The Next Maradona

Diego Maradona was arguably, and I hate blogging about him in the past tense because despite hepatitis and an alcohol problem he is still very much with us, one of the best if not the best soccer players ever to play the game. Argentina has had a love affair with him on the level, and oddly  enough in the same manner, that they had with Eva Peron. I won't go into the gist of that  history. Suffice it to say: they crazy.

Almost from the beginning with Boca Juniors the Argentinian press and the public have worried, fretted about, and prayed (and preyed) for a successor. Each new Argentinian wunderkind to come out of the Boca or River academy (which constitutes every other club in Argentina by the way) is dubbed "the next Maradona" and sent on his way to play in Spain or Italy. We've seen since retirement, easily 15 new Maradonas.

The lineage is striking, a group of great Argentinian players like his contemporaries Ariel Ortega, Marcello Gallardo, Gabriel Batistuta, to youger models like Hernan Crespo, Javier Saviola, Pablo Aimar, Juan Roma Riquelme, or even younger still like Carlos Tevez, or Kun Aguero. Some if not all of them at any given time have been given the term "next Maradona" by the master himself. Most of us just laughed to ourselves and called it Diego was talking to himself again. No one believed him.

Until he said it again this past week, about Barcelona youngster Lionel Messi. Now don't believe me, but look at his goal (it's on google or youtube) and tell me if that's not Diego circa Mexico '86.

I won't go as far as to say that the goal was better than Maradona's. It was great, and Messi did finish it from a harder angle, but you have to factor who he did it against.

Getafe are a small neighborhood cousin of Real Madrid, and while they have had an excellent La Liga campaign and they are one of its best defensive teams, you cannot compare the level of defending to what Diego faced in the England squad of Mexico '86.

Still, none of those other "next Maradonas" had the goal. Messi's goal this week was a Hollywood reimagining of a timeless classic, not Casablanca recolored or Psycho reshot, but one that is as good as the original and comes at the beginning and not so close to the dire end of a remarkable career.

Lionel Messi may be the "next Maradona" or he may not, but I guarantee you that there are going to be youngsters born this week, this month or this year, and for many years to come with the unattainable moniker of the "next Messi".