The Curse of Maradona

2008-04-20

“The next Maradona”. Can anyone think of a more prestigious compliment than to be compared with the greatest player the world has ever seen? Answer-a resounding yes! These words are a poison, the kiss of death of death for many a young Argentinean’s career.

Ever since Maradona retired Argentinean fans have been starved of success, their greatest times were between 1986 and 1990 when they won the tournament and finished runners up with Maradona the captain and talisman. Maradona was the player they had been waiting for, someone who was one of their own, who could deliver success, who was better than those damn Brazilians! Yet since the demise of Maradona, around the early 90’s there has been no-one to truly fill his boots, yet there has been no shortage of pretenders.

Every so often we hear about a new young talent, someone that excelled for the Argentina youth teams, someone that has scored a collection of sublime goals in the Primera División worthy of a YouTube compilation before the age of 20, someone that all the European Giants are heavily scouting. Ariel Ortega, Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Saviola, Pablo Aimar, Andres D’allessandro. The list really does go on. While all these players have showed many flashes of genius down the years for the various teams they have turned out for, I ask the question “why have none of these players done their talents justice?”.

Is it because they couldn’t make the step up in Europe against tougher defenders? Is it because of differing climates? Perhaps it’s due to the pressure. Maybe these reasons are valid but I feel the main reason is not psychological or physical. I feel it is simply a case of being misunderstood.

Lets take Riquelme for example, a magician on the ball, with flawless ball control and vision, he is capable of unlocking even the most rigid defences. However, while his talent is amongst the world’s best, the career he has had begs to differ. He excelled as a youngster at Boca Juniors, averaging a goal every four games in six successful seasons. His virtuoso performance against Real Madrid caught the eye of Barcelona who swiftly purchased him and handed him the number 10 shirt. Louis Van Gaal never fully appreciated his services and deployed him on the flanks, mainly as a sub. Riquelme netted a poor three goals in thirty games and was swiftly loaned out to Villareal, and if Riquelme was ever going to make it anywhere it would have to be there. A large South American contingent, no pressure and a team built around him. While Riquelme began to prove his true worth to the world, with a number of eye catching performances, including a run to the Champion’s League Semi-Final, his relationship with Villareal would end on a sour note as he fell out with, and out of the favour of the management. Hence a return to the comfort zone of Boca Juniors where he led them to the Copa Libertadores. Ortega has never really excelled in Europe, Aimar hasn’t shown his true worth since his Valencia days, D’allessandro has only shown glimpses of his ability and the most Saviola can hope for is two minutes at the end of the occasional game.

However, there is hope, there are young Argentinean players who have slipped through the net and adapted their game for a more European approach. Lionel Messi had no problems as he has never played in the Primera División and therefore did not have to alter his game. Sergio Aguero took a season to settle at Atletico but he is now delivering the goods, the same can be said for Carlos Tevez who took a long time to settle at West Ham but has really came on since scoring his first goal for them against Bolton and has done some great things at Manchester United.

In my opinion, it is not talent that prohibits the greatness of Argentineans, but desire. If Riquelme truly had the desire to succeed in Europe and if he had of pushed himself then I am sure he would go down as one of the modern day greats, the same can be said of any one of those players mentioned above. With a combination of hard work on behalf of the players, more freedom from the managers and a bit of luck then I’m sure the likes of Messi, Aguero and Tevez will come a lot closer to emulating Maradona than the previous generation of players.

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