Maradona: Lionel Messi ‘Shouldn’t Have Won’ Golden Ball
Argentina’s greatest historical soccer legend took issue with the country’s current superstar receiving the Golden Ball award for the World Cup’s best player.
Diego Maradona criticized FIFA’s choice of Lionel Messi for the Golden Ball award, given to the Argentina superstar following the country’s 1-0 loss to German in the World Cup Final, rubbed Maradona the wrong way.
“Messi? I would give him heaven if possible,’’ Maradona said on his television show. “But it’s not right when someone wins something that he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan.’’
Messi is considered by many to be the best player in the sport; he’s certainly the best player to make it to the tournament’s final game. Messi scored four goals in the tournament, all in the group stage. He set up the game-winner in the round of 16, and he missed a chance to give Argentina the lead vs. Germany early in the second half. Arjen Robben from the Netherlands and German’s Thomas Müller both arguably had better tournaments than Messi.
Fairly or unfairly, Maradona, who won a World Cup for Argentina in 1986, is the player whose standard Messi is constantly held to. For his part, Messi didn’t much care for the award, either.
“Right now I don’t care about the prize. I don’t care about anything,’’ Messi told Spanish newspaper AS. “I wanted to take Argentina to the World Cup for all the people.’’
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