There was a picture of Lionel Messi gazing into the distance with his right hand on the back of a goat. Another of Messi cradling a kid goat in his arms.
The theme of the Paper magazine shoot and accompanying 2,000-word article was that Messi was soccer’s G.O.A.T. — greatest of all time.
Ronaldo has scored four times in his first two games of this competition and Portugal can advance to the round of 16 with a tie with offensively deficient Iran on Monday. Messi is yet to score and his tournament will be over unless Argentina defeats Nigeria on Tuesday and Iceland fails to beat already-advanced Croatia.