I know it's a big mistake chatting about Messi/Barcelona with you because you're not capable of thinking rationally about them, but here goes (more fool me);
Well, ask yourself the opposite question. What if Messi had won the World Cup being brilliant but hadn't won a CL? Pass both tests? Why else has done that and stayed consistent? Maradona didn't win a CL title, neither did Pele.
All I personally ask for from my GOAT is that they're there or thereabouts at both club and country level. Maradona did it at club level for me - Serie A was, back then, the best, highest quality league in the history of football. To do what he did there is a 'tick' at club level for me. To be fair I don't know about the Brazilian league back in Pele's day (or was it the Sao Paolo league he played in?). So I won't claim he's the GOAT.
I think Maradona's probably in the top 3 club players of all time.
I think Messi's probably in the top 3 club players of all time, quite possibly even number 1.
I think Maradona's probably in the top 3 international players of all time, quite possibly even number 1.
I don't think Messi has shown himself to (yet) be anywhere near the top 3 international players of all time.
I want ticks in both columns. Fair enough if you dont.
In this day and age, CL is the title to win where you compete against the best. To your question as to why Messi hasn't won a World Cup title if it is a lower level tournament, you have to look at coaching and lack of any game plan for most of Messi's Argentina career. They had Maradona as their World Cup coach ffs. I'd love to see if Maradona's team was conceding 4 goals, surely he wouldn't have scored 5 against a good team? Messi's team conceded 4 vs Germany...
And the current Argentina team is likely to concede 4 vs Germany, too, if they meet again very soon. How is that on Messi? The Argentina team has been dysfunctional, and football is a team game. As I mentioned in another thread, if you ignore the team and coach component and attribute success/failure purely to player quality, Germany NT should probably have achieved half of what they achieved in Euro and World Cup tournaments. Often times, they have no more than 1-2 world class players with the rest being decent squad players. Every major nation including Spain and England have had better squads in many of those tournaments yet didn't achieve the same success. The success of the likes of Podolski and Klose, who may have been decent players at their best but hardly world class.
Even the current Germany squad, who is world class in it? Let's be real, who is world class? Neuer and Kroos. The rest are people like Khedira, Ozil, Gotze, Emre Can. Only delusional would call these world class. But they make up a world class team in Germany.
Messi doesn't need to win the World Cup to be considered the GOAT in my opinion. I'd just like to see him in World Cup knockout games looking like he's the best player on the planet. He's had 6 and a bit goes at it (only 2 with Maradona as manager for the record, 4 and a bit without Maradona as manager). He hasn't looked anywhere near as good in those games as he does for Barcelona. That's all I'm asking. Do a Baggio '94 or Zidane '06 (i.e. don't win the whole thing), just look like you're more than just a very good player. So it doesn't matter if Germany end up winning the whole thing, Messi can still have an iconic tournament.
PS - you didn't include any
emojis in your post - you feeling ok mate?