"Zidane is Maradona's equal"

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 07:33

Reading a story on the Beeb this morning by some Sports director at Spurs who claims that Zizou is the equal in terms of tecnical ability to Maradona. Personally I think that ZZ Is propbably one of the best players of his generation but sometimes he needed players around him to do the dirty work like a Deschamps for France or a Makelele ar Real. Whereas Diego could turn a game on his own. I watched a documentary on him last week and he pretty much turned Napoli into a powerhouse of Italian football single handedly.

So do you think ZZ is actually close to Maradona in terms of being one of the all time best players in the world

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/france/5069806.stm

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 08:52

Gilly said:
Yes, I do.

In fact, the fact he's not a cheat puts him higher in my eyes.

In the interview I saw with Maradona he was speaking about the hand of god goal. Basically said that English players are propbably the most noble of players whereas the majority of the teams try and use every advantage they can do(by the book or not)

I think Zizou is a world class player in his own right and a product of the French youth system in the 80's. However as an overall player I think Maradona is the better

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 12:19

malc30 said:
When i think of Zidane i think of a Great world class footballer.
When i think of maradonna i think of a drug taking scum bag cheating *******.
Nuff said i think.

I think Malc is a little un-decided

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 14:11

sandy10 said:
Exactly as I said, the cheating should not outweigh the fact he was the World's best player for almost a decade.

Exactley my point thats why I put Maradona head and shoulders above Zizou. As for the argument about Maradona being a cheating scumbag some people have short memories there was no public outrage when Owen dived against Argentina. Zizou undoubtedly blessed with skill was cultivated under the famous acadamey system in France. Maradona came from a small shanty town with no such luxuries in his upbringing or in his footballing development.

Oaksey2001uk said:
Its too seperate questions, is he a cheating, drug taking **** with a bad attitude, yes!

Is he one of the best footballers ever.... yes

One cannot effect the other.

Agree with Oaksey on that entirely. Are you judging him as a player or a human being ?

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 14:20

georges said:
The point Gilly is making is that beating your wife does not happen when playing football, handballing the ball into the goal and not confessing is cheating and is against the rules of football, therefore it is not separate. Would you say someone's great at poker if they cheat?

By that logic though Mike Tyson could not be classed as a great fighter as he cheated when he bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear. As far as I am aware with the interviews I have seen with Maradona and the books I have read he has openly admited putting the ball in the net with his hand

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 15:02

I diasgaree Gilly with the Ben Johnson Mike Tyson thing. Ben Johnson took performance enhancing drugs and quite rightly was stripped of his gold medal. Mike Tyson cheated in a different way but his peers still look upon him as one of the greatest fighters of all time. As in the way Maradonas peers and FIFA voted him the greatest player of all time. Only to be scupered when they made him joint greatest player with Pele. Ultimately though its all opinions when its all said and done

Loki · 13 Jun 2006 at 22:46

FIFA Poll in 2002 had it the goal of the century by a pretty big margain