I knew i loved you for a reason.
This is true and it is more of a light hearted comparison going beyond their abilities as players. I’ve never seen Maradona play but when you look at it Messi’s output in terms of production, it is much greater than Maradona’s in a time where the game is faster and tactics are much more advanced and Messi’s trophy count shits all over Maradona’s albeit he’s part of a much better team than him.
On the other hand Maradona just had that X factor about him, dragging a poor team from Naples and defeating the capitol clubs of Italy and leading Argentina to victory and defeating England on the backdrop of the falkland war by cheating and delivering the ‘goal of the century’. He thrived when the dice was loaded against him and seeng some videos of him are crazy. There is a video where he’s crying when Argentina are singing the national anthem and Napoli fans reportedly sang it with him over their home country and then in THAT fight, all of 5’5 the midget was the first one at the scene going toe to toe with his opponents with his teammates. He seemed to inspire a certain loyalty that very few people can match and he was almost larger than life.
I don’t really care, just putting it out there and if I had to pick I prefer Messi, both on the pitch and of it.
They are different styles of players. Maradona was an enganche who controlled games, Messi is a forward who builds on other players controlling the game for him. That’s why I hate the comparison between them, and why Messi will never live up to Maradona’s standard because that’s not his game.
In other words, Maradona = Peyton Manning, Messi = Jerry Rice.
In my opinion, none of the players mentioned were as dominant in relation to their contemporaries. Ronaldinho was significantly better than Zidane for a few years. So was Henry x Ronaldo. Maradona was great and very constant, but at different times it’s very possible to defend that players such as Van Basten, Gullit or Romario were better than him.
Most of the famous players from the past are extra-famous from World Cup history. In 30 years people will think Klose was better than Shevchenko. History also rewards players from being born in the right place. So Shev was doomed from the start while Pele would probably have zero world cups (and much less fame) if he was born in Honduras.
I remember Ronaldo hoping to reach about 35 goals in an european season. Messi reached 80, half of them spectacular, plus a bunch of great assists. Ronaldo (the portuguese one) is a big exception, but asides from him nobody came close to Messi’s level since around 2007.
I like Ronaldinho’s or Romario’s style better than Messi’s and I tend to be biased towards brazilian players, but Messi is really on another level.
If anyone has a couple of min I really reccomend googling the video Maradona at Italia '90 final. The Italians are booing the Argentine anthem because of Maradona’s links to Napoli and the fact that at that time Naples had a lot of gripe with Italy. The camera goes through the Argentine players and they look a little intimidated by the atmosphere but then the last player is Maradona. His eyes are burning and he’s furious at the slight and shouting the words ‘Hijos de puta’. He looks ready to take on the entire stadium.
Having that kind of a guy on your side must have really inspired those mediocre teams he played in, I mean having Messi on your side will inspire confidence for sure but when you see him ambling around the pitch sometimes (he does have some health problems), you wonder if he inspires the same kind of fearlessness that Maradona clearly did.
I don’t know. For me
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Messi
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Maradona
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Pele
All the rest…