[Football] Maradona

[allystrat]

When debating who is the greatest, you can churn out stats (and Pele, Ronaldo and Messi are streets ahead of Maradona in terms of goals scored), but for me it comes down to which player has given me the greatest buzz and mesmerised me the most with his play. I’ve been watching football since the early 1970’s and hands down (or up!) it’s Maradona. Absolute genius.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

For the Seiko it.

Oh, well played. I've got to hand it to you.

 

[Triggaaar]

Best was as good, but because he played for NI, he never got the chance on the world stage. He certainly made a difference at the European Cup. He didn't fall over when challenged, skipping past players, and certainly didn't have to hand ball a goal.

1:20 outrageous.

It's so difficult to compare these players. We'd have a similar highlights real of Maz at Napoli, Messi etc. With Best I feel he could have been the best, but he wasn't, because he didn't cope with the ups and downs of a football career. NI qualified for the WC before and after Best, but he couldn't even drag them through qualification in his time, something we've seen Bale do for Wales.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I quite liked some of her earlier material

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

The man's still a cock!

Yep that just about sums the little sh!te up. Did anyone see the photos of him in his private jet flying to the WC with a huge bag of white powder (probably icing sugar) on his seat table?

Amazed that he is both still alive and still celebrated in such a way.

TNBA

TTF

 

[MattBackHome]

El Diego is the best footballer ever.

 

[hopkins]

Brilliant. Love the fella. Greatest player EVER and still does what he wants ‘I’d rather be someone’s shot of whiskey than everybody’s cup of tea’

 

[Triggaaar]

Messi needs great players around him to function as Messi does. Maradona didn’t need others to make him great, there’s the difference. He played in poor teams, yet did some things with a football you most probably won’t see again.

But it's clearly true that the game has moved on. Defenders are miles fitter and have had better training, and they've watched many a video of the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, and has training sessions specifically on how to counteract them as a team.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that the England team hadn't seen footage of Maradona, but many teams wouldn't have prepared for him the way teams are now preparing to play against Argentina with Messi.

 

[hopkins]

Yep that just about sums the little sh!te up. Did anyone see the photos of him in his private jet flying to the WC with a huge bag of white powder (probably icing sugar) on his seat table?

Amazed that he is both still alive and still celebrated in such a way.

TNBA

TTF

Why undermine your own post with actual answer ?!

 

[hopkins]

But it's clearly true that the game has moved on. Defenders are miles fitter and have had better training, and they've watched many a video of the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, and has training sessions specifically on how to counteract them as a team.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that the England team hadn't seen footage of Maradona, but many teams wouldn't have prepared for him the way teams are now preparing to play against Argentina with Messi.

You don’t think teams looked to mark certain players out of games in “the old days ?”. Of course they did BUT some were just too good, and Maradona was one of them.

 

[Triggaaar]

I would love us to knock Argentina out. His fat f*****g c*****g face would be a picture.
Best player ever or not he’s a c**t

Is he really that bad? He's an idiot who's destroying his life with drink and drugs. Does he do much to harm anyone but himself (I have no idea)?

 

[AmexRuislip]

Yep that just about sums the little sh!te up. Did anyone see the photos of him in his private jet flying to the WC with a huge bag of white powder (probably icing sugar) on his seat table?

Amazed that he is both still alive and still celebrated in such a way.

TNBA

TTF

there was a gif doing the rounds, with him wiping his nose, and a cartoon man shovelling white stuff onto his face

 

[Triggaaar]

You don’t think teams looked to mark certain players out of games in “the old days ?”. Of course they did BUT some were just too good, and Maradona was one of them.

Of course teams would try, but they wouldn't have the level of training and video footage to pour over that they do now. As mentioned in another thread, when Scotland went off to win the '78, they hadn't even see half of the opposition play before, and didn't know who took the free-kicks. Can you imagine that of a side hoping to win the WC now? And you need to take the fitness of the players into account too.

 

[BigGully]

I found it all slightly uncomfortable to watch as I did Best on Wogan and nearly everytime I see any clips of a Gazza in some period of sobriety or not.

 

[Triggaaar]

I was hoping you were announcing the ***** death.

Really? What's he ever done to you?

 

[Blue3]

He is clearly unwell and did cheat against us but apart from that he was one of the greatest footballers of our time and is passionate football fan what he is not is the devil incarnate

 

[Mellotron]

I would say Ronaldo or Messi are better than all the greats before them.

You're obviously right, but it won't go down well with the older generation on here.

 

[Mellotron]

Messi has scored countless amounts of solo goals where he beats half the opposition all on his own. That sort of ability which he maintains so consistently doesn't require great players around him. Watch some of Messi's highlights reels. So many of his goals are scored from him running with the ball from his own area. I've never seen anyone who can run as quick as Messi and yet have the ball glued to his foot so closely. Maradona had very good ball control but didn't have this supernatural ball control Messi has. The Barca fans all regard Messi better than Maradona. I reckon they'd have a fair judgment considering they watched them both regularly.

This is Messi at just the age of 19. Maradona never had the ball as glued to his foot like this:

As said above. Messi has scored countless goals as good as Maradona's best ever goal, and against far, far better defending. No contest.

 

[hopkins]

When debating who is the greatest, you can churn out stats (and Pele, Ronaldo and Messi are streets ahead of Maradona in terms of goals scored), but for me it comes down to which player has given me the greatest buzz and mesmerised me the most with his play. I’ve been watching football since the early 1970’s and hands down (or up!) it’s Maradona. Absolute genius.

Agree. It’s about your feelings when a certain player gets the ball. Gazza is pretty much the only English player I’ve seen and he had me wondering what he was gonna do as he was fearless. The current ronaldo to a degree. Messi is brilliant but a bums out of seat player ? Not for me. Excellent goal last night though.

 

[hopkins]

As said above. Messi has scored countless goals as good as Maradona's best ever goal, and against far, far better defending. No contest.

Tv cameras at every game these days. Can you imagine how many goals or brilliance Maradona scored/did without tv cameras there ? Maradona won a World Cup and 2 titles with Napoli (the Italian version of errrr Leicester). Messi has “just” done it at Barcelona. Flat track bully ? Maybe not but at least Ronaldo has done it in England and for Portugal.