Tuesday 28 June 2016

Maradona, Messi and football legacy



Scene one: Copa America


It is telling that as soon as Messi lost the Copa America final, the Maradona Vs Messi legacy discussion kicked off to demonstrate that Messi is no where near Maradona. 


Our script of Maradona's legacy overlooks the fact that Maradona never even came close to compete for Copa America title, getting kicked out of the group stage in 1979, coming fourth when Argentina hosted the tournament in 1987, and forth in 1989. 


Worth noting as well that Pele came as close as third in the tournament with Brazil, and that was in 1959.


And that is fine and normal. Because we are basically comparing two different things here: What we know NOW about Messi (the news) to what we collectively narrate about Maradona: His legacy. Two completely different languages.



The legacy thingy


We get it all wrong when we start arguing about Messi's legacy as if it is up for us to live it, analyse it, and deliver the narration of it as a permanent historical script for the future.


As proven over and over again, time has its own dynamics, and life rewrites us as a past tense over and over again in many ways and different versions mixing our subjective views, future generations' approach, sentiments, and nostalgia in an outlined narration of what matters most for Them then, not for us now. 




So many details we are so obsessed about now regarding Messi will have no relevance in the future narration about Messi's legacy. Same as so many details about previous Greats (Oh, the details!) were left behind and ignored in order to trim, polish, and add a magical touch of aura - a main ingredient needed-  to the legacy iconic formula.


Reading through the refined legacies of past Greats and trying to pull it off that heavenly throne to its past reality will put their achievements in the right none-supernatural perspective and offer a chance to predict how Messi's legacy will look like after his achievements get the same level of maintenance and packaging over time. 


I should note that I am a life time Maradona fan, and putting Maradona's legacy on the table here is simply because he is the name used most in comparison with Messi, and because for me Maradona was always the greatest of them all (I didn't watch Pele matches), until Messi.


Scene two: Club legacy


There is no doubt that Maradona's era at Napoli was a blast. Not only for the titles Napoli won but as a part of the south vs north sociocultural background in Italy. However, the margin distancing the legendary legacy from the great reality is the issue we should spot a light on more. 


The club:


Starting with Napoli's position in the league table during and around the period Maradona played there (Maradona's seasons with Napoli are in brackets), from 1980-1981 season and on, Napoli's ranking swinged as the following: 


3rd, 4th, 10th, 12th, (8th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 8th) , 4th, 11th, 6th...


The boost Napoli enjoyed during Maradona's time there is obvious, but a closer look at the sequence shows that Napoli was not exactly the Leicester City of Italy that Maradona carried on his back to title. If anything, Napoli was more the Liverpool or Spurs of Italy, an inconsistent team swinging between top but not enough in a good season, and dropping low in another. A team with a budget good enough, and a project exciting enough to afford getting a player like Maradona, and a club name known enough to tempt a player like Maradona to escape to after a not so impressive time at FC Barcelona.


Do I think adding Messi to Liverpool or Spurs make them competetive enough to win some titles? Yes.


Instead, Messi played for a club with a higher quality and achieved more on the club level. You cant take that against him.


We don't even need to draw comparisons between Napoli and the mentioned English clubs, falling in the trap of "No, its not the same" argument. Was Napoli the best title story in Italy during that era? "The club that snatched the title out of the gigantic italian clubs hands" like the legacy tells. No, not even that. 


The name of that club is: Hellas Verona.


Promoted from second division in 1981-1982 season, the following seasons for Verona went like this:


4th, 6th, 1st, 10th, 4th, 10th...


Verona finished their first season in Serie A in top four, and won the title two years later. Beating all the big clubs in Italy, without having a Maradona. 


That, added to the swining position of both Verona and Napoli in the league sheds a light on the state of the Italian league back then. It was a period where the competition was wide open for all teams to entertain their chances until the mid nineties when AC Milan had their best team in history and more or less dominated with Juventus the following cycle. We should not mix the two periods together, as the legacy narration tends to do. 


Here are the league winners during Maradona's time in Napoli:


Verona, Juventus, Napoli, Milan, Inter, Napoli, Sampdoria, Milan...


It was not exactly a closed title winners brotherhood of clubs that Maradona hacked. More, a tough competition where Maradona's brilliance added to Napoli's squad provided enough quality to compete in it.


Napoli's squad? What squad? Wasn't it all about Maradona?


Napoli finished each of the two title winning seasons as the second best team defensively, with the least number of conceded goals. Keeping 16 clean sheets in 30 games in1987, and 14 clean sheet in 34 games in 1990.


Maradona was capable of doing many miracles with the ball, defending was not one of them. Napoli had a group of players who ended up having hundreds of international caps, especially for Italy and Brazil. They were not no ones by any scale.


