Spain defender and captain Sergio Ramos said on Wednesday night that Argentina legend Diego Maradona was “light years behind” current Argentina captain Lionel Messi. Ramos was responding to Maradona who earlier in the week said the player was not as good as Atletico Madrid and Uruguay defender Diego Godin.
“I respect Maradona because he is one of the greatest. For me he was a star, but in Argentina they know that he [Maradona] is light years behind the best Argentinian footballer in history, who, for me, is Messi,” Ramos said, as quoted by the Portuguese newspaper A Bola.
Maradona was named FIFA Player of the Century, a one-off award created by FIFA to decide the greatest football player of the 20th century, alongside Brazilian Pele. The 57-year-old also captained Argentina to victory at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.
With 64 goals to his name, 30-year-old Messi is Argentina’s all-time leading goalscorer but has yet to win a World Cup.