Weird thing to say considering Maradona wanted to move to an easier league, when he was in Naples. He admitted as much in his book. Messi has been at an elite level for well over a decade now, he has plenty mental strength.
Spot on. Not to mentionthat defenders are far better organised and far more difficult to breakdown these days. Messi is easily superior.
I dont think anyone can say Messi lacks mental strength. Every game he's ever played has been beamed around the globe and watched by tens of millions each week. The expectation on him to perform is unbelievable so to play at the level he has done for 14 years now is incredible really. He's also had one of the best players of all time pushing him all the way through that period so to keep finding that extra level to keep winning Ballon D'ors etc is awesome. Like I said before I think if Argentina had beaten Germany in 2014 then it wouldn't even be a question. Literally the only thing used in any argument against Messi being the greatest ever is a lack of international honors yet he got to three finals, is the country's leading goalscorer ever and won the Golden Ball at the World Cup. Difference being Burrachaga scored in 86 and Higuain missed on 2014.
I don't know if Maradona necessarily had more "mental strength" than Messi does, not even sure how you measure that. Though before Messi's mental strength also gets blown up to mythological levels... He has twice quit Argentina where he has struggled in comparison to club level, and once Barcelona have started to fade he has tried to quit there too. BUT I digress....Maradona was best player I ever saw.
Depends how you judge mental strength. As you say it's not straightforward to measure. Mental strength could be looked at as someone who performs when it matters the most, which I think both players have done. I don't know whether the fact he was on drugs and drink so much makes Maradona even more remarkable that he was so good or whether it's a major flaw in his legacy.
yes, I can understand that. I don't want to compare Messi with Maradona but you just see what happened in his country after his dead (and in Napoli). Do you think they would take a 3 days mourning for Messi in Argentina when he dies or that Barcelona wants to rename their stadium after his dead like Napoli wants to (if they do it idk, though). I can tell you that in both World Cups Germany played against Maradonas Argentina I had more fear about some genius actions of Maradona than I had in 2014 when we played against Messi's Argentina (plus the match in the k.o round, quarterfinal, in 2010 where we destroyed his team 4-0). Yes all those 3 World Cup finals were tight (all won only by a 1 goal margin) but I can't explain it with Maradona in the team for them I always expected the "unexpected". Difficult to describe for me in English. He had this aura of "magic" that I've never seen before or later (I was too young to see Pele live in his prime). Anyway, this is not about Messi this is about the death of Maradona:
I'm just about old enough to remember both Maradona and Messi's generation and I think that Messi is overall the better and most consistent player but Maradona's explosive personality and style of play has helped him to achieve a more iconic status. We all love a flawed genius and Maradona was certainly that while Messi seems a bit dull and Peter Perfect in comparison. Also when Maradona was on it, he was really on it and that explosion of genius, often at important times, drew greater attention to him whereas Messi's high level was so consistent over so many years that people started to take it for granted and it was harder for his genius to stand out because people simply expected it from him. I also think the very different media environment of the two eras contributes to the different attitudes. There was far less football on TV in the 80s and a hell of a lot less analysis. And foreign football was barely shown at all. The main football on TV was the odd First Division game, the FA Cup rounds, England games and the main international championships like the World Cup which only came round every couple of years. There wasn't the constant TV and online exposure of Messi's generation. Consequently with fewer matches shown on TV, and higher viewing figures for the matches that do get shown due to there being fewer channels, no internet and less choice of games, when something brilliant happened in a televised game it gained a more mythical status and achieved greater cultural significance due to the higher viewing figures so a greater number of people witnessed it live. I feel that Messi's achievements kind of blurred into a big YouTube highlights reel due to the massive overexposure of modern football and the great things he did didn't really resonate and have the same cultural significance as the things Maradona did in the 80s. Underexposure allows a sort of myth and legend to build up to fill in the long gaps between the opportunities to watch. I feel that if Maradona's career had been subject to the same level of viewing scrutiny as Messi's career then his lesser consistency in his club career would have had more exposure and the same level of mythical legend wouldn't have built up around him.
You say you didn’t see him then make a bunch of claims when you hadn’t seen him. Anyway I can’t be arsed with Messi vs Maradona. For me Maradona is the greatest player I’ve ever seen, he encompasses everything football is about for me, like I said he was an artist not an athlete and football for me needs more of that and less of the boring stats and mechanical football we see these days. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Claims like he was untouchable in the mid-80s, played on shit surfaces and had defenders trying to hack him down. Hardly revelations.
Fair enough, I just don’t see why this has to be a Messi vs Maradona thing. The guy has just died. Who gives a f*ck Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It is so weird (this is not a dig at anyone particular on this site), but I genuinely find that the cult of Messi is ****ing tiresome. He is possibly the greatest of all time but like most things in football it is subjective at best. Someone sent me this recently, no idea where he pinched it from because the lad who sent it could never have come up with it himself To some extent, every generation demands ownership on greatness. It's a way of validating our place in history and making our lives feel somehow more relevant, and it applies to practically every field of achievement. One generation had Elvis, the next had the Beatles. And if you lived through either as a teenager, the likelihood is that your loyalties lie with the one who sound-tracked your coming of age. The same can be true in sport. And when you consider that the majority of people voting in football's most recent "greatest" polls are of the Messi generation, should it really be a surprise that he comes out so far on top? Try as we might to apply perspective, there are powerful forces at work in our thinking—not least our generational loyalties. Messi might be the best player of his generation—and if we traveled through time and put him in an 11-a-side match with Pele and Maradona in their pomp, he may well prove to be the most impressive player over 90 minutes, too (another one for debate)—but does that really make him the greatest? Messi has benefited from advancements in every area of the game. He's had better coaching than Maradona, who in turn had better coaching (with more to draw on) than Pele. Each generation has learned from the last, so it goes without the saying that in isolation the latest "greatest" should be best equipped to excel.
I won't post what he put for his second reason I just always feel when discussing this kind of thing, folk seem compelled to tell me how I am wrong and giving me full sermon as to why Messi is the greatest, like I don't have my own eyes or reasoning ability
