Maradona

[Mrs Perryman]

Maradona, apart from a criminal communist supporter of massively criminal communist dictatorships and a disgusting criminal drugaddict was just a ball juggler, football is not circus, football is a competition to score more than the rivals, not to see who is a better juggler, and in that sense, the only real sense, Messi and Cristiano are a trillion galaxies away from Maradona, Pelé, Cruyff or Di Stefano.

Some people have problems with reality only because they have childhood memories.

I get what you're saying at the beginning of your post, there's no question that his off field activities were extremely dodgy to say the least. But the reference to childhood memories is very condescending to people who saw Maradona at his peak. My turn to be condescending - this is typical of the generation who think football started in 1992!

 

[SpiderSpurs]

Oh and you can take in your country some of the milion venezuelans that have come to Spain escaping from the criminal genocider communists that Maradona supported with passion just as in Cuba.

Look you idiot.

I'm English. I'm a Spurs fan, on a Spurs forum.

You are a prick. Piss off.

 

[ArtyB]

 

[Mrs Perryman]

total mastery of the ball, incredible player, flawed genius.

 

[Boltonspur]

RIP to the greatest player of the lot. True genius
I’m really gutted by this news.

 

[Bazali]

Is that seeing him in person?

Yes
I know it was just a testimonial for Ossie but in a way that was good because it allowed him to show off his skills
Magical and a huge rumour swept the stadium afterwards that he was going to sign for us!!

 

[sammyspurs]

Peter Shiltons "Tribute" should be interesting.

I think death trumps hand ball personally

 

[sammyspurs]

Why the fuck is VVD in there

 

[Burke]

He can fuck off. Complete snide.

Lineker's legacy is peddling crisps to children and helping with the fight towards childhood obesity.

 

[Guido 🇺🇦]

Wow, absolutely brilliant from Ajax!!

 

[Col_McCafferty]

Good education you have.

You're the dumb fuck that just said Messi is a millions times better than Maradona.

Maybe Madonna but not Diego.

 

[Fattynomates]

Messi's 'greatest ever' and a 'phenomenon' - genius Maradona passes away

Diego Maradona was one of a handful of athletes who transcended his sport. Not only thatm, he was also indisputably one of the most talented players to ever grace a football pitch. Michael Jordan, …

talksport.com

Lionel Messi​

Many believe Messi has eclipsed his talent, but the Barcelona man often says his idol Maradona is the best player in history.

”Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona,” he said. “Not that I’d want to anyway. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.”

 

[Fattynomates]

Exactly, I would love to have seen the likes of pele, best and maradona playing in the modern era.

All had the proverbial kicked out of them every time they played, unlike today's players who get a free kick if you touch their shirt.

Even Hoddle as well, i think some people forget or just don’t know how physical the game was back then , with the rules now I bet most games would finish 5 a side with the rest being sent off for dangerous tackles.

 

[Steve73]

You don’t think Messi is at least on par Steve?

Messi in terms of consistency is better but for pure natural brilliance and ingenuity Maradona is unrivalled I think. Remember the era he played in too, the pitches weren't carpets, the fouling was so much worse and he obviously was a lot more temperamental than Messi.

Messi has been absolutely amazing but Maradona had a swagger and a natural ability that I've never seen before or after.

 

[White Van Jan]

Top 5: Pele, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff and then it's really hard to pick.

From a British perspective I'd go for Best but someone in Portugal may pick either Eusebio or Ronaldo. German Muller or Beckenbauer and so on.

Agree with pretty much all of this.

I'd have Maradonna at the top. Number of reasons.

He won a World Cup pretty much single handed. I'm sure there were some good players in that Argentinian team, but I just remember them being bang average.

Remember also that this was still the era of defenders being able to foul whenever they liked and get away with it. But DM was just so strong, so quick, so powerful, so athletic. In the lead up to THAT goal Fenwick tries to pull him back as he races past. He just barrelled through the arm like it was paper. All of the other great players you mention would have been halted there and then and could often be fouled out of a game. Messi and Ronaldo can't because the red and yellow card systems have changed and you'd end up with no back 4 if you tried it on these days.

