ARLINGTON, VA — Alex Ovechkin is no stranger to talking to the press, but on Saturday, he was the one asking the questions.
After getting off the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, Ovechkin called over the nearby reporters covering morning skate. As it turns out, he wanted our help settling an argument.
“Media, media!” he said. “Worldwide, who is more famous — Taylor Swift or Messi?”
Ovechkin, who now ranks 10th in all-time NHL points after putting up a hat trick against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, argued for Lionel Messi, while Capitals Senior Digital Media Correspondent Taryn Bray defended Taylor Swift’s case.
Both Messi and Swift are legendary figures in their field. Messi is one of the all-time greats of the world’s most popular sport, with a record eight Ballon d’Or award wins as soccer’s best player (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023), and is so beloved that many fans have stormed the field for a chance to meet him. Playing internationally for Argentina, he led the country to victory at the 2022 World Cup, earning the country’s first win at the tournament in 36 years.
He’s also long been Ovechkin’s favorite player. The two met in 2015, and Ovechkin’s teammates gifted him with a trip to see Messi play in Barcelona when he reached 1,000 NHL games. Ovechkin was thrilled to see Messi complete his 16-year journey to a World Cup title in 2022.
“Obviously, everybody knows he’s my favorite player,” Ovechkin said then. “To see him finally live his dream and win the World Cup, it’s pretty big for him and I’m really happy for him.”
Meanwhile, Swift has become a global superstar with one of the most successful music careers in recent memory. She’s won 14 Grammy Awards, including an all-time best four Album of the Year wins (2024, 2021, 2016, and 2010), and holds the record with 40 American Music Awards.
Swift’s most recent album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” earned an unprecedented 4,002,000 sales in its opening week last month, besting the mark set by Adele’s “25” (3,482,000) in 2015. And her 149-show Eras Tour more than doubled the revenue of the previously highest-grossing tour of all time, selling more than $2 billion in tickets from March 2023 to December 2024.
Ovechkin didn’t contest Swift’s popularity in the United States, but argued passionately that soccer’s international reach made Messi the more popular figure overall. Bray, however, pointed to the Eras Tour’s worldwide success, with shows in 21 countries spanning five continents.
As a group of sports reporters, we were obviously biased — Ovechkin may have gotten a very different answer if he’d asked a crowd of music writers. But we ultimately sided with Ovechkin, though we argued it was a far closer call than he seemed to think it was.
One thing’s for sure, though: if Ovechkin keeps asking questions this good, he’s got a future career in the media.