or to join or start a new Discussion

Articles/all comments
These 151 comments are related to an article called:

21 year old Messi or 21 year old Maradona..

Page 6 of 7

posted on 1/8/22

Maradona did it on quagmire pitches and with zero protection from referees, in those days opponents were allowed to assault players like Maradona without punishment.

Contrast that with Messi and Ronaldo, who play on bowling greens and have referees blowing for free kicks if an opponent so much as farts in their direction.

Maradona playing in this era would be beyond phenomenal.

posted on 1/8/22

Attitudes towards Messi have changed quite a lot over the years in Argentina. A lot of people rate Messi higher now, even if they like Maradona more.

posted on 1/8/22

There's a 53 minute long video on YouTube that shows all of Messi's goals for Barcelona. It should be made compulsory viewing for any football fan or player. Although there should probably be one made of his assists. Or assists to assists as was often the case. It was actually Alves who was the main provider for Messi. That partnership produced the best goals. Not so much Xavi or Iniesta.

posted on 1/8/22

comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 40 minutes ago
1. His left leg was 6cm shorter than his right.
——-
Did he invent the Cruyff turn?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

He used to trap the ball just by standing up straight

posted on 1/8/22

comment by ●Billy The Spur● 20*21*22* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 21 minutes ago
Maradona did it on quagmire pitches and with zero protection from referees, in those days opponents were allowed to assault players like Maradona without punishment.

Contrast that with Messi and Ronaldo, who play on bowling greens and have referees blowing for free kicks if an opponent so much as farts in their direction.

Maradona playing in this era would be beyond phenomenal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well put,

posted on 2/8/22

comment by LegendOsgood (U7946)
posted 22 minutes ago
comment by ●Billy The Spur● 20*21*22* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 21 minutes ago
Maradona did it on quagmire pitches and with zero protection from referees, in those days opponents were allowed to assault players like Maradona without punishment.

Contrast that with Messi and Ronaldo, who play on bowling greens and have referees blowing for free kicks if an opponent so much as farts in their direction.

Maradona playing in this era would be beyond phenomenal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well put,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone argues otherwise then they should be banned from watching football

comment by #4zA (U22472)

posted on 2/8/22

Hows about Messi AND Maradona in same team?

I think I wud kwit playin if was a d-fenneder tryin 2 deel with dat sheet

posted on 2/8/22

comment by #4zA accide cchiu a lengua ca a spata - 🇮🇹🇺🇦 (U22472)
posted 10 minutes ago
Hows about Messi AND Maradona in same team?

I think I wud kwit playin if was a d-fenneder tryin 2 deel with dat sheet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How weird is it that they were pretty much the same player? And the exact date of Maradona's death (probably) Messi lost his powers?

posted on 2/8/22

Shame I missed this discussion when it was in full flow.

As always, there’s a lot of nonsense spoken when people talk about stuff they’ve never seen and cannot fully understand.

For the record, even though I’m usually tempted to take Maradona’s side in these discussions, having seen a fair amount of both players I don’t think this is such an easy call to make either way and see very legitimate reasons for picking Messi.

That said, some of the arguments made against picking Maradona are beyond ignorant. Discussing the best ever teenagers without bringing Ronaldo (thanks, Cinci) into the discussion beggars belief.

Using Son as an example to try to refute that the greatest players in history would have been capable to adapt their game to any era is beyond silly, as it is to presume a lack of tactical thinking before the PL era or thereabouts. To reduce Maradona’s skill set or footballing value to an ability to weave past a couple of players in packed defences is so beyond ignorance that it has wind-up written all over it.

Using Barcelona’s lack of league titles with Maradona when he missed sizeable chunks of both seasons is, I am sure, wilful ignorance for someone boasting such knowledge of bygone eras. The assertion that Napoli were consistently a top-6 side is best expressed as consistently a top-half side.

As for his exploits being like leading Valencia to a league title, that’s way off. Villarreal, who have recently won their first-ever piece of major silverware, might be a closer comparison. It’s hard to find a close modern-day equivalent in the PL; it would probably be somewhere between a Wolves and a Spurs, with the difference that both, no matter how long ago, are both former league champions and also have a fair collection of cup titles to their names. Napoli, iirc, had once won the Coppa Italia, and that’s it.

That said, arguing that greatness is established by winning a league title a the star player in an unfancied team is of course nonsense. Would that make Pablo Aimar, or Rafa Benítez for that matter, an all-time great? For Valencia fans, perhaps. For the wider footballing community? Of course not.

