Former Argentina soccer player Jorge Valdano, the 1986 World Cup champion in Mexico, said on Wednesday that his compatriot Lionel Messi, now a player at Inter Miami, was the “first genius of the 21st century”, as was his former Albiceleste team-mate Diego Armando Maradona. was “the last in the 20th century”.

“Let’s start from the base. (In Messi) I see a genius, that is unquestionable from the first minute. Before us is a genius, the first genius of the 21st century; Diego was the last in the 20th century,” said the television commentator and former coach of, among others, Tenerife and Real Madrid during an interview on the sports channel ESPN in Argentina.

The two-time winner of the Spanish League and the UEFA Cup as a footballer of Real Madrid indicated that “no two geniuses are the same” and that, based on this precision, Messi and Maradona are “two different models of genius”.

“Other factors affect the game, for example passion. Diego had tremendous strength in this; On the other hand, what Leo strives for is precisely his coolness, his intelligence, as if he distances himself from the game in order to better analyze it,” he asserted.

Regarding his performance at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, who was the third star for the Albiceleste, he said that the Rosario player “was an exhibition of talent that almost dripped” and stressed, regarding his figure, that he is “very restrained genius, which also has great value, because there is an earthquake around him and he relates to the earthquake so naturally that it amazes”.

Valdano referred to the absence of Maradona, whose death – which happened on November 25, 2020 – marked 1000 days yesterday, and with whom he shared not only the national team jersey, but also the title of world champion in 1986.

“I feel a void that Leo (Messi) fills to a great extent in football. It was an almost miraculous substitution at this World Cup so that we could feel proud of Argentine football through a character who represents us like no other,” he commented.

The former footballer of Newell’s Old Boys and Spanish Alavés and Zaragoza commented that today’s football is quite different from the one he experienced and, among other circumstances, highlighted the market, methodology and technique.

“Each player controls and passes with precision and exceptional speed. Along the way, we lost the dribble, the break, the feint… very sophisticated and very simple things,” he said. (D)