Everyone talks about Diego Maradona, Mexico 86 and the way he hauled Napoli to a Serie A title, almost on his own, but of all the players I’ve seen however, it’s Lionel Messi – he’s been on another plane ever since he broke into the Barcelona team.
With Messi, we expect brilliance every time he gets on the ball. The way he can dribble through defences – the ball is like elastic on his feet. He’s agile, nimble; he’s a team player who gets a lot of assists. He scores incredible amounts of goals and against top quality opposition in the Champions League, too. What hasn’t he got? Only aerial strength, but he’s never really needed it and he’s still managed to score a header in the Champions League final, which would have pleased him.
It was disappointing when he threw his toys out of the pram and temporarily quit the national side. People continue to say that he’ll never be able to match Maradona until he wins a World Cup. But I don’t buy in to that because we’re talking about individual players rather than teams. He has one more chance, maybe two, to win the World Cup with Argentina, so his reluctance to play is disappointing.