Euro 2016 is nearly upon us, so what better to whet our appetite than a story about a couple of famous Argentine footballers?
In Paris ahead of the tournament’s opening match on Friday night, Diego Maradona was caught on microphone having a natter with Brazilian legend Pele.
Pele asked Maradona about Lionel Messi, the man that inherited his number ten Argentina shirt.
“He’s a really good person, but he has no personality,” Maradona replied.
“He lacks the character to be a leader.”
Doesn’t sound like Diego’s all that enamoured with Lionel, does it?
It’s no secret that Messi hasn’t always hit the same dizzying heights for his national team as he has done for Barcelona, so perhaps Maradona’s frank assessment of the 28-year-old will be one that’s agreed with by some of the folk back in his homeland.
Attempting to clarify what Maradona had meant, Pele responded by saying:
“Ah, I get it, he’s not like we were back in the days. In the 70s we [Brazil] had really good players like Rivellino, Gerson, Tostao.
“Not like Argentina now, which depends only on Messi.
“He [Maradona] is saying that Messi is a good player, there’s no doubt about it, but he has no personality.”
Nobody could ever doubt Maradona’s ‘personality’, that’s for sure.
