Maradona, clearly the No 1 of his era

Enrique hooks it and passes it to Diego Maradona on the ball now Two closing him down He breaks away down the right the genius of world football He goes past a third looks for Burruchaga Maradona forever Genius genius genius Goal GoalMaradona representing Argentina in a Nations Cup match against Russia at Berlin in 1987 PicGetty ImagesSorry I want to cry Good God Long live football What a goal Diego Maradona I have to scream forgive me Cosmic kite which planet did you come from To leave behind so many English to turn the whole country into a clenched fist shouting for Argentina Thank you God for football for Maradona for these tears and for this scoreline Argentina 2 England 0That was Victor Hugo Morales describing perhaps the greatest World Cup goal ever scored Diego Maradonas second against England in Mexico Even now nearly three decades later the sheer magnificence of it dovetails beautifully with the breathless excitement and emotion of Moraless commentary You may be watching the footage for the hundredth time but the sequence of twists and feints allied with immaculate ball control will make you gasp every timeAs Eduardo Galeano the Uruguayan writer wrote in Soccer in Sun and Shadow They adored Diego Maradona for his prodigious acrobatics and because he was a dirty God a sinner the most human of the deities Anyone could see in him the walking synthesis of human weaknesses ndash arrogant overbearing deceitful swaggering But perhaps of all the crimes Maradona committed the most profound was the sin of being the bestThe they Galeano refers to includes thousands of people of my generation We may have watched sport for more than three decades now but there is nothing in our mental archives to compare with what Maradona did over the course of a month in 1986 Lothar Mattheus had an outstanding World Cup when West Germany won the trophy in 1990 Romario was often sublime as Brazil triumphed in 1994Lionel Messi We remember 1998 for Zinedine Zidanes virtuoso display in the final while 2002 was Ronaldos redemption song The same Zidanes angry headbutt is the compelling image of 2006 while four years later Spain eased their way to the title with a performance that might have been titled A Clockwork RedIncomparableDo any of them compare to what Maradona did though Not really Few footballers will ever achieve what he did and not just in the Argentina shirt His best years at club level were with teams that were rank outsiders When he took Argentinos Juniors to second place in the Metropolitano the Argentine championship in 1980 it was their best finish since the professional era began in 1931In 198687 when his Napoli side won both Serie A and the Italian Cup it marked the first time a team from the relatively impoverished southern half of the mainland had won the league That victory was repeated in 198990 and there was also UEFA Cup glory to savour in an era of unprecedented successThe reluctance to place Lionel Messi on the same pedestal especially back home in Argentina stems primarily from two reasons His greatest moments have come in the Barcelona shirt As a team Barcelona had been famous around the world for nearly half a century before Messi even scored a senior goal for themIt wasnt like he emulated Maradona and took an obscure team to the greatest heights And like Alfredo Di Stefano the most formidable Argentine player of the preMaradona years Messi has yet to deliver a defining performance with the national side Di Stefano was one of the alltime greats but compared to Pele and Maradona so few have heard of him or are aware of his feats He never played a World Cup with Argentina who he last represented at the age of 21 or with Spain his adopted landMessi has played two In 2006 he scored in the group stages but was a frustrated spectator on the bench as Jose Pekermans befuddling tactics resulted in a quarterfinal exit against Germany Four years later he was the main creative outlet but again Germany proved far too strong in the last eight Messi like most of his teammates was anonymous in a naiumlve tactical system that the Germans simply shreddedMessi is the finest player of his generation But ahead of what might be his best chance to win a World Cup winners medal he would do well to listen to what Maradona said about Mexico I lived the World Cup to the full like everything Ive done in my life said the man some fans called D10S ndash a combination of the No 10 shirt he wore and the Spanish word for God Messi who appeared careworn at times during the last season needs to embrace the experience and not care too much about the expectation He has what it takes to be another cosmic kiteDileep Premachandran is Wisden Indias editorinchief