Argentina icon Diego Maradona feels Lionel Messi did not deserve to win the Golden Ball following his performances at the World Cup.
The Barcelona star beat the likes of Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben and James Rodriguez to the prestigious individual award after scoring four goals in seven performances at this summer’s tournament and guiding his team to the final, yet Maradona feels the 27-year-old only won it for commercial reasons, Goal reported.
“Messi? I would give him heaven if possible,” Maradona said during his show on Telesur.
“But it’s not right when someone wins something that he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan,” he said.
Maradona then went on to voice his disappointment with Argentina’s 1-0 defeat in Sunday’s final against Germany following Mario Gotze’s goal in extra-time.
“I feel sorry for my country. Mario Gotze’s goal really hurt. There’s a huge sadness in my heart that we lost the final,” Maradona added.
“I think Argentina deserved at least penalties. That Germany won was the result of a misunderstanding in the Argentine defence,” the Argentina icon stressed.
The 1986 World Cup winner also had his say on Alejandro Sabella’s decision to replace Ezequiel Lavezzi with Sergio Aguero at half-time and argued that the Argentina boss got things wrong.
“I don’t understand the substitution of Lavezzi. He was phenomenal down the wing. Aguero didn’t have the same impact. It was not his tournament,” he said.
Leo Messi lost the World cup on its last sprint. It was there, just inches from him, but he couldn’t touch it. Messi lacked precision when he missed the chance to score against Neuer at the start of the second half. Messi’s miss was one of many occasions awfully missed by the Argentinian players. Examples of that could be the wrongly controlled ball of Palacio at the end of the game or that incredibly miss by Higuain during the first half.
At 27, in full maturity, the World Cup has slipped from Messi’s hands in the final. Still, he was voted player of the tournament, a strange decision that generated controversy, even at home at the image of Maradona’s aforementioned commentary. Robben, James Rodriguez or Mascherano seemed to have done much more for their teams than Messi.
Many media analysts admitted that the best Argentinian player of the world cup was Javier Mascherano, but the decision of the FIFA is based on a technical study and not through the press. “FIFA stats” gave Messi the first place followed by Müller and Robben.
Now, for the Argentinian captain, the only option to match Maradona as world champion is to wait for the next World Cup. For the Argentinians, Maradona remains the best player in history after he led them to win the World cup in 1986.
If Messi ends his career without winning anything for his country, that would be a nightmare. The next stages are the Copa America in 2015 and the next World Cup 2018 in Russia. The coming World cup would be the last chance for the “Pulga” (Messi’s nickname), a take it or leave it chance.
The full list of FIFA World Cup 2014 individual award is as it follows:
Ballon d’Or: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Silver Ball: Thomas Müller (Germany)
Bronze Ball: Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
Golden Boot: James Rodriguez (Colombia)
Silver Boot: Thomas Müller (Germany)
Bronze Boot: Neymar (Brazil)
Golden Glove: Manuel Neuer (Germany)
The Moroccan Times and FARS
