Messi compared to Maradona

[johnnytapia]

Messi for me all day, besides maradona was and is a prick.

 

[urban genie]

The coke fiend still the best then ;-)

 

[mccity]

Argentine Jordon Ibe.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

Messi as a footballer & human being !!

 

[Boris Becker’s Backhand]

Maradona was (unlike Messi) ridiculously one-footed and (unlike Messi) only intermittently brilliant throughout his career.

Maradona simply did not deliver the goods throughout his career, but when he was on top of his game, like much of his time at Napoli and the ‘86 Workd Cup, then quite possibly the greatest footballer ever. Just wasn’t on top of his game consistently enough to be described ‘the greatest’.

For me, the greatest has to play with a high degree of consistency for the vast majority of their career.


I’ve also got a thing about someone so one-footed being called the greatest, but that’s my idiosyncrasy to bear.

I’m a middle aged guy so for me harking nostalgically back to my youth I’m bound to favour maradona. I think the game back then was much harder for attacking players to thrive in - would Messi have done quite so well with the butcher of Bilbao and a hundred other defensive thugs hacking away at his slight frame - and this allied to Maradona’s truly amazing successes with Napoli and a very average national team seals the argument for me.

His left foot and his balance were so exquisite that he invariably didn’t need his right foot but his little jinking run and delicate through ball to Cannigia against Brazil in the WC shows his right foot wasn’t so bad when called on.

Your point about consistency may be valid and you may have seen lots more of him than I did but back then we didn’t have access to live coverage of every game in Spain and Italy like we do now and in any case it’s easier to be consistent when surrounded by superstars as Messi has been throughout his career.

Both are geniuses though. I’ve only seen highlights of Pele and Cruyff so it’s hard to judge who was the greatest ever. One thing’s for sure though - Ronaldo isn’t in their class, it’s almost an insult to them to mention him in the same breath.

 

[Dr Jacoby]

Rivaldo deserves more love.

 

[robbieh]

The amount of trophies won is a sideshow.

Bobby Moore way better than Rio Ferdinand.
Likewise Jimmy Greaves and Rooney.

Longevity may be more important but even so not many on here would say that Paul Lake wasn't a better player than James Miller.

 

[bondsman]

Is this a universe where everyone only has one foot?

If that one foot is as good as Maradona’s you don’t really need the other tbf

 

[Oleole123]

I really think a 100% Maradona would beat Messi. People also forget that Messi is the most protected player by refree while Madonna got constantly fouled

The thing is Messi did it for 20 years where Maradona drink and took drugs.

 

[bondsman]

He's no Craig Russell that's for sure...

Seriously though Messi is a freak of nature and clearly as highly rated as he should be, the only guy I've seen that I thought was a better talent was Ronaldo when at Barca/Inter... he was not of this world something so extraordinary and alien and without all those angin injuries he'd have possibly been the best ever, his fast control reflexes tricks and dribbling are better than anyone I've seen that's including Messi... that's without his frightening pace and strength on his day I think Ronaldo was the most unplayable player in history, defo the best I've seen talent wise but Messi's luck with lack of injuries his constant consistency throughout his career, you honestly can't complain with the plaudits he gets you're watching something truly special. I never saw Maradona but my brother idolised him I mean England had no chance in 86 let's be honest, he was defo a better leader than Messi and every bit as skillful too and arguably on his day better too but I cannot comment as I never saw him play.

Messi was easily head and shoulders above everyone in world football this past calendar year though his goal and assist numbers and performances and the pitch completely put everyone else's to shame, he's been by far and away the best player of the past decade and Cristiano has been brilliant too but he only truly deserves 3 of his ballon d'Or awards tops, one of them he deserved was when he was at the rags as horrible as it is to admit he was the best player in the world at that time, Messi has seriously outperformed CR7 in almost every season because he must be some crazy demonic entity... The only reason he doesn't have more ballon d'Or is cos Barca was less successful than Real in certain years, the award shouldn't be based on the most trophies won it's an individual honour and Messi has been the best individual of his generation, the fact Modric even won a ballon d'Or is beyond laughable and a total embarrassment to football... it's debateable whether he'd play ahead of Prosinecki and Boban for Croatia if available at his best in wc98, that was just stupid and I honestly thought the same idiotic voters who chose Modric to give it Virgil van Dijk this year who has been truly immense but defo not a patch on Messi.

We all of our opinions though and I defo know why you'd think others you've seen are better than Messi but he is the best of his generation without question in my view, honestly though I think the standard of football has deteriorated since I started watching it especially in midfield and defensively... Players like Modric were extremely common especially in Italy with players like Albertini in the 90s, it's obvious to anyone who watched Seedorf and Rui Costa that they were better than Modric in everything they did and that's just AC Milan in the early 2000s. And I could write a whole thread of why why defenders are far inferior than they used to be.

Top post. 100% agree re standard of footy dipping. Players are better athletes maybe due to sport science.