The best futbol player ever. Pele is a notch below. Then comes George Best. Bobby Moore, Eusebio, Puskas, Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Van Basten, Zidane, Zico, Messi and many more All soccer greats. But Maradona was God. My childhood hero. The guy that made me an Argentina fan for life. Just watched his 1986 world cup highlights and I had to start this thread. World Cup should be named after him. Just like Lombardi trophy, the World Cup winner should be awarded Maradona trophy. He single handedly made Napoli Italian League champions. In 1990 World Cup semi final that was played in Napoli, he made Italian fans root for Argentina against Italy. If soccer is a religion, Maradona is the prophet. There is only one Maradona and there will not be another one.
I expect folks from UK to participate in this discussion but would have loved junc of course. Miss the guy and his unwavering hatred for futbol.
I totally agree about Maradona. He won the '86 world cup pretty much on his own. To my mind, the best ever. However, in your list of greats after that, you miss out Cryuff, the second best ever, imho.
And Best is waaaayyyyy too high. Although I should add that Maradona singlehandedly cheated his way to the 86 WC.
Can't believe I forgot Cruyff. The guy who won 1978 World Cup for Netherlands and father of Total Futbol. Ah memories. Getting old. I put Best over there for his skills. His accomplishments are way behind a lot of other soccer greats. But the guy was an Artist. Pele good, Maradona better, George Best. Nah. It was late night last night. Was watching Turkish satellite TV and Turkish sports channel was showing a documentary about Maradona and this took me back to 1986 World Cup which is the first World Cup I remember watching on TV. If you were English, I would understand. Hand of God is what you are referring to. Well, I wish it didn't happen but what can I say. Maradona is the best soccer player ever RJF. Deal with it.
You don't have to be on the receiving end of cheating to despise it. But it's not about the hand of god anyway. Maradona had a great publicity stunt - he loved talking and thus was interviewed a lot. One the field.... Michel Platini Zico Marco van Basten Ruud Gullit Any of them was better than Maradona, they just didn't self-promote as he did. To put it bluntly... the only reason why you think Maradona is the best, is because Maradona told you so, over and over and over again. You just bit on the hype.
You are right regarding your statement on cheating. But for the rest, I won't agree with you. Maradona was a bad boy. Self promoter. Showman. But he was an awesome talent. Look I don't want to turn this into a pissing contest on something very subjective but you can't show me one list that will show Platini or Zico above Maradona as a talent. If you told van Basten and Gullit they were better than Maradona, they would tell you you were wrong. Look van Basten ve Gullit were around when Maradona played. They were the greats of AC Milan along with Frank Rijkard but come on man, Gullit and van Basten? I thought you would come back with Messi or Cruyf not with Gullit and van Basten. Let our UK folks chime in on this.
An artist, sure, and when he was good he was very very good. He just wasn't good all that often really. Very inconsistent and often seemed to not do all that much in games. An awesome highlight reel for Best though for sure, I just prefer consistency over occasional brilliance. As far as artists go I'd probably put Cruyff higher than Best, though similar players in nature. Maradonna is the best though overall. A cheating scumbag, definitely, but the best. It's probably a generational thing though. My Dad wouldn't contemplate anyone but Pele, my son would probably say Messi. Argentina were a decent side in 86 and he made the difference for them. In 90 he dragged them kicking, screaming and complaining all the way to the final all by himself. That team would have been lucky to make the tournament without him. They were poor. Zico, Van Basten, Gullit and Platini are all greats, but not in the same league. He had no weaknesses as a player.
The Dutch have never won a World Cup. Maradona was a great, great player, but Pele is #1 in my book as he has had such a long lasting impact on the game.
You realize that what you're saying is exactly agreeing with me? Yes he was talented. Giving you names, I was restricting myself to Maradona's time period. He is not even the best player of his generation. If you wanna talk all-time.... IMO, the best all-time player was Garrincha. The best dribbler ever lived whole-field impact player. The amazing thing about Garrincha is that opponents knew exactly what he was about to do, and still couldn't stop him. Watch his tape, read his story.
The hand ball pissed me off no end. It took me a good few years to admit Maradona for what he was. But i have no doubt he's the best ever. It's all subjective of course, but his second against us and one against Belgium were simply amazing. Given the mention of Platini earlier, I should say that the French team of 84 and 86 were something special. Giresse, Tigana, even Bats in goal, what a team. Loved the Brazil of 82, too. The last Brazil team to live up to the hype.
Wesley fucking Walker is the greatest athlete of all goddamn time and any asshole on a jets message board who disagrees should have his balls lopped off
I can add a few things here,,,not much but here they are First I know zero when it comes to soccer , probably less than zero secondly I worked with a guy 25 years ago and he would talk soccer constantly and loved Maradona-----> Brook is your name John , was that you ? lolieie lastly all I can add is that my older brother , when in College , went to school with and dated a Cosmo cheerleader for a while and she had lots of hot friends and we would go to Cosmo games at the meadowlands and afterwards we would be invited to these cool parties !!!! insert 5 --->clap clap clap clap clap and then 4 more clap clap clap clap " COSMOS "