Gabriel Batistuta played with Maradona, watched Messi grow up, and knows them both. Now 57, he sat down with former English defender Rio Ferdinand and dared to say what many think and few say out loud.
“Maradona and Messi are different”, he began. And he laid out the numbers: “Messi scored 1000 goals and Maradona far fewer”. Those were his figures, estimated off the top of his head, not official data.
However, the debate exists. Because Batistuta didn’t stop at the goals.
“Maradona was and is the best”, he said. “He could play, he could handle the referee and the opponents, and he was capable of doing incredible things.” And then came the part that was shared everywhere: Messi can do that too, “but I don’t think he has the same charisma”.
It wasn’t an attack. Batistuta praised Messi’s career and described him for what he is, “a quiet kid”. Maradona, by contrast, “wasn’t”. One would keep quiet and go home having won the match. The other turned every pitch into a stage.
That’s the heart of the comparison. Messi is the one who keeps adding to his tally, the one who never fails, the one who carries a national team with his football. Diego was the one who made the entire stadium believe in the impossible.
And these words came from the same man who, in that same conversation, confessed that Maradona “died alone like a dog” and that he blames himself for not having been one of the people supporting him. Someone who truly loved him.
It’s not about who won more. It’s about who made the world fall in love.