What are some of you on about. football isn't harder now than it was then. It is all relative, players excel. football may be faster now but that doesn't make it harder - everyone is faster, it is relative, as footballers were slower back then. We have sports science now, they didn't have it back then. they have better equipment now, they didn't back then. football was far more brutal back then also - lets not forget the type of tackling that was legal. What Pele, Maradona, Zidane and Ronaldo did at club and international level was nothing short of amazing. What Maradona did, in my opinion, was more so because he made Napoli champions pretty much singlehandedly and they were mediocre at the time - in the toughest league at that time. Messi has done nothing at International level. I am not talking about winning trophies. The likes of Michael Laudrup for Denmark, Enzo Scifo of Belgium and Gheorghe Hagi carried their countries and were fantastic at international level .. even though they didn't win things. Messi doesn't even come close to any of the all time greats in my opinion, some of you are doing a massive disservice to these greats. Messi and Ronaldo have a long way to go, Ronaldo is only on a par with the Figos, Henrys and Hagis in my view, Messi is past them but in the void leading up to Real Ronaldo and Zidane .. then comes Pele and Maradona.
This except Zidane was up there with Pele and Maradona in my opinion, ive seen some of Maradona and only clips of Pele and they were incredible and I think Zidane has that same aura around him like those two. Its rare to see a player of Zidane's size having as good a touch as he did and at time he would glide passed people even though he was not the fastest of players. He like Maradona was effectively won the world cup although Maradona’s win was far more difficult given the average side Argentina were at that time.
