One of Italy’s finest defender Alessandro Costacurta has weighed in with his own words on who is a better player between two Argentine superstars Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.
Costacurta featured in over 650 games for AC Milan during his career, he also represented the Italian National team in about 59 games.
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Now at 54 years, the centre-back vividly remembers when he first lined up against a 16-year-old Argentine youngster named Lionel Messi who was just starting to break through for Barcelona.
The encounter didn’t end up in a pleasant way for the then experienced defender though. The young Argentine was so menacing that Costacurta had to request for his own replacement in the game.
It was such a nightmare for him that with all his experience, he couldn’t deal with a teenager, who would turn out to be one of the finest footballers the World has ever seen.
Although the Italian defender admitted that Messi’s compatriot Maradona was a genius among his contemporaries, he however believes that “Messi is more genius than Maradona.”
He said in an interview with Marca:
“I faced Messi when he was only 16 years old. At first, I saw him as a child and did what he wanted.”
“After a quarter of an hour I had to ask Ancelotti to replace me.”
Comparing Messi with Maradona, he further stated:
“They are similar because of their genius and the way they express themselves on the field, but Messi is more genius than Maradona.”
“The difference is that we could do 66 fouls to Maradona before being warned. With Leo it is different, football is now something else.”
Alessandro Costacurta came up against Diego Maradona when the diminutive forward was still a Napoli player.