It’s all a matter of specific circumstances and roles. In certain cases, it also requires an understanding of history and politics. There is a good point in mentioning Hellas and Samp’s titles, but it is also to ignore that Napoli were not just representing themselves; they represented the whole of the impoverished, beaten-down, neglected and belittled Italy south of Tome. They represented a class that had permanently been denied the opportunity to elevate itself and stand with pride. And I think that therein lies an important element of Maradona’s greatness: that he was a true working-class hero, who grew up in the misery of the Argentinian slums and, no matter how skewed or distorted, had a very strong sense of injustice that drove him to heights way above Peter Shilton’s reach. Messi does not know what it means to fight for a cause, doesn’t have that character-defining background. He is a much cooler operator which in the majority of cases works in his favour, but has the downside of not being as contagious for his national teammates as Maradona’s sheer passion and sense of outrage that motivated him to right by whichever means necessary what he rightly or wrongly perceived as historical injustices.

All the above said, I think it’s unlikely Maradona would ever have felt a similar sort of drive to make him willing to die on a hill for Chelsea., so presented with that kind of choice I’d probably pick Messi. Maradona might be my pick for a team like Betis.

posted on 2/8/22

People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball

This is a player who was the star boy of the mafia in Naples. He might've not had protection on pitch, but players knew not go all out against him, especially in Italy.

Maybe when he played for Argentina he got kicked all over the park but it was never the same in Serie A.

The flip side though without the illegal betting and some of the stuff they did to Maradona, I think his titles at Napoli could've been even more cementing his legacy even further.

End of the day though...it's all bout personal preference between these two

posted on 2/8/22

People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball
———-
No, they don’t, but he received far far more rough stuff than Messi who plied his trade in a time where the mere hint of contact resulted in a fk or penalty, if people can’t see this and how it benefits the attacking player massively then they should maybe watch golf or F1 instead

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 10 minutes ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball
———-
No, they don’t, but he received far far more rough stuff than Messi who plied his trade in a time where the mere hint of contact resulted in a fk or penalty, if people can’t see this and how it benefits the attacking player massively then they should maybe watch golf or F1 instead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
People who didn’t watch the game back then are just talking out their backsides. Of course it wasn’t every single game, but manhunts against an opponent’s star player were very much run of the mill occurrences back then. It wasn’t just Maradona, but he was definitely the most skilful player of his time and thus subjected to man-marking and often double man-marking throughout the course of the game. The rationale was that if you put an enforcer on the opponent’s main man, the game would be reduced to a 10v10 affair in which you were short of a far less dangerous player than your opposition. Red cards were extremely rare, and it wasn’t until the IFB introduced mandatory reds for tackles from behind and the likes that flair players started to play with a little more freedom.

It was precisely the treatment that stars like Maradona or Van Basten got that convinced FIFA of the need to protect the game’s greatest assets, which has been much to the benefit of Messi and other 21st century virtuosos. That, and of course the tactical obsolescence of man-to-man marking and the shift towards a space-based game that would have been an absolute delight for players like El Diego.

posted on 2/8/22

Like how is it Messi's fault that the coaches of the game before him were so stupidly inept at their profession that the only way they could think of dealing with a footballer as gifted as Maradona was to break his legs

We all dream of coaches like Tony Pulis right

comment by #4zA (U22472)

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Michael Edwards FC {Proud owner of the 5 000 000th comment} (U2720)
posted 2 hours, 1 minute ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball

This is a player who was the star boy of the mafia in Naples. He might've not had protection on pitch, but players knew not go all out against him, especially in Italy.

Maybe when he played for Argentina he got kicked all over the park but it was never the same in Serie A.

The flip side though without the illegal betting and some of the stuff they did to Maradona, I think his titles at Napoli could've been even more cementing his legacy even further.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lol whut?

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball
———-
No, they don’t, but he received far far more rough stuff than Messi who plied his trade in a time where the mere hint of contact resulted in a fk or penalty, if people can’t see this and how it benefits the attacking player massively then they should maybe watch golf or F1 instead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly, just look at grealish, or Sterling, a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Japan and grealish falls over. Maradona had to deal with a lot rougher treatment and much less protection. Definitely differences in the era’s.

comment by Elvis (U7425)

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball
———-
No, they don’t, but he received far far more rough stuff than Messi who plied his trade in a time where the mere hint of contact resulted in a fk or penalty, if people can’t see this and how it benefits the attacking player massively then they should maybe watch golf or F1 instead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly, just look at grealish, or Sterling, a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Japan and grealish falls over. Maradona had to deal with a lot rougher treatment and much less protection. Definitely differences in the era’s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Some people clearly haven't got a clue of how much more physical the game was back then and specifically how much Maradona was targetted.

