Gus Poyet on why Diego Maradona is better than Messi

Gus Poyet is a South American legend in the English game, the now 56-year-old Uruguayan made a name for himself playing for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs in the Premier League. Poyet also played for the Uruguayan national team on 26 occasions scoring 3 goals.

Poyet won four titles with Chelsea in the mid-90’s and won the 1995 Copa America with Uruguay, today he is the national team manager of Greece after various stops in Chile, at the club level in Greece, France, China, England, and Spain.

In an interview with Bet365, Poyet was asked about Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi and which player he prefers, the Uruguayan did not hesitate to put Maradona over Messi.

Poyet chooses Maradona over Messi

In the Full Circle with bet365 podcast Poyet stated, “Diego Maradona. He’d be captain. If you were to ask me whether I’d choose Messi or Maradona; it would be Maradona.

“Let me explain, as it isn’t because Messi isn’t the best player in the world, he is. It’s because no one kicked Messi like people would kick Maradona, he got destroyed during his career. There was a list of players that would go to destroy him, every country or club he came up against, and players would finish the game saying, “I was the one who managed to kick him”. He was still the best regardless, and I was lucky enough to play against him when he was at Sevilla.

Diego Maradona (Getty Images)

“There was one time where he walked over to take a corner and some fans threw some scrunched up foil wrapper at him. He just flicked it up and started doing kick ups with it as he made his way to the ball. The next day, we went into training at Zaragoza, and we all tried to attempt it.

“No one could do it. He did it so naturally, like it was just so easy for him. We lost that game 1-0, obviously he scored the goal from a penalty. It’s common now, but he did a little stutter to send our goalkeeper diving the wrong way before he slotted it the other side. It was an honor to know him personally too, and I always say he was the best.”

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Gus Poyet is currently the manager of Greece and has a 11-6-3 record, he guided the team to four victories from their four opening fixtures in League C of the 2022 UEFA Nations League, helping Greece earn promotion to League B for the following campaign.