Diego Maradona died in Argentina today from a heart attack. He was 60. I say 'arguably' the best, because there is no way to compare players of different generations, much as we love to. We all have our biases...if you're older than me you might say Pele was the best ever, if you're younger than me you might say Messi. I never saw Pele play and have seen far more of Messi's games on satellite TV, YouTube, even Netflix than Maradona's.
Is Messi a technically superior player, was Pele? Perhaps, we can certainly debate it. But as Bobby Ghosh wrote today on Bloomberg, Maradona was the best ever because "[he] came closest to defying the dictum that soccer is a team sport." Exactly.
Would Messi be the same player without Iniesta and Xavi? Likewise Brazil's winning teams of 1958, 1962 and 1970 had legendary players like Garrincha, Rivelino, Torres and Jairzinho alongside Pele. But for most of his career, Maradona "played in teams that lacked any other world-beating players", writes Ghosh. Maradona took Napoli, a struggling southern club, and conquered Italian football over northern giants like Juventus and Milan (and changed Naples). He then took a "slightly better supporting cast of Argentines" to a wonderous triumph at the '86 World Cup over far better regarded teams.
As Ghosh says, "it is one thing to be a brilliant player surrounded by other brilliant players...but Maradona made magic out of mediocre materials." Even more remarkable is the weight of expectation he carried on his shoulders for both club and country. He was "the pibe de oro, or golden boy, as much talisman as captain and player." And delivered over and over again...until inevitably the pressure, drugs and addiction got the best of him. But he withstood those forces long enough to stake his claim of best ever. He was a hero and icon in both Argentina and Naples, who transcended sport.
And then, of course, there was THAT goal--the best ever. While there were similar ones over the years, none could match it in terms of occasion, pressure and importance (winning goal in the WC quarterfinals against rivals England in the shadows of the Falklands War).
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