₦airaland Forum

Diego Armando Maradona has been considered by quite a number of soccer fans as the greatest footballer to have played the game. This is regardless of the few trophies that he won at the highest levels of the game!
The Myth

The central myth is the few winning medals he won were actually won single handedly - beginning with the 1986 World Cup. For this theory to be widely accepted, several otherwise successful soccer career profiles have had to be diminished. We will examine these now in no particular order of significance.

The question as to the practicality of any soccer player, particularly an almost completely offensive player, no matter how good, winning a major tournament single handedly will be addressed in some other article!

MrBrownJay1:
every succesful football team have their MAIN player who, without him, they would have probably never go to where they are... thats why when France won the WC, they said Zidane won it, same with Pele etc

btw

zynzyn:
I see!

Greece won Euro 2004 without a Pele or Maradona.

Leicester City won 2015/16 Premiership without a Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo or Messi.

Portugal won the Euro 2016 final without Ronaldo

Argentina and Nations of their Calibre would not send a weak team to a world cup. Their coach will have a plan B if the star​ player gets injured.

That is what we saw in the 1962 World Cup!
Same could have happened in 1986 if Maradona got injured!

MrBrownJay1:
you CAN/SHOULDNT use these one off above team to judge a point... Greece,Portugal, Leicester all are one off team that were lucky at that particular moment. when France won the world cup with Zidane in 98, they then went on to win the Euro in 2000 then finalist of the world cup in 2006 with that same ZIDANE, who was the center point of that successful French team(without him, there would have probably been NO success)... same for Maradona or pele too.

zynzyn:
Luck. It is NOT JUST LUCK!

It means THE MANAGER knew his onions and could turn a team that did not have a Pele or Maradona or even a Messi or Ronaldo into A WINNING TEAM.

Did u honestly think the current Nigerian Super Eagles would so easily dominate a group including Algeria, Zambia and Cameroon?

The manager plays a great part. Bilardo deserves credit for Mexico 86, not just Maradona!

MrBrownJay1:
yes you are right, the coach plays an important part of that team, but without these key player, most of these teams would have never been able to achieve what they did. i am not saying that the other 10 players aint important o, simply that these players give that edge to their team because they count for 2/3players on their own!

zynzyn:
The issue is, from the coach's perspective, no team has ONLY 1 key player!! No coach can take that risk!!

zynzyn:
The issue is, from the coach's perspective, no team has ONLY 1 key player!! No coach can take that risk!!

MrBrownJay1:
true, but when you have ONE key player that can do the job of 3 then you are certainly ahead of the pack.

zynzyn:
You are just refusing to get the point. Every smart coach MUST CONSIDER what happens if the star player gets injured!

So Brazil's coach in 1962 must be commended because he apparently forsaw Pele getting injured. I am telling u that Bilardo planned for a Maradona injury in 1986. Every smart manager must do that!!

LastMumu:
By 2050, everyone would still be talking about how Lionel Messi singlehandedly won Barcelona trophies, no one would remember Xavi or Iniesta contributions.

MrBrownJay1:
to plan for a "possible" injury , is one thing, but they will never let that player off that team, unless that coach is high on crack!