Such a low centre of gravity, he'd also use his upper body so well to lean into you so you couldn't reach his legs to pull him down (Ossie was good at that with his arms and elbows).


Glad I was at the Lane for the match but truth be told I can't remember much about it. Lucky that I've seen Messi and Ronaldo live while following Spurs. Annoyingly I didn't manage to get to the Hoddle 4-2 when Cruyff was playing.

Cruyff is my favourite non-Spurs player of all time, and a great guy in every way, but DM was the better player.

 

[Bazali]

I have never heard so much shit in my life , has messi led Argentina to a World Cup victory? Messi is only half as good as he is as he is protected by refs , he goes down at the slightest of Touches , Maradonna is playing football against defenders playing rugby, I suggest you go and educate yourself on what football was like in the 80s!

Maradona was a great player in an average side when Argentina won the WC
Pele was a great player in a great side in 1970
Big difference
Brazil probably would have won it anyway without Pele
No chance Argentina would have won it without Maradona as he carried the side in 1986

As good as Messi is for Barca he has never come close to doing that for his country

 

[AberdeenYid]

There's a little bit of revisionism about the Messi/Argentina 1986 World Cup win. It's not like he dragged a bunch of footballing novice total outsiders to a win, Argentina was a major footballing nation who'd won the WC 8 years prior. And he did a similar thing to Messi 2014 in helping get them to a final in 1990 and losing.

I'm not trying to denigrate his legend, he's was a phenomena who was often a game changer, but Messi came close to a similar achievement in 2014, a decent but not exceptional team bar Messi, but doesn't have a win on his CV just through a bit of bad luck and finishing by his team mates (Higuian missed a sitter at 0-0 from what I can remember)

Thought the Argentina team of 86 had some great players. Ruggeri and Brown were great players, strong as fuck.Batista wandered about the midfield, booting fuck out of anyone who came near Maradona. Burruchaga and Valdano were two of the best attacking players in the tournament.

Obviously Maradona coming up with 5 goals and 5 assists was amazing, but it was far from a one man team.

 

[sammyspurs]

Messi is a million times better than Maradona, the statistics speak by themselves. There is no possible doubt. Many speak out of the heart. I have seen the career of both fully since Diego came to Barcelona, he was extraordinary but in terms of goals and assists, he is even under Cristiano, Gerd Müller, Ronaldo, Pelé or Di Stefano.

He was in the league of the extraordinary skilled players, not in the league of the most decisive ones. The league of Platini, Zidane, Baggio, Del Piero, Figo, Gazza, Zico, Rivelino, Garrincha, Laudrup, etc.

Messi is the best ever in both leagues, skilled, marvelous to see, and decisive, scoring 50 goals per season only in the Spanish league, plus many more in the Cup of Europe or the King's Cup, that is extra terrestrial figures. And I'm not exactl his fan, he has beaten us and humiliated us for 15 years.

Maradona fanatics are not realistic.

Messi is shit

 

[Guido 🇺🇦]

If you'd heard Lineker's tribute to Maradona on TS a moment ago you'd have zero doubt of his fondness for Diego, that he wasn't at all bitter about 86 and that they'd exchanged many jokes about it all since.

Thought his tribute was fantastic last night on BT



SchmoodSpur He also speaks of how shit that pitch was at the Azteca Stadium

 

[Jenny Talia]

But he did this in '86. This clip is JUST from that tournament only! I think that's incredible by comparison of what's followed. (Yes, there are always one or two standouts each tournament e.g Scilachi, Baggio, Platini, Cryuff, Zizou, Pele, Gazza even in 90 and wasn't Greaves supposed to great in '66 before being dropped for the final? But fuck, look at this!)

The first 45 seconds is him putting chances on a plate for all these brilliant team mates we have been hearing about to miss. After that he says fuck it I'll do it myself.
Make no mistake, he won the World Cup largely on his own.