World Cup 2018: Spain defender Sergio Ramos hits back at Diego Maradona with Lionel Messi comparison

Maradona compared Ramos unfavourably with Uruguay and Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin

Mark Critchley
Thursday 21 June 2018 11:08 BST
Comments
Spain World Cup profile 2

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Sergio Ramos has responded to criticism from Diego Maradona by claiming that Lionel Messi is the greatest player in the history of Argentinean football.

Maradona compared Ramos unfavourably with Diego Godin earlier this week, suggesting that the Uruguayan is a better player than the Spain and Real Madrid defender.

“When people talk about stars, they told me – and I do not want to enter into controversy – they told me: ‘Ramos is a star,’” Maradona, considered by many to be the best player of all time, said.

“No, Godín is a star that defends you, that rules, that creates you a goal, who is a champion, that does not miss a game.”

Ramos was asked about Maradona’s remarks following Spain’s narrow 1-0 World Cup victory over Iran in Kazan on Wednesday night and made a comparison of his own in return.

“In Argentina they know that Maradona is light years away from the best Argentine player in history which, for me, is Lionel Messi,” he said.

Ramos also saved some critical words for Iran, who frustrated Fernando Hierro’s Spain for long periods in Kazan until Diego Costa found what-would-be a decisive goal in the second half.

“[Iran] went out to waste time, whereas we like to win in a different way,” he said. “We leave happy. We’ve taken another step forward and now we have to try to top our group, it’s our objective. I still think we can improve in all aspects.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in