Lionel Scaloni, coach of the Argentina national team that won the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, said that Lionel Messi surpassed his compatriot Diego Maradona to be the greatest player ever.
“If I had to choose, I would choose Leo,” Scaloni told Spanish radio. I had great things with him. He is the greatest of all time and also Maradona was great.”
Argentines have always preferred Maradona to Messi, but that impression seems set to change following the Paris Saint-Germain striker led his country to the World Cup last month for the first time since Maradona did it in 1986.
Scaloni also revealed that he spoke with Messi at the beginning of his assumption of responsibility for coaching Argentina in 2018, following the captain decided to stop international play following the team’s disastrous results in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“The first thing I did was talk to Messi on video,” Scaloni said. He said he felt proud and the first thing I said to him was: (Come back we are waiting for you)”, adding: “After eight months he came back and found a great group” of players.
He explained, “Training Messi is not difficult. You can’t guide him on a technical level but sometimes you direct him to press or attack in a certain way. When he finds an opportunity, he is the first to seize it.