Lionel Messi the best Argentine footballer in history, not Diego Maradona: Sergio Ramos

Sergio Ramos believes that Lionel Messi the best Argentine footballer in history and the FC Barcelona forward is far superior to legend Diego Maradona.

football Updated: Jun 21, 2018 10:21 IST
Lionel Messi is a better footballer than Diego Maradona, according to Real Madrid and Spain defender Sergio Ramos.(AFP)

Sergio Ramos hit back at Diego Maradona by claiming Lionel Messi is the best Argentine player in history.

The Spain captain was responding to the 57-year-old who, earlier in the week, said the Real Madrid defender was not as good as his Atletico Madrid rival Diego Godin.

Ramos, 32, was speaking after Spain’s 1-0 win over Iran at the World CupWednesday and made it clearhis Barcelona rival was far superior to Maradona.

“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.

Spain’s win moved them joint-top of Group B alongside Portugal with one game left to play in the group stage and Ramos was relaxed about their position.

“They [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.”

Spain play Morocco in their final group gameat Kaliningrad StadiumTuesday.

Sergio Ramos hit back at Diego Maradona by claiming Lionel Messi is the best Argentine player in history.

The Spain captain was responding to the 57-year-old who, earlier in the week, said the Real Madrid defender was not as good as his Atletico Madrid rival Diego Godin.

Ramos, 32, was speaking after Spain’s 1-0 win over Iran at the World CupWednesday and made it clearhis Barcelona rival was far superior to Maradona.

“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.

Spain’s win moved them joint-top of Group B alongside Portugal with one game left to play in the group stage and Ramos was relaxed about their position.

“They [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.”

Spain play Morocco in their final group gameat Kaliningrad StadiumTuesday.