Maybe not but you could make a case for either of them being the best club players in the world and that's a significantly higher standard than international these days. Also, there are far more competitive (and other) games so it gives you a better chance to judge how good someone really is. So I think that it's reasonable to call them amongst the best players in the world.
yeah i agree with all of that, i'm just interested in the international tournament as its own standard. it certainly isn't a better arbiter of quality but it's clear that players and fans are nonetheless heavily invested in it, and i think its interesting to think about how it comes to pass that some players really excel here and others don't...
it wouldn't be the special, maddening event that it is if it were paced as Champion's League, or a domestic league is...