of dedication, really.

The existence of Messi and Ronaldo doesn’t help the longevity argument either. Both of them being insanely good for 15 years has warped our minds on what normalcy is. Messi and Ronaldo being the blueprint for what’s deemed successful over a long period of time is, quite frankly, unfair, simply because they are outliers. Nowadays players don’t get enough love for being great for 3-4 years simply because it wasn’t “long enough”. In all honesty, it’s inevitable for great players to look like mere mortals when you compare them to Messi and Ronaldo.

All in all, when it comes to having these debates about who is better, it’s important to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everything is subjective.