For his very public displays of questionable behaviour from the stands at Russia 2018, Diego Maradona has attracted his fair share of controversy with Colin Smith, FIFA’s director of events, this week forced to publicly request that El Pibe tone it down a little.
“Diego Maradona may be a legend of football, but even he must show respect to other fans in the stadiums at the World Cup,” Smith stated. “The players that help write football history have a role to play. Obviously, Maradona is one of the greatest of all time, but we hope that all of the players, ex-players, staff and fans behave themselves in a responsible manner,” he concluded.
Yet these developments don’t make Maradona’s opinion any less valued and, speaking to Spanish outlet MARCA at the weekend, the Napoli legend was asked to give his thoughts on the competition thus far. “This when we start to play mano-a-mano,” Maradona began. “Nobody can back down and the teams need to attack. If not, at the most, you will go to penalties. If you only defend, they end up getting you easily,” added the iconic Argentine midfielder, who after having led his country to the 1986 crown knows what it takes to go all the way in the tournament.
While some of the remarks Maradona made on Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo still becoming two of the stars of the proceedings are now redundant in consideration of developments that saw their teams dumped out by France and Uruguay respectively, it was another player who bids to dislodge the untouchable pairing from the summit of club and international football that Maradona also passed comment on.
Maradona confirmed his belief that Brazil’s Neymar is indeed a “phenomenon”, but stressed that the PSG forward has plenty to perfect in order to reach the next level. “He’s still missing something, but he is [a phenomenon],” Maradona began. “If he recuperates from his last injury, we will be able to enjoy the best of Neymar in Russia,” he added.
“He just has to know that, today, if you throw yourself [to the ground], it’s a yellow card and VAR is there,” it was warned.
On Monday afternoon, Neymar attempts to help his team pass Mexico and then either Belgium or Japan before France or Uruguay in the semi-final if the Seleção’s winning streak is able to continue. Should Brazil lift the trophy in Moscow on July 15, the chances of the former Santos prodigy finally breaking Messi and Ronaldo’s stranglehold on the coveted Ballon d’Or increase heavily overnight.
