Argentine football legend
Diego Maradona said compatriot
Lionel Messi did not deserve to be
named best player of the World Cup,
arguing it should have gone to
Colombia’s James Rodriguez.
“I’d give Lio the sky, but when it’s
not deserved and it’s just marketers
who want to make him win
something he didn’t win, it’s unfair,”
Maradona said Sunday after
Argentina lost the World Cup final to
Germany 1-0.
“Rodriguez was the best player of
the World Cup,” said Maradona on
his TV program “De Zurda,” which is
broadcast by Venezuelan network
Telesur and retransmitted in several
Latin American countries.
The 23-year-old Rodriguez was the
revelation of the World Cup and the
top scorer with six goals.
Messi dazzled in the group stage
with four goals, but failed to score in
his last four games, including the
final.
Maradona said Messi himself did not
seem to feel he deserved the trophy.
“It looked like he didn’t want to take
it,” he said.
But Maradona praised Argentina and
said the match could have gone
either way.
“I’m sad about Mario Goetze’s
(game-winning) goal,” he said. “But
we can’t forget that we took this
World Cup step by step. If we had
scored (Gonzalo) Higuain’s
(disallowed) goal we would be
partying. Germany were not
dominant.”
Maradona, 53, was Messi’s childhood
idol and is his rival for the title of
greatest-ever Argentine footballer.
To many fans, the 27-year-old
Barcelona striker still needs to add a
World Cup win to his resume to
match the greatness of Maradona,
who led his team to the title in
1986.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/messi-didnt-deserve-golden-ball-maradona/

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