Messi probably doesn't deserve player of the tournament but he has certainly been in the top 5 so it's not that bad. I am annoyed that Argentina didn't win purely because it will tarnish Messi's legacy in the eyes of so many people. The world cup argument infuriates me though. It implies that players can't be in the upper echelon of greats if they are from a lesser footballing nation. If Gotze didn't score that goal and Argentina won on penalties then Messi would somehow be considered much greater which is frankly ridiculous. Messi's club level achievements are far superior to both Pele's and Maradona's, in trophies as well as performance level. Why doesn't that count for anything? A player perhaps gets 2 shots at a world cup when they are anywhere near their prime and must have a host of top players with them to even have a slight chance of winning. I honestly don't know what pundits are thinking when they place so much importance on the world cup. As people have already said, if Messi decided to play for Spain he'd have a WC. This clearly makes the world cup reasoning stupid.