Remember how Maradona crowed he was chosen the best player over Pele in an internet poll.
“What matters is that when the people voted, he came second behind me. Nobody can take that away from me. And there was another vote in Brazil in which he came second behind Ayrton Senna. He needs to stop coming second.”
Then added he had played in Europe while his arch rival plied his trade in the inferior South American league.
Well, Pele got in a bit of his own when he said the Maradona was not even the best Argentinian player.
“People talk about the best being Pele or Diego Maradona, but for me the best player ever was Alfredo Di Stefano,” he told reporters in Madrid.
“Maradona was a great player, but he could not kick with his right foot and did not score goals with his head. The only time he scored an important goal with his head, it turned out he had used his hand,” he added.
Talk about kicking someone when he is down. Ouch. These two have been going back and forth forever. The Di Stefano reference is not new. It was also used by Sepp Blatter to put down Maradona when he was talking about players rights.
But here is George Best on David Beckham. Now this is a put down.
“He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head the ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s alright”.