In 1987, Maradona finished the title winning season scoring 10 goals out of Napoli's 41 scored goals in the league. Of course, the argument is: You can't compare Messi's numbers to Maradona's. Different leagues. So I will not do so. That season, Virdis finished as a top goalscorer with 17 goals out of his teams 31, Vialli came second with 12 out of 37, Altobelli 11 out of 32, then Ramon Diaz 10/30, Maradona 10/41, and Aldo Serna 10/42.


In 1990's Napoli title, Maradona scored 16 goals out of 57 goals the team scored. Van Basten was the top scorer with 19/56, followed by Baggio 17/41, then Maradona 16/57, and Schillaci 15/16.


Assuming that all the goals Maradona didn't score for Napoli he assisted, you need more than no ones in the squad to score 31 goals in 1987, and 41 goals in 1990.


There were names that made history in that Napoli. In fact, the current MSN, BBC, etc... naming trend for forward Trios is not new. In 1990, Napoli had its catchy Ma-Gi-Ca trio in Maradona, Giordano, and Careca. The Careca who scored 73 goals in 164 games for Napoli, and 29 goals in 60 international games for Brazil.



Scene three: The worldcup


Maradona's adventure in world cup 1982 was so chaotic that Argentinians demanded to chop him off world cup's 1986 squad and replace him by Bochini, a supposedly better player. Then he lost world cup 1990 final (scoring no goals in the tournament) before blowing off the chance of Argentina's excellent squad in world cup 1994 after getting tested positive for five variants of ephedrine.


Its all about world cup 1986 then, where he had an amazing tournament and played the major role in Argentina's world cup win. But to suggest that Maradona single handed won the world cup while Messi failed, that's where legacy narration fails the reality check. 


Argentina 1986, as all critic from that era confirm, was a brilliant team defensively and had a perfectly organised and executed 3-5-2 system that caught everyone by surprise. They conceded an average of 0.71 goals per game in that tournament, which is even lower than Italy's 0.86 World cup 1982 winners.


At the same time, having a look at the goalscorers in the 7 games then, we find:


Maradona: 5 


Valdano: 4


Burruchaga 2


Ruggeri 1


Pasculli 1


Brown 1


Even in the final, the goal scorers of the three goals winning Argentina the title were Brown, Valdano and Burruchaga.


Fast forwarding to world cup 2014 (Where admittedly Messi was not at his best form after a complicated season) :


Messi: 4


Rojo 1


Di Maria 1


Higuain 1


Ibisevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina player (own goal) 1


Maradona had to score only a third of his team's goals in 1986, while Messi had to score half of it. A Bosnia and Herzegovina player scored as many goals for Argentina in 2014 as any other Argentinian scorer beside Messi.


This detail is not just about the numbers. It makes a big difference when the opponent feels the obligation to keep an eye on more than one player, rather than focusing on marking the only threat out of the game. It also improves the assists converted to goals, something Maradona teammates did, Messi's didn't.


Maradona's highest point in Worldcup 1986 was the game against England, where not only Maradona delivered an unmatched display in a world cup game, but also won a game for Argentina against a country that just defeated them in a war. It also helped his case that Argentina was craving for a hero to match their football rivals, Brazil, who had Pele.


Messi's Legacy


Maradona is a legend. And that's stating the obvious. His real value was extraordinary enough that WE embraced a legacy about him that almost purified his career. We trimmed off his flaws on the field and almost completely ignored everything else about Maradona that may scratch his statue. That's how the unique greats deserve to be treated.


Messi's legacy is fine. It is just pending till the right time. Talking about Messi's legacy already is another sign about his brilliance. Legacy building starts when a player career is over. 


Legacy building starts when the rivalry soften down, and the people witnessing the miracle grow some years to get back to it with a dosage of nostalgia, even if they were not FC Barcelona or Argentina fans. 


Legacy building starts when current generation concur with a new generation 20 years from now, having their own hero. And that's when we feel like claiming our bragging rights: "Hey, I lived a time where we watched Leo Messi games on weekly bases. Sit...down". 


Legacy building starts when new generations look at our current Greats with an eye craving for inspirational examples from the past, not rivalry bantering at the heat of a moment. When they stand in awe, watching that amazing force of nature demonstrating a peak football performance for the coming generations to look up to.

 

And then, there will be no space for lots of the noises and twitter rants. There will be no twitter in the first place. A legacy is all about the brilliant moments that defines it. And when it is brilliant enough, even the little falls can trigger more compassion than doubts, like Netherlands 1974, or Brazil 1982, and the same as coming generations will see when they look at FC Barcelona of the past decade. 


If a team or a player delivers enough brilliance to inspire the future, the future can be more forgiving and generously rewarding than what one can imagine. 


Future has no time for our detailed details as it has more past to write about, and more future to make. 


So, lets just enjoy what we have, and let the rest sort itself out. Messi videos will be there for generations to watch and appreciate. His legacy will not be denied.


You can always check latest rants on @FootballMood




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