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.

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.

Will winning the fourth Champions League make Messi greater than Maradona?

NO

Without winning it, he s grta.

He is the greatest footballer of all time...

No because The world cup is the highest trophy in football and nt some uefa champions league cup.