What Lionel Messi’s GOAT rivals were doing at age 39: Pele, Maradona, Cruyff… | OneFootball

Lionel Messi is lighting up the World Cup at the age of 39 and now has his sights set on becoming a back-to-back winner and the oldest ever scorer in its final.

Messi is still achieving greatness at an age when most players have packed it in. If he wins another World Cup, having scored eight goals at this one so far, he might once and for all be seen as the greatest of all time, if he isn’t unanimously already.

To emphasise how ridiculous Messi has been recently – and yes, we know he’s usually strolling about in MLS at club level, but boy has he turned up here – we’ve taken a look at what some of the sport’s other biggest legends were doing at the same age he is now.

Pele

The original GOAT, Pele wowed on the World Cup stage at the age of just 17 in 1958.

From then on, the Brazil and Santos forward kept up his high (and sometimes exaggerated) standards in front of goal, becoming a three-time World Cup winner.

The final game of his career, an exhibition for New York Cosmos in October 1977, was a few weeks shy of his 37th birthday.

When Pele was 39, he was being filmed in Escape to Victory, which would be released in 1981 after he’d turned 40. Pele played Corporal Luis Fernandez in the war-time football film.

He was also in the process of putting his name to the Pele’s Soccer video game, which similarly got released when he was 40 in 1981.

Pele did return to the pitch at the age of 39 to take part (and score) in Franz Beckenbauer’s farewell game for the Cosmos, for whom he remained a consultant.

Diego Maradona

Maradona’s career fell off the rails a bit towards the end, but he had shone brightly as one of the game’s biggest mavericks in his prime.

The Argentine was approaching 37 by the time he retired in 1997 after a couple of years back with Boca Juniors.

Sadly, the initial years after Maradona’s retirement were clouded by familiar issues with substance abuse. He went into intensive care after a drug overdose when he was 39, before entering rehab in Cuba.

Away from his personal struggles, Maradona released his first autobiography, ‘Yo Soy El Diego’ (‘I Am El Diego’), in that same year, 2000.

Johan Cruyff

Not only was Cruyff one of the best players of all time, he also left a huge legacy as a coach – a journey that was already underway by the time he was 39.

Cruyff’s playing career ended in 1984, when he was 37. Just a year later, he returned to Ajax to become their new manager.

He turned 39 towards the end of his first season in charge of Ajax, who went on to finish second behind PSV – in spite of a ridiculous +85 goal difference after they averaged more than 3.5 goals per game – but won the KNVB Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Many think Messi’s success in the World Cup has settled the debates between him and Ronaldo, but some still ardently defend the Portuguese star’s case.

He wasn’t as impactful in the major international tournament he played at the age of 39, though, failing to score in Portugal’s run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

Ronaldo had turned 39 whilst playing in his second season with Al-Nassr, which turned out to be his highest-scoring in the Saudi Pro League so far.

Alfredo Di Stefano

Di Stefano was still playing at the age of 39. After celebrating his birthday in the summer, he embarked on his final season as a footballer with Espanyol.

He scored five goals from 33 games for a side who finished just outside the relegation zone in La Liga.

His international career – in which he represented three different countries, but never played at a World Cup – had ended four years earlier.

Ferenc Puskas

Puskas only played three times after turning 39 in April 1966, all in the Copa Del Rey for Real Madrid. He scored in one of them.

However, the Hungarian goalscoring legend retired at the end of the season, having sat out the remainder of Madrid’s La Liga fixtures.

He became a manager at the age of 39 that summer, taking charge of Hercules. They suffered relegation from La Liga by the end of the following season, but Puskas did go on to become a fairly reputable manager, particularly with Panathinaikos at the start of the 1970s.

Ronaldo

The Brazilian Ronaldo’s talent burned brightly towards the start of his career, making him the youngest ever winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1997.

Alas, injuries ruined Ronaldo’s career, but some still regard him as the most pure attacking talent there has ever been.

Ronaldo retired after a spell with Corinthians at the age of 34.

Five years later, he was overseeing a project to open new branches of the Ronaldo Academy, his youth football school that expanded its empire into China and the USA, as well as his native Brazil.

Zinedine Zidane

After his playing career ended unceremoniously with that headbutt on Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, Zidane remained involved with Real Madrid at various levels.

At the age of 39, he was named as the club’s sporting director, at the request of head coach Jose Mourinho.

Madrid won La Liga in the season that followed, breaking several records along the way. A year later, Zidane became Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant coach.