It's close, but Maradona is better than Messi

Maradona with the same protection the stars of today get would have been a sight to behold.

I prefer the Maradonna we got. Boring shits like Messi are no fun.

Ronaldo (Brazilian) is the best player I've ever seen. Had it not been for his knee injury I'm in no doubt he'd have been the undisputed best player in history.

qs! wrote:

I prefer the Maradonna we got. Boring shits like Messi are no fun.

I don't think it's the players faults Qs, it's the way things are nowadays.
Due to corporatising and a conservative risk aversion at all costs attitude from the games governing powers all the characters and fun is gone from the game, you saw Koscielny getting carded for "over celebrating" a goal- That's typical of fools that run the game now.

Bold Tone wrote:

Maybe it's old age but i don't get that frisson i used to with players of old (Maradona, Laudrup, Gullit, Van Basten, Romario, Hagi, Baggio, Ronaldo, etc) whether you supported them or not.
Apart from Napoli, i always hated all the teams Maradona played for but i wouldn't miss watching him whenever i could.
Messi, Ibra, Cronaldo, etc just don't do it for me.

Think that's the key.

Those guys were seen sporadically and their legend spread alot easier by word of mouth and growing reputation. These days everyone knows everything about every player and there's no mystique.

Yeah Maradona was a shadowy chimeric figure who shyed away from publicity and controversy.

My affiliation with Arsenal was a lot weaker when I was a kid. We were privileged in Sweden I guess since we had pretty extensive coverage of the top Italian teams from early on. Meant I could watch almost every Milan game of the Gullit/van Basten/Rijlaard era. I was madly fond of them, and Gullit was my fave for years.

We have had English top flight gamea since the seventies too. The guy who made that possible is a fucking legend. Basically, he worked in television in Sweden, but on a random trip to England he went to a game. He was completely captivated by the atmosphere and wanted to bring that to Sweden. He came home, talked to his bosses, and they were dead against the idea. They didn't see how anyone here would want to watch ENGLISH football. He didn't give up though, and after a massive nagging campaign they gave in and said that if he could set it up they would try it (they never thought he could pull it off). He went to England and met with the FA and the tv company. They didn't believe in the idea either really, and couldn't understand why on earth Swedes would want to watch their footy. It was possible though, with how far broadcasting had got, and he bought the rights to broadcast live the game they themselves would show on Saturdays at 3 for almost nothing at all. The rest is history, and Saturdays at 3 (4 in Sweden) has become synonymous with English football. What a man! That was the beginning of selling broadcasting rights btw, and that has somewhat taken off...

Good story Rex, what was his name?
Everyone loved that Milan side of the late 80s early 90's, Baresi Maldini........

Lars-Gunnar Björklund! Swedish legend.

I've seen him play live, he scored from a free kick for Argentina V Australia, I was right in line of the flight of the ball, superb.

Gives the 'anyone can be made to look good on Youtube' a whole new meaning.

Ronaldo, Messi and Cristiano will always sit at high table amongst modern footballers.

But no player can delight like the jailbird Gaucho.

Still the best footballer I've ever seen.

I miss him.

We'll never see a player like that again. The top players have become machines instead of artists.

Eh? Neymar certainly has vibes of Ronaldinho......

MistaT wrote:

Eh? Neymar certainly has vibes of Ronaldinho......

Barely even close in terms of swagger. And this is a compilation of him when he is past his prime. 

Although I do really enjoy Kaka in his prime too. 

Neymar is nowhere near close. Ronaldinho is the only player who was a street footballer with top level football ability. Neymar is much more conventional in comparison.

I mean, if you think Neymar - the flashiest player at a top team - is "nowhere near close" to Ronaldinho than you've set Ronaldinho on too high (distant) of a pedestal.

I love Ronnie, but Neymar is producing outrageous skills and winning games single handily at the same time.

This whole conversation started with a Ronaldinho compilation showing him nutmegging everyone and anyone. Neymar does that day in day out too....

Eh, nowhere close.

Half that is just drawing fouls. If anything you are just proving my point that even the top, most exciting players just aren't as innovative and artistic as Dinho.

People tend to romanticize retired players though. Just in this thread Ronaldinho has been called better than Messi.