I think it is short sighted, because its simply overlooking the players ability as a footballer. I've had this argument many times, but for example, is Maldini as a defender, or Peter Schmeichel as a goalkeeper at the same level as a footballer as Maradona or Messi are as attackers. The answer is clearly yes, they are all elite players in their positions.
What you are talking about is a different thing. The best attacking players cost more money, bring more people and end up at the best teams because they are entertaining to watch and win games. Matchwinners do get you points, they have more eyes on them, they do win you games and therefore get the headlines. That to me is a valid argument, but i dont think its a comparison on ability. Its like this comical argument i see about winning the ballon d'or as a metric to judge players on as well. Everyone knows its the most politically voted award in world football.
The third tier scrub you are talking about is irrelevant because you arent comparing apples with apples. You are comparing say Reyes Cleary or Joe Taylor with Messi or Ronaldo. For me, you have to strip everything back to pure ability at the highest level, and base it on the era they are playing in as well. Thats a different argument as well for me though, i think good, creative attacking players are allowed to express themselves in the modern game way more than years ago which helps a lot.
No arguments on point 1, which is why I've said players should be judged on their position as an overall.
I don't necessarily use ballon d'ors/WPOTY as a key metric but it's useful as a supporting metric. If you're consistently voted the best player world multiple times then there's probably something in that. Yes there are biases from journos but the biases do go both ways in terms of journos supporting their favourite player, so unless it's super close like VVD being runner up to Messi that year where it was like less than 10 votes in it, it's probably still fair to say that the winner is a deserving one.
The point I made about the third tier scrub addresses your idea that you don't have to necessarily be successful to be the best. You obviously do have to, because unless you can perform at the highest levels no one really cares that Joe Average can score 160 goals in a pub league. You do have to base on it the era which is why I've said best of their generation is a better categorization of a player as yes, for someone like Maradona he did play against people that tried to break his legs, comparatively Messi is playing against people that have sports science at the fore and ultra-professionalism in basically every aspect. Every team and player is studied and broken down to ridiculous levels, and yet, it means nothing when he gets the ball. I always find it an interesting argument when people say oh yeah but could he do it in the 60's with cow paddocks and leather balls. I'm not sure? Could Pele and Maradona do it against full time professionals who don't smoke and drink and keep their body in ridiculous physical shape every year and know their every move inside and out and can counter it? It's the same argument.
As for creative players being able to express themselves more - yes and no. The game has been going away from a free roaming 10/playmaker like Riquelme for years as in the current era of ultra-professionalism, unless you are Messi (or Salah to an extent), you're expected to contribute defensively and stay within the realms of the system otherwise teams will just pick you apart. Messi also has the highest number of assists registered out of any player in history.
Coming back to Messi briefly - he's listed as the most amount of registered assists out of any player and the 2nd highest goal scorer. Pele and Puskas are the only others that register in the top 5 for both. Like, c'mon, the dude is clearly the best of his gen and has been to two world cup finals, winning and getting MOTM in one of them. There's no comparison between him and Ronaldo.
Ronaldo would have to have the most obscene run of his magnificent career, singlehandedly carrying Portugal to a WC win, to be in the convo - which is what the original question was. Seeing as he's never scored a goal in the knockout stages, I'm dubious to say the least that at 41, he has the ability.
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