• Messi can win a fourth European Cup if Barcelona beat Juventus
• This achievement would arguably be greater than a World Cup success
• That trophy has so far eluded Messi in his illustrious career
• Argentine great Diego Maradona led them to World Cup victory in 1986
• But a fourth European title for Messi would surpass Maradona’s feat 

By

Pete Jenson for MailOnline

Published:
06:47 GMT, 5 June 2015

|
Updated:
08:13 GMT, 5 June 2015

How many European Cups does it take to beat a World Cup? One doesn’t come close, two starts to draw level, three probably just about does it. So, a fourth for Messi would certainly achieve it.

That’s the logic behind the idea that if Leo Messi wins the Champions League on Saturday night and especially if he becomes the first player to score in three finals – Raul scored in 2000 and 2002 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008 and 2014 – he will have topped Diego Maradona’s 1986 tournament victory.

The more years that pass the greater Maradona’s achievement seems to some. The idea that he won it on his own gets stronger with every subsequent World Cup.

Lionel Messi, seen here celebrating his third European Cup win in 2011, is bidding for a fourth this weekend

Messi’s fourth title would arguably be better than compatriot Diego Maradona’s 1986 World Cup success

Messi sweeps home from the edge of the box to put Barcelona 2-1 up against Manchester United in 2011

The Argentine star runs off in celebration after restoring Barcelona’s lead in the 2011 final at Wembley

Messi in training ahead of his fourth Champions League final, against Juventus in Berlin on Saturday

It’s the myth that forgets how good Jorge Valdano and Jorge Burruchaga were and how although it was Maradona’s pass to the latter for the winning goal the scorer still had to run from the edge of the centre-circle to put the ball past Harald Schumacher.

Argentina beat South Korea, Bulgaria, Uruguay, England and Belgium before they toppled Germany – one minnow, and three European sides in the heat and altitude of Mexico.

World Cup victories are monumental achievements; Argentina’s was a thrilling and well-earned as any; and Maradona’s tournament was spectacular and included the greatest World Cup goal in history.

But increasingly the Champions League is the more difficult tournament to win. The ripping up of the old format has removed the luck of the draw element that still can still show itself in the World Cup, and Messi has made the competition his.

Maradona is carried shoulder high by his Argentina team-mates after their win in Mexico back in 1986

Messi leaps to head home Barcelona’s second goal in the 2009 Champions League final with Man United 

Messi’s goal in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome set the seal on Barcelona’s win over the English champions

If Barcelona are victorious this weekend in Berlin they will have overcome last year’s French, English, German and Italian Champions to lift the trophy.

Three out of four of those wins will have been achieved over two legs. It’s a 14-game slog to the final and even when the group stage is a procession it remains tougher to win the biggest club competition in football than it does the World Cup.

The argument that the pressure is greater for the World Cup owes more to the bare-faced Sepp Blatter exaggeration that one billion people watch ‘his’ final than any reality. Last year’s Champions League final reached 380 million viewers and the pressure will be on Messi more than ever.

The currency of trophies has changed in modern football. Fourth place in the Premier League really does now mean more and is harder to obtain than the League Cup. 

And the Champions League is at the very least on a par with the World Cup now, especially in an age when sadly so many players and coaches take club football more seriously than the international game.

Messi has enjoyed another first class season and will complete a treble if Barcelona win on Saturday

Messi will be ably assisted in the final by the impressive Luis Suarez (left) and Neymar (right) 

The little wizard cut a relaxed figure as Barcelona continued their preparations for Saturday’s final

If Messi wins in Berlin, he will surpass the trophy haul of the great Alfredo di Stefano (right) 

So to win it for a fourth time and to play a major role in a third victory will take Messi to another level. 

Perhaps his real rival in all the debate about history’s greatest is not Maradona but another Argentine, Alfredo di Stefano. The Real Madrid forward won the European Cup five times scoring in all five finals.

And so it’s worth noting that Messi will achieve something very special with victory in Berlin. Di Stefano won 25 trophies in his illustrious career. 

The Champions League on Saturday will be pot number 26 for Barcelona’s No 10 – ‘the little flea’ will have gone past even the ‘the blond arrow’.

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