Maradona advocates; how many of you are in your 40s or 50s and dealing in nostalgia?? He never scored more than 20 in a league season in Europe. Messi has 13 times and once got 50 (73 in all comps).
Modern footballers are only going to get better due to technology, modern sport science and the way football is played these days, just imagine a player like Maradona playing now with all the advantages that present day players have. Also whilst talking about sport science etc would messi be anywhere near the player he is today without the hormone treatments he got through barcelona?
Very true. But Serie A was more competitive than La Liga and definitely the French top flight. Even though certain teams dominated more than others, no European top flights were as horribly skewed by money as they are now. It would be interesting to see how many Messi would have scored playing for Villarreal, or St Etienne.
Good points. We'll never know how Messi at his peak would've transformed a lesser team, as with Maradona and Napoli. But even then, Maradona only won two league titles in Europe. Take Messi out of that Barca team I'd argue there's three or four La Liga titles they don't win.
Definitely. La Liga still has some very good sides apart from Barca and Real. France on the other hand seems to lack real strength in depth.