New Maradona

New Maradona or New Diego is a title given by the press and public to promising Argentine football players in reference (and reverence) to Diego Maradona as a benchmark. Since Maradona retired, people have been anticipating someone to lead the Argentine national team to a World Cup final, like Maradona did twice.

As a consequence, very talented youngsters are quickly labeled as a New Maradona (for example Lionel Messi or Juan Román Riquelme), sometimes without any similarity in playing style (such as Franco Di Santo). The New Maradonas are predominantly players in attacking or advanced playmaking roles — forwards, wingers, or attacking midfielders.

Although still widely contested among Argentine football players, in recent times the title has been attached to FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, an assertion supported by Maradona himself. Maradona and Messi worked together as manager and player for Argentina's national side at the 2010 World Cup, the former thoroughly impressed with the latter's skills.

On 18 April 2007, Messi scored a goal against Getafe CF which was very similar to Maradona's Goal of the Century, scored against England in the 1986 World Cup. The world's sports press exploded with Maradona comparisons, and the Spanish press labeled Messi "Messidona". On 9 June 2007, in a match against RCD Espanyol, Messi scored a goal using his hand, which drew comparison to the Hand of God goal scored by Maradona in the same World Cup match. On 12 March 2013, Messi scored two goals, and helped create the fourth, to help Barcelona defeat A.C. Milan (4–0) in the 2nd leg of their Champions League game and reach the quarter-finals. Messi's opening goal of the match once again drew further comparisons between himself and Maradona, due to the similarity with Maradona's famous goal against Greece in the 1994 World Cup.

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