I'll confess that I am mostly responding to various sports pundits about Messi. There seems to be divergent opinions about his legacy after his problems the last several years. Even he intimated he would retire after this WC. I am not that familiar with most of the soccer/football stars.

Pele did **okay** in several years in the U.S., against non-world class teams. Beckham had a quite lackluster run in the U.S. which earned him a lot of money, but not exactly accolades.

So... like many sports stars who hate to give up the limelight, Messi is tempted. I hope he does well... I just won't bet on it.