How do you argue against a ghost? This question always comes to mind when people compare Messi and Maradona with Maradona being seen as better. While based on what I have seen, I can say with comfort that I believe Messi to be better. However, and this is my issue when the topic of Maradona comes up, I don't know much about Maradona. I have watched his entire World Cup run and more matches, however, that's not enough of a sample to make a conclusion.

So, that means that I could be wrong, especially since I don't consider the number of goals and assists as a big factor, but, considering that I have about the same data and information available to everyone in this debate, why does the lack of it seem to apply that people on Maradona's side are right?

Legends and Myths

If I were to go by the stories, I would obviously pick Maradona as well. However, based on what I have seen, yes, Maradona played amazingly, but also, Messi played like Maradona consistently for at least 14 years. This is not only my opinion, by the way. Jorge Valdano, who's an executive at Real Madrid and Argentina's striker during the 1986 World Cup said,

Messi is Maradona every single day. It's been June 1986 for the past 5 years — Leo Messi is the Maradona of Mexico '86.

The reason that quote matters is that while I don't believe 90% of what coaches, executives, and players say means anything, Valdano in specific has no reason to lie. He works with Real Madrid and it would benefit him greatly if that 1986 World Cup win was untouchable.

On the other hand, Frank Leboeuf, France's centre-back who played alone side Zidane during France's 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euro, was asked who he thought was better, Zinedine Zidane or Michel Platini. Leboeuf's answer was Platini and explained by saying that he played with and against Zidane, he's taking balls from him and watched him have a bad game. So, Platini was just better in Leboeuf's mind because of just that, it was pure imagination which made Platini better.

Similarly, Alejandro Moreno, a Venezuelan former footballer, said that he played against Messi and watched him play badly, yet Maradona had a halo around him because he reminded Moreno of the time he fell in love with football as a child. So, whether it's Moreno or Leboeuf, it's all about the emotional peaks of why the older generation seems to prefer older players and that's fine except that a player can't the greatest and defended so fiercely just because his name is nostalgic to you. Those emotions are all there is to it.

The Big Lie

I could hold and decimate every myth told about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, I have done this before with both and will be doing it in future parts of this series. But, what I can't do is decimate the myths about Maradona. Could I for example point out that Maradona didn't do anything in the UEFA Champions League in his total of eight appearances? No, because obviously, the response is that Napoli was never that good of a team and he couldn't charge them ahead.

One of the reasons the older generation talks so fondly of Maradona, when you say that his World Cup matches aren't enough of a sample, is that they claim to have seen him live during his time in Napoli when he was in his prime, which is a complete and utter lie. Whenever you listen to these people you imagine that they saw him live every week. However, the truth is none of them did.

Italy's Serie A started broadcasting outside of Italy in 1989. That's five seasons after Maradona joined Napoli when they were fighting relegation and two after his league win with them in 1987. The fact of the matter is all the people claiming to have watched Maradona live in his prime are just liars unless they lived in Italy. So, yeah, I didn't see Maradona's magic in his prime, but guess what, you didn't either.

Not to undermine Maradona, but let's dive deeper into that time period.

The Serie A During Maradona's Years

Here's what you don't hear about that time period in Serie A. You don't hear about how during Maradona's time, there were also two other poor clubs who also won the league under the eyes of the rich northern clubs, Hellas Verona and Sampdoria and neither had Maradona. You also don't hear about how Hellas Verona won the league in Maradona's first season with Napoli and Hellas Verona wasn't fight relegation prior, but was actually in the second division 3 years prior, which is the same period Napoli took to win the league with Maradona.

You also never hear about Napoli having a legendary defender in Serie A's history, Ciro Ferrara, who went on to represent Juventus afterwards and literally won everything there is to win. You never hear about Andrea Carnevale, who was also among the top scorers in the league or about the strikers Bruno Giordano and Careca who made a trio with Maradona that had its own nickname, "il Magica".

You always about how rich and successful northern clubs were during that time period and how Maradona won everything "singlehandedly" even though the two clubs were either in the same boat as Napoli or in an even worse situation winning the league during that time period. You never hear about any of that, because in order for Maradona to become a God, you can't point out to all the others who did similarly or better.

In Conclusion

It just so happens that Napoli was rather near winning the Serie A in the last few years and seems to be on its way to winning it this season. Would we actually say that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia won it singlehandedly if Napoli wins the title? What about Victor Osimhen? Piotr Zieliński? Hirving Lozano? Or anyone? It sounds unreasonable to say any of them won it singlehandedly, doesn't it? Or, let me phrase it better, it sounds unreasonable to say anyone except Maradona won it singlehandedly, doesn't it?

In order for us to treat Maradona like a god who won singlehandedly, we have to overlook and ignore the works of Néstor Clausen, Ricardo Bochini, Ricardo Giusti, Nery Pumpido, Héctor Enrique, Oscar Ruggeri, Daniel Passarella, Jorge Valdano, Jorge Burruchaga, Hellas Verona, Sampdoria, Ciro Ferrara, Andrea Carnevale, Bruno Giordano, and Careca. A long list and that wasn't even half of it.

Tens of players had their efforts belittled or completely obliterated from history just so one player could get all the glory.