After yet another exceptional performance by the mercurial Argentine, Barcelona team-mate Pedro Rodriguez qualified Lionel Messi as “better than Diego Maradona”, even though La Pulga is still just 22 years of age. “To me, Messi is better than Maradona. I play with him, I see him every day, and to me he is the best. Maradona has been the best player in history and for me, Messi is even greater than he is. He is young, but has already won a lot of things; to me, he is better,” said the youngster in comments reported by Marca.
Messi received compliments from more of his Barcelona team mates, led by Dani Alves. “Of course he can be compared with [Diego] Maradona and can be better than him. If he continues with this humility he can become better,” Alves told Canal +. Fellow Argentinian Milito, who left the field to a standing ovation against his former club, also sung the praises of Messi who he says continues to surprise everyone. “Leo has excelled once again. He does things that surprise us all. He has the quality to make the difficult easy,” he noted. Maxwell said he was glad that Messi plays on the same team as him, as he feels the 22-year-old is simply unstoppable. “Luckily he is playing with us, because he is unstoppable. The team is playing very well and we’re all happy,” he remarked.
Opposition manager Jose Aurelio Gay also compared Messi to Maradona stating that “We have failed against a fantastic player. We fought far as we could. The team has not given up at any time and have been in the game until Messi decided it,” to a press conference. “The game was exciting, vibrant, beautiful and we love the football we’ve seen from a huge player. Today I returned to seeing Maradona in his heyday but with more revolutions, much faster.”
Finally, the ever excitable Barcelona President Juan Laporta went further than anybody else stating that Messi is the greatest player of all time. “He’s the best player in the world and the history of football. Along with [Johan] Cruyff and [Diego] Maradona he is the best we’ve seen in Barcelona,” he told Canal +. He’s played a great match, he is a football genius and he plays for the team. He is the leader of Barcelona. Also he thinks about his team-mates after he handed the penalty to [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic to score.”
Loading ...