This is just one of dozens of Maradona dribbling compilations available for free on YouTube. I can understand the younger generation's admiration for Messi, but unlike the Pele / Garrincha / Best era, the VCR was commonplace in the 1980's and therefore it's not difficult to see videos of Maradona clips or even entire matches. And if you do that, you will understand why even entire nations who disliked his antics all acknowledge his undoubted genius. You will also understand why it will take a long time for those who saw Maradona to be convinced that Messi is equal, let alone better, than Maradona in almost any category including dribbling, passing, technique and vision. The only thing people may acknowledge is that Messi scores more goals than Maradona. This is a good point, but 1) many players scored more than Maradona, and 2) Maradona was a midfielder, not a "false 9". Looking at the video clip above, notice how many of Maradona's dribbling moves start in his own half of the field, receiving the ball from defenders and then connecting to the forwards or just taking it up himself. In Barcelona, Xavi and Iniesta link the defense to the attack and Messi's dribbling starts from 25-30 yards from the opponent's goal. That's why I consider Maradona to be Messi + Iniesta + Xavi, all in one amazing package.
Obviously nostalgia is a bitch for some. Messi is already better in all those categories. And this is from 34 year old, who actually watched Maradona. Only things that Maradona still had an edge, were freekicks and leadership, but Messi is catching fast in these categories also.
Messi dribbling is fenomenal , maybe better then Diego's, but Maradona's technique is unmatched(nr 1 ever in my book), and in passsing,free kicks and vision he ranks among the best ever(top 10 for sure). And to be honest Messi's technique is not even best in the world at the moment( Cassano an Ronaldinho and maybe Ibrahimovic have better technique IMO).
I agree that Diego were one of the top ever in all these categories. But Messi, for me is better already. In passing, he can do pretty much anykind of pass, pretty much anywhere from the field. The frequency and volume which he does amazing throughballs is just unmatched. Last season throughballs leagues+ucl: 1 Messi 70 2 Zlatan 34 3 Özil 26 I've seen every kind of pass from Messi, but I never saw example this kind of whole team cutting througball from Maradona. Anyway this thread was about dribbling, so I think we should concentrate on it.
That's mainly position issue, but there is a lot of lob assists above the people, mostly short, medium distance ones. But also over long distances
Many of Diego's passing were done first time, instinct while being marked man to man(today's players aren't used to a ''shadow'') and not simple grounded passes, but those flicks and long balls(there are plenty of examples of him even using scissor kicks to perform passes with great accuracy). His repertoire contained every trick in the book.
Every team, player, fan etc. knows how Messi plays, thanks the video age. And defending is more organized than ever before. And he's always surrounded by opposition players, but that doesn't really matter to Messi: Look how he waits teammates to return onside.
If these things don't matter to Messi, then why has he not shown the same Barca form in international tournaments?
Different team, different teammates. Messi has had tough times to adjust for ever changing national team, that's for sure. But under Sabella, and with slight positional change, he has looked more like he does in Barcelona. He has 9+5@9 games 11-12 for Argentina.
[Excellent nod to Sivori, mate: like many top-class footballers of his era; Sivori tends to be CRIMINALLY under-appreciated by many more modern fans due to the lack of televised coverage in his/their period of the game IMHO. I was actually lucky enough to get to see Sivori being the "scalpel" to John Charles' "hammer" up-front for Juventus back in the '50s...]
Saying that Messi is "already better in all those categories" is a dubious opinion because I've followed both careers closely and completely disagree. However, I recognize that you and many others share that opinion. To me, it's premature. To many others, it's false. And to most Argentines, it is blasphemous.
I don't have problem of people having different opinions. I just didn't like your way of saying, people who have seen both have this and that opinion, because statements like that is not really ones to make. There is plenty of people saying Messi is already better, people who have seen Maradona play and who have played with or against him. I'm just one of them. Gerry Armstrong (on Messi) - "I know what it's like to score against Barcelona, but end up losing 4-1. My first goal in Spanish league was against Barcelona. Unfortunately a certain Diego Maradona was in the side for Barcelona and he just took control and they beat us 4-1. Look at this little man, well, I think he's better than Maradona, I think he better than anybody I've ever seen."
Messi's legacy will need a couple of things to ever surpass Maradona in the eyes of most. 1) He needs to lead Argentina to a World Cup title. Winning 2 would certainly cast him as probably the best ever. 2) He needs to bring glory to another club besides Barcelona. Diego is a legend for 3 clubs - Argentinos Juniors named a stadium for him, and at Boca and Napoli he is almost literally a godlike figure. Messi is playing on a Barcelona squad which is effectively the base of one of the strongest national teams in history. Barcelona is Spain + Messi, he has 2 of the best midfielders in history behind him. It's not his fault, just like it's not Pele's fault that he happened to play with some of the best players of his generation. But it will always be a point of debate if he only wins championships with this Barcelona team. If he goes to say, Liverpool, and returns them to European glory, then his legacy will be irrefutable.
