- New Maradona
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New Maradona or New Diego is a title given by the press and public to promising Argentine football players in reference (and reverence) to the legendary Diego Maradona as a benchmark. Since Maradona retired, people have been anticipating someone to lead the Argentine team to a World Cup Final, like Maradona once did.
As a consequence, very talented youngsters are quickly labeled as a New Maradona sometimes without any similarity in playing style (for example Franco di Santo or Juan Roman Riquelme). The New Maradonas are predominately players in attacking roles; forwards, wingers, or attacking midfielders.
Lionel Messi
Although still widely contested among Argentine football players, in recent times, the title has been attached to FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, an assertion claimed by Maradona himself. Maradona and Messi worked together as manager and captain for Argentina's national side at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the former thoroughly impressed with the latter's skills.
Even before Maradona made this pronouncement, people already drew comparisons with the two. On October 14, 2006 in a match against Recreativo Huelva, Lionel Messi scored a goal with his hand, which drew comparison to the Hand of God goal scored by Maradona against England in 1986 FIFA World Cup. On April 18, 2007 Lionel Messi scored a goal against Getafe CF, one of which was very similar to Maradona's second goal against England, called the Goal of the Century. The world's sports press exploded with Maradona comparisons, and the Spanish press labeled Messi "Messidona".[1] Messi also scored a goal using his hand in Barcelona's 2-2 draw with RCD Espanyol, leading to many people drawing comparisons to Maradona's first goal against England.[2]
List of players once thought to be the "New Maradona"
- Diego Latorre[3] (originally)
- Ariel Ortega[4]
- Marcelo Gallardo[5]
- Juan Román Riquelme[6]
- Pablo Aimar[7]
- Andrés D'Alessandro[8]
- Javier Saviola[9]
- Carlos Marinelli[10]
- Carlos Tévez[11]
- Lionel Messi[12]
- Sergio Agüero[13]
- Ezequiel Lavezzi[14].
- Mauro Zarate [15]
References
Categories:- Football in Argentina
- Association football terminology
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