Comparing Messi & Maradona’s World Cup records after the same number of games | OneFootball

Lionel Messi has now made as many World Cup appearances as the legendary Diego Armando Maradona – but how do their records stack up against one another on football’s biggest stage?

A huge part of the reason that many consider Maradona is due to his incredible performances at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He was their standout player and talisman as they lifted the trophy that year.

It’s considered to be the best any individual player has ever been in any World Cup in history, and ensures that he will forever be one of the most loved figures in Argentina.

The World Cup is also the one trophy that eludes Messi. The 35-year-old has enjoyed an astonishing and unparalleled club career, while he finally won an international trophy last year, having led the Albiceleste to the Copa America with a victory over Brazil in the final.

Messi celebrated that triumph joyously at Brazil’s iconic Maracana, which was also the scene of his greatest disappointment – the 2014 World Cup final, in which he was unable to quite inspire Argentina to victory over Germany in the World Cup final.

And his hopes of emulating Maradona seemed terminal after Argentina lost their first match of the 2022 tournament against Saudi Arabia.

But the 35-year-old dragged his side to victory over Mexico, opening the scoring with a beautiful long-range effort before providing the assist for Enzo Fernandez’s clincher.

Not only is Messi now level with Maradona for World Cup goals, and second all-time for Argentina behind only Gabriel Batistuta (10 goals), but he has also pulled alongside other footballing luminaries like Rivaldo, Rudi Voller and his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

We’ve crunched the numbers to compare the two eternal legends of Argentinian football.

Lionel Messi

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Games: 21 Starts: 19 Sub appearances: 2

Goals: 8 Assists: 6 Penalties scored: 1

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Minutes per goal: 225.6 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 257.9 Minutes per goal or assist: 112.8

World Cups: Five

2006: Three appearances, one goal, one assist. Quarter-final.

2010: Five appearances, no goals, one assist. Quarter-final.

2018:

Diego Maradona

Games: 21 Starts: 21 Sub appearances: 0

Goals: 8 Assists: 8 Penalties scored: 0

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Minutes per goal: 238.5 Minutes per non-penalty goal: 238.5 Minutes per goal or assist: 119.2

World Cups: Four

1982: Five appearances, two goals, no assists. Second group stage.

1986: Seven appearances, five goals, five assists. Winner.