Between Messi and Maradona who is/was better?

So the World Cup starts next week, and football is the news item now, so I will talk alittle about football.

Between Messi and Maradona who is/was better?

This is a question that in fact doesn’t have a good answer, it’s like asking who would have won a fight between Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson, you just can’t have a perfect answer.

First of all you have to see this thing in context, 35 years ago football was different from now, the balls felt heavier probably made from real leather, shoes are much better now, the pitches were not as good as now, you could be tackled with very bad intentions and it didn’t even deserve a card etc.

So I think the real question would be, who would have played a better game if he had played during the time the other guy was a star? Better said Messi 35 years ago and Maradona in this time. OK first off I think Messi would beat Maradona now in that he has more discipline and football is played more tactically now, this also makes it more boring.

But frankly I don’t think Messi would have lasted more than a couple of games 35 years ago, he would have quit, too many kicks, too much spitting, too much fingers up your ass, elbows, and no referee calls. Also I think it would have been more difficult for him to get accustomed to the ball and the pitch.

On the other hand I think Maradona would find things better now, better pitches a lighter ball, and here he would have excelled if he could control an orange, these new balls would have been no challenge for him. And having the referee make sure you are not hurt by rude defenders would have been a plus for him.

So yes I think Maradona would have done better now than Messi in his time. Things were just so much tougher back then, and even getting hit with a football was worse than today especially if it was wet.

Now most people go by stats, Messi has scored way more goals but Maradona was a midfielder Messi is a center forward more liable to score goals. But let’s say in free kicks Maradona was way better than Messi, both missed a lot of penalty shots. Ball control obviously goes to Maradona.

So we have two football players who are considered the best of all time and yet, when I see George Best dribble I ask myself is Messi a better dribbler than him, is Maradona a better dribbler than him? And I think there have been even better dribblers than Best.Or I think about penalty shots and see players who have missed one penalty during their whole careers and these two guys missed a lot, Messi has about 80% accuracy in penalties, Maradona I don’t know but I saw him miss a few.

In free kicks Zico to name one was way better than either of them, with headers there are numerous people way better than both of them.

So overall I think people are wrong you can’t say any player is the best of all time because you haven’t seen all of them and probably they are great in some apsects of the game and poor in others. In fact I have read about Matthias Sindelar an Austrian from the 30’s and people who saw Maradona and remembered Sindelar said there wasn’t much difference between them, just think about the pitches and balls this guy must have played with and what kind of kicks he must have received.

And like Sindelar I bet there have been players just as good that we have never even heard about, so I guess this GOAT can just be made for sports were the outcome can be measured, like who is the fastest? In this case it is Usain Bolt up to now (you will read about Gatlin being the fastest but he managed to run slightly faster than Bolt because it was a show and he had some huge fans behind him that were producing 20 meter per second winds).

I have seen a lot of great players (by TV of course), Ronaldinho, Okocha, Magico Gonzales, Ronaldo, Gerson, Cruyff, Best, Rossi, Cubillas etc., I think the idea of being a football fan is to watch the game and enjoy it, getting upset over who is the best just doesn’t make the cut, it is after all a team sport, you will never get everyone to agree on who is the best.

Perhaps we will see some new great players in Russia, because I think this will be the last World Cup for a lot of the players who are considered among the best right now.