Over the years in football, Lionel Messi has often being compared with Argentine great Diego Maradona. The recent comparison was made by former France international Robert Pires who shared how he has had the privilege of sharing the pitch with the former Barcelona man and has played against top talents including Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, etc but he feels Messi is more similar to Maradona than anyone else in the football world.
Robert Pires has played for some of the teams in the world which includes clubs like Arsenal, Villareal, Marseille, etc. He has also won several accolades with the France national team as he was part of the World Cup winning squad back in 1998. Pires was then part of the Les Blues Euro winning team in 2000.
Therefore Pires has played with and against some top players in the world but still he feels it was an honour for him to share the pitch with Argentine great Lionel Messi and compared him to the closest to Diego Maradona. Pires is a big admirer of Messi and feels that the impact that he has had is only comparable to Maradona.
“Sharing a pitch with him is a privilege. I was lucky enough to face him and other very good players like Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho… But Messi has something more, something different. A little of what Diego Maradona had,” Pires told La Nacion.
Diego Maradona has always been the determining factor for the Argentinians as the magician was something for La Albiceleste as he has raised mayhem in some of the most crucial games. Maradona was the star for Argentina as they lifted two World Cups back in 1978 and 1986 during his time.
Lionel Messi also has that ability to glide past defenders with ease and therefore there are shades of Maradona’s brilliance in Messi and hence Pires’ opinion is not entirely wrong as there are similarities more than we will know.
Messi who is currently plying his trade for Paris Saint Germain is looking to hand them the first Champions League title whereas he is also looking to help Argentina win the World Cup in Qatar which will start in a few weeks time. Messi has won everything in his career right now but he has not yet won the World Cup. He came close a couple of times but ended up on the wrong end. So this is the perfect time for the Argentine to step up and match the Argentine great Diego Maradona.
