Is Messi the new Maradona?

He is the man of the moment. He is the new king of football in the world.

His name is Leonel Messi, his place is Barcelona, he is job is to delight people.

The story of this little player is something amazing. Born in Rosario, an industrial city 300 Km far from Buenos Aires, Messi is born to play football. Everybody reminds this little shy guy that with the ball at his feet was unstoppable. With the juvenile team of Newell’s Old Boys he scored 100 goals per season, but something begun to get wrong with his body: he seems to grow lesser than his teammate. He was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. The costs of cures were about 1,500 $ a month and his family cannot afford them, so they decide to go to Barcelona in order to get the cure free from the club. His trial with Barcelona lasted only 7 minutes. Carlos Rexach was so amazed by his brillian moves on the pitch that Messi entered very soon in to the Barcelona’s family.

He made his debut with Barcelona in an unofficial game against FC Porto at the age of 16 and 145 days, and in an official game aginst Espanyol on 16 October 2004 (age: 17 years and 114 days). From then, Messi started to amaze the world. He won the Youth World Championship with Argentina being top scorer and voted best player of the tournament. This year was is magical year. He scored 41 goals this season, and with 9 goals he’s the topscorer of UEFA Champions’ League.

Being argentinian obviously led to some comparison with the greatest argentinian footballer ever: Diego Armando Maradona. Both are left footed, both short and both can dribble everything on their way. Messi was dubbed by Maradona himself as his heir. On 18 april 2007’s semifinal of Copa del Rey against Getafe he scored a goal that resemble Maradona’s goal of the century against England at Mexico ‘86. Spanish newspapers called him “Messidona” after that exploit. Against Espanyol he also emulate the hand of God’s goal of Diego.

So is Messi the new Maradona? Maybe yes, maybe no. At his age he is more mature than Maradona as a person, but personally i think he lacks some qualities that Maradona had. He is less strong than Maradona (and more prone to injury), and less leader than Maradona. Of course, Messi proved to be reliable: he had the difficult task of taking the place of Ronaldinho, but Maradona’s aura was on his own.

Maradona almost failed at Barcelona, while he revealed all of his greatnes playing in Naples. Messi proved to be good in Barcelona, but Barcelona of these days are far more better than Barcelona of Maradona’s era, and his team-mate are good to give Messi all the support he needs.

Messi’s world cup campaign in 2006 was little ’cause Pekerman considered him a substitute. South Africa 2010 will be his major appointment with history (and with Maradona as his coach), the same history that Maradona wrote in 1986. If Messi will succeded, than we’ll have probably the new Maradona.

Messi is still young and have time from his side to prove how great he is, but for me Maradona was a better player than him.