As far as I'm aware Messi hasn't been running round claiming he's better than Pele and Maradonna, I don't know why he's getting so much grief. It's down to opinion at the end of the day. People that say you have to do it in a World Cup - well Messi has to an extend, he single-handedly dragged Argentina to the knock out phase and then had a couple of quite games. So you're saying to be the best player you have to be judged on 2 games. Maradonna did it (although he cheated to get through to the second game) in a team that was no worse than this Argentina team IMO. Certainly the opposition and defensive tactics weren't the same as Messi had to contend with. Pele did it in an amazing Brazil team, and never played club football outside of a pretty amateurish Brazilian league. Personally I rate Messi over either of them, but if he's only behind those two that still makes him one of the all time greats.