Maradona

Quoted from Withnail

Love him or loathe him he was the GOAT. Can't think of anyone else who single handedly (no pun intented) won a World Cup for an otherwise average - at best - side and won two championships with Napoli who up until his arrival were the whipping boys of Serie A.

Sad news. A true legend of the game. Interesting to see the comparisons between him and Pele for best player of the century. From what I gather FIFA officials  gave it to Pele because he wasn't a drugs cheat but had Maradona not done all them drugs they would have given it to him. The internet poll though on player of the century was won by Maradona by quite some margin with 53.6 per cent of the vote, compared to Pele's 18.53 per cent.

For me a undoubted genius. I always remember reading about Maradona's exploits as a young boy doing kick ups with a tennis ball at half time in a local game and becoming the main attraction. Never really practised it either. All came naturally to him.

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

There was no doubting his flaws as a person but football has lost arguably its greatest ever player

Some of his mistakes were all his. Some of his mistakes were the result of unbelievable levels of pressure from a very early age. I still believe there was a good person behind the persona he sometimes sheltered behind. It was his way of dealing with the pressure, emotion, threats, injuries etc.

There will only ever be one El Diez. RIP

Yes .I saw a documentary  on tv a few months back on him. A victim of his own success. Sad to read that Barcelona pushed him way to hard .He was injured and they gave him injections as it was good for television rights   and he played . I think not having his family behind him at certain times also didn't help. A fragile figure who needed support but at critical points didn't get it.

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

It’s very difficult to compare Messi and C.Ronaldo to the rest. The game has changed so much. Neither LM or CR have ever had a serious injury. Maradona had to evade career ending tackles every week and sometimes he failed...which is wear the drug abuse first started.

I’m not sure he squandered his talents. From the late 70s to 89/90 he was the best player in the world by a huge margin, in an era of Van Basten, Platini, Rijkaard, Matthäus, Zico, Gullit...

All good points. I am very biased against drug cheats (I really dislike them, it's just a thing...) but I'm not sure he was head and shoulders better than Platini and Gullit. Maradona didn't win the Ballon D'Or but Platini, Van Basten and Cruyff won it more than once, Gullit won it as well.

The accusation against the Ballon D'Or was that it was Europe biased but Maradona had most of his best years playing at either Barcelona or Napoli.

Quoted from Ipswin

Cheat your way out of that if you can

Ha ha ha😀😜

Quoted from Rick12

Sad news. A true legend of the game. Interesting to see the comparisons between him and Pele for best player of the century. From what I gather FIFA officials  gave it to Pele because he wasn't a drugs cheat but had Maradona not done all them drugs they would have given it to him. The internet poll though on player of the century was won by Maradona by quite some margin with 53.6 per cent of the vote, compared to Pele's 18.53 per cent.

For me a undoubted genius. I always remember reading Maradona's exploits as a young boy doing kick ups with a tennis ball at half time in a local game and becoming the main attraction. Never really practised it either. All came naturally to him.

The problem with those types of poll (internet polls particularly) are that they are voted on by people who tend to vote for players they have seen and they tend to be biased towards players still playing or recently retired. I didn't see the poll you're referring to but the likes of Puskas would be nowhere whilst some very modern players would be artificially high. It happens in other areas, I can't remember the precise example but there was a poll for the best pop song of all time and it was won by someone like Little Mix because the average age of the respondents was 13!

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Look at what he achieved with an unfashionable Napoli and an otherwise average Argentina. If he squandered talent it was only because he had so much more than anybody else.

Probably why Messi has never overtaken him as Argentina's  finest player. Maradona won them that world cup almost single-handedly.

Quoted from 3610

Imagine the sesh he must have had after México 86!

Or before

He's in the hands of God now.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

All good points. I am very biased against drug cheats (I really dislike them, it's just a thing...) but I'm not sure he was head and shoulders better than Platini and Gullit. Maradona didn't win the Ballon D'Or but Platini, Van Basten and Cruyff won it more than once, Gullit won it as well.

The accusation against the Ballon D'Or was that it was Europe biased but Maradona had most of his best years playing at either Barcelona or Napoli.

Maradona would have had a hard time winning the Ballon d’Or, because he wasn’t European. Non-Europeans weren’t eligible until 1995

the only person i know who is the Goat is Ronaldinho.