Tbh i find the "nostalgia" argument so annoying to read, its like your judging people you dont know. It cant be because they think he is really better, they must spend their days dreaming about the past I was born in early 90s and have no nostalgia for past players, but i've seen about 40/50 games of maradona from various points of his career, as well as learning about his career in general, ie the achievements and obstacles he faced, and i cant help but think he was not only a better player than messi, but a vastly better player. I will try and make a detailed comparison of their abilities and the context of their achievements here, as well as offer my own explanation as to why some prefer messi Abilities: -Technique : maradona displayed tremendous skills and control of the ball, of this there is no doubt he is superior to messi -Passing: Messi is very good at passing no doubt, but from everything i seen of maradona his passing technique is more accurate, the one touch passes, the through balls, the lofted passes, they all have a hint of genius when its with maradona, messi, on the other hand, just seems a very good passer Dribbling: This is something that is difficult to compare, first of all i think messi seems more agile and keeps the ball closer, and he also seems to dribble more often (maradona tend to pass more often), while maradona seemed better at shielding the ball as he was stronger, and he was also better at making fast turns. The reason this is difficult to compare: firstly, it seems a bit subjective about which style someone prefers, and secondly, in the games i seen maradona gets battered by defenders, they just take him out and they know they wont get a yellow card or sent off, they just do it over and over again and the ref did nothing to punish. If anyone puts a bad challenge on messi they will be lucky to not get sent off, this makes them back off and scared to tackle at times, because they know wont get the ball, with maradona they dont care about getting the ball, they just try to foul him and get away with it. So how can it be fair to say messi is better when he gets such better treatment? he basically gets an easy ride if you compare it to maradona (and i kknow messi gets some bad fouls sometimes) Shooting: Maradona had better shot, but messi is scoring goals at a faster rate. The reasons imo are: maradona played further away from goal, maradona played mostly in a much more defensive league (serie a), and messi gets much better help from teammates (xavi, iniesta, ect), all this means he gets much more opportunities to score. But from what i seen maradona had a better shot, from close range he was lethal like messi, but he could score also much more spectaculer goals, from ridiculous distances and angles As well as the abilities maradona also had more influence on games. Watch messi and you see he drifts in out of games, because he has great help from other player like xavi, he can just wait for the ball to get to him, maradona was different, he had more responsibility and was looking to get the ball mmore, and being more involved in the game. Why i think some people prefer messi is they like his style more, because he dribbles more often, its very exciting, it doesnt mean he is a better player though, or even a better dribbler given the different circumstances that i already explained The only other argument that messi is better is that at this rate hes winning more trophies. But again this doesnt make him better imo. He has spent his whole career at a great team, maradona started at a club that couldnt win major trophies, then he spent a year at boca who were a better team and he won a major trophy, he then went to barca for two years and won trophies, but not the league because both seasons were disrupted by bad injury and illness. Then he went napoli, in the first year (maybe two) they were too poor to win trophies, but they raised their standard and he won two serie a titles If you are 34 you must have had a childs comprehension of football for most of maradonas career, so i dont think that age qualifies your opinion much
I agree somewhat, but not fully. Teams win titles, not individual players. Winning something, being the best player of the team/ tournament is something which can be said to define legacy, and which Maradona did with Argentina WC (+Ú20 WC) and when he lifted Napoli to their first ever Serie-A title. But other than that Maradona never won anything notable in club football, failed couple times in European Cup, in the biggest club stage. And he didn't win anything in Juniors. Messi's legacy in club football is already so far ahead of Maradona. Also on this point it always bothers me when people example say Pele won 3 WC's, that's why he is the GOAT. Football is a team sport, and winning is more related to the team, not to the one player. And just like others, he has only won 1 WC, at being the best player of the tournament. On the national side, Messi is still ahead of Maradona at the same age. Just like Diego, he won U20 WC being the best player, but he was also the top scorer. And he also has Olympic gold. The argument that Messi needs to move another team to show his quality is just bs, quality is always there to people to see. And there is plenty of people who stayed all their prime career in one team, like Pele for instance. Every football legend writes their own football history, there is no rules or boundaries which one has to reach or break, to have better legacy than others. Cruyff never won WC, and he was second in the FIFA player of the century vote, Di Stefano never won WC, and he still was ahead of Maradona.
Read again, he judged me first (in general), I just countered it with the same type of argument, which is wrong tbh. So I agree with that. On the rest of your post, , and I disagree pretty much everything you wrote.
At 34 years of age you were being born when Maradona had just been 2 years into his professional career at Argentinos Jrs. There is absolutely no way that you can attest to being someone that’s expertly qualified to speak about this player. Not only because you could not have comprehended anything that you were watching prior to an adolescent and adult age, but because only people that had access to Argentinos Jrs, Boca Jrs, Barcelona and Napoli in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s could only hold claim of bearing witness to this player when he was at the height of his world fame. Your knowledge of this player is as limited as mostly anyone on this forum. Very few here are qualified of speaking about him, and I am one of them.
It's not only that, but the fact that only people that had complete access to his games, or the archives of the events, can be seriously qualified to speak about him.
I first watched Maradona live 86 when he scored the goal of the century, and I still remember it. From since Diego was my football hero. I also followed his career in Napoli, as they showed Serie-A regular basis in my country. So don't come here and tell me that my opinion is not valid lol. It's a subjective opinion, just like the rest of us.
At the age of 8? You were going through puberty! You are not qualified to expertly speak of Maradona.
So what? I was clearly in awe, when he became my hero. It's not like the matches are not in the web to all to see even today lol. So one can easily revisit them whenever he wants.
But you still are not an expert - so why are you speaking about him as if you are well-informed of what was transpiring throughout his career?
There’s limited footage when you take into account that most of his entire career at Argentinos Jrs. and some other periods was not recorded on film. This is not the case with today’s players.
