The hottest names in this year’s World Cup are Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar de Silva Santos Junior.
Both are from the same club, Barcelona, but in the international level, competition between the two, especially on the race for the World Cup and Golden Boot title, is heating up.
These incredible players scored four goals in their first three games in the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
22-year-old Neymar has scored 35 goals in all his 52 appearances, however, Messi still face criticisms about him not delivering well when playing for Argentina.
Those criticisms against Messi are slowly disappearing as he scored more goals in this tournament compared to his combined score from the last two World Cups. People are gaining confidence on him even before Argentina’s round 16 tie against Switzerland.
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi told members of the media that Messi is one hell of a player. He said this after they were defeated by Argentina 3-2 Wednesday.
At a young age of 13, Messi left his home country Argentina to Spain. A lot of the people in his hometown feared he has taken the Catalan identity, as he became one of the greatest players in the world. If he leads Argentina to its World Cup title, that fear would be gone. Meanwhile, his recent performances bring much confidence to the people of Argentina.
Now, in all his 88 international appearances, he was able to score a total of 42 goals. His latest momentous goal made the team beat Iran.
Messi just had his birthday on Tuesday. He said the best birthday gift for him would be winning the World Cup.
Besides Messi and Neymar, Thomas Muller, Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben, and Karim Benzema are six other active players who are in the race for the Golden Boot title.
