Paris, June 2016. Pelé and Maradona were appearing together at a promotional event ahead of the European Championship and thought they were speaking in private.
““Diego, do you know Messi personally? Is he a good person?””, Pelé asked. Maradona didn’t hesitate: ““He is a good person, but he doesn’t have the personality to be a leader””. Pelé replied: ““Yes, like there were many in our time””. But the microphones were on, and the attendees heard everything.
The timing could hardly have been more delicate: Messi had just retired from the Argentina national team after losing two Copa América finals to Chile and the 2014 World Cup final to Germany. And there was a detail that made the scene even more controversial: Maradona had been his coach at the 2010 World Cup and had named him captain.
The audio went viral in 2016 and is circulating again now that Messi is leaving the Argentina national team, but this time with two Copa América titles and as world champion in Qatar 2022, so the remark was interpreted differently. Were they both right, or were they both wrong?