Educate yourself people. Some of the tackles on show here are ridiculous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E73caWunOVE

comment by Superb (U6486)

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Brian Easton (U1734)
posted 12 hours, 38 minutes ago
comment by LegendOsgood (U7946)
posted 22 minutes ago
comment by ●Billy The Spur● 20*21*22* ENIC OUT! (U3924)
posted 21 minutes ago
Maradona did it on quagmire pitches and with zero protection from referees, in those days opponents were allowed to assault players like Maradona without punishment.

Contrast that with Messi and Ronaldo, who play on bowling greens and have referees blowing for free kicks if an opponent so much as farts in their direction.

Maradona playing in this era would be beyond phenomenal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well put,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone argues otherwise then they should be banned from watching football
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yup Maradona would have been even better (if that's even possible) if he played in this era. He wasn't a striker but his goal tally would have been ridiculous. Athough Maradona wasn't just about scoring goals, he was the fulcrum involved in absolutely everything positive that his team did to make sure they won. And boy did his team's win things when they otherwise had no right to.

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Michael Edwards FC {Proud owner of the 5 000 000th comment} (U2720)
posted 2 hours, 13 minutes ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball

This is a player who was the star boy of the mafia in Naples. He might've not had protection on pitch, but players knew not go all out against him, especially in Italy.

Maybe when he played for Argentina he got kicked all over the park but it was never the same in Serie A.

The flip side though without the illegal betting and some of the stuff they did to Maradona, I think his titles at Napoli could've been even more cementing his legacy even further.

End of the day though...it's all bout personal preference between these two
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is why people who are in mental facilities should not have access to a computer.

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 23 minutes ago
comment by Bobby Dazzler (U1449)
posted 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
People act like Maradona was on the receiving end of attempted murder every time he touched the ball
———-
No, they don’t, but he received far far more rough stuff than Messi who plied his trade in a time where the mere hint of contact resulted in a fk or penalty, if people can’t see this and how it benefits the attacking player massively then they should maybe watch golf or F1 instead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly, just look at grealish, or Sterling, a butterfly flaps it’s wings in Japan and grealish falls over. Maradona had to deal with a lot rougher treatment and much less protection. Definitely differences in the era’s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s a fair discussion.

On the other hand, the defenders Maradona (more so Pele) was taking the pee out of were a lot less skilful/strong/agile/fit/well coached themselves compared to the equivalent top professionals today.

posted on 2/8/22

To some degree mile, remember baresi and maldini played at the same time as maradonna in the same league, I’m not convinced there’s and defenders as good as them about these days (aside maguire).

posted on 2/8/22

I would go for Messi. Only theory but you would see Messi for longer at the top of the modern game. Maradona was a genius but so was George Best but their fast life would have caught up with them very quickly these days.

comment by Superb (U6486)

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Aggers Right Elbow (U3402)
posted 3 minutes ago
I would go for Messi. Only theory but you would see Messi for longer at the top of the modern game. Maradona was a genius but so was George Best but their fast life would have caught up with them very quickly these days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Or maybe players like Best and Maradona wouldn't have fallen into those traps that they did with so much help now available for players when it comes to dealing with fame as well as various addictions etc. None of that help was available for players back in the day.

posted on 2/8/22

Maradona with modern refereeing and with a lethal striker ahead of him would be the undisputed Greatest ever.

I don't think people realise how good he was

comment by Elvis (U7425)

posted on 2/8/22

comment by Come to Salah, Come to Success. (U12335)
posted 7 minutes ago
Maradona with modern refereeing and with a lethal striker ahead of him would be the undisputed Greatest ever.

I don't think people realise how good he was
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Incredible. His low centre of gravity and strength was an amazing combination. I love how he'd usually stay on his feet and just keep driving forwards when he could have gone down under hefty challenges.

comment by T-BAD (U11806)

posted on 3/8/22

Either would be a competent back up for Pepe but I'd probably just take Messi for the longevity and stuff

Page 6 of 7

Sign in if you want to comment