Maradona is a legend, and one of the most iconic sportsmen of all time.
But I disagree with your assessment there, and there's overwhelming evidence you're wrong.
Messi's goals, and goals per game, is actually higher than Maradona for both club AND country:
Messi: Club- 447 goals in 493 games; Country- 71 goals in 142 games
Maradona: Club- 259 goals in 491 games; Country- 34 goals in 91 games
According to Wikipedia, Messi also has more assists and assists per game than Maradona, so he not only scored at a great rate, but assisted at a greater rate.
He has also won more trophies during his career. La Liga is a higher quality league than either Argentinian Domestic League or Serie A, which forms most of Maradona's club matches.
I guess the main argument for Maradona would be that he won the World Cup once while Messi didn't.
But we have to be very careful in using team achievements to judge a player, especially when the sample size is 1 tournament.
In WC final of 2014, Higuain had an absolute sitter, and if he had scored, Argentina likely would have won that final. Meanwhile, Maradona's World Cup win in 1986 had great controversy. They won the QF vs England 2-1. The hand of god was obvious. Even Maradona's second goal, which was a wonder goal, came after another Argentinian player fouled an English player so Maradona could get on the ball. So both goals would have been disallowed with higher officiating standards.
The idea that Argentina's CF missing a sitter, and the officiating not ruling out 2 goals that shouldn't have counted in 1986, should suddenly mean Messi's far superior statistics across his career gets overruled is absurd.
As most Messi (and Ronaldo fans) you are using general stats to confirm him as the GOAT without context. Let's settle something down here just for the records though. Messi and Ronaldo will become GOATS as far as club titles, scorings, Ballon D'or etc goes and they well deserve it. But these stats only show half the story. Maradona will never be the GOAT in terms of titles but hundreds of millions of people see him as the BEST in terms of Football abilities and that's what matters, doesn't it? Pele is a 3 time World Champion yet he only played 14 games to achieve that. Right there you have the first example of a stat that only shows half the story because it needs context otherwise it doesn't make any sense. He is a 3 time champion but only played 4 games in his first World Cup and 1 game and in his 2nd WC, so in 5 games he already won 2 WC trophies. lol
Now let's focus on Messi and Ronaldo. First of all the La Liga is weak compared to what the Seria A used to be in the 80s and 90s and even to the La Liga of the 80s and 90s. Football back then was not only highly defensive, it was ruled by italian catenaccio style and was much more physical. The scores were usually very tight. Most strikers could rarely score around 15-20 goals in one season and the Seria A used to have the best players in the world as well because they had the most money. La Liga has Barcelona and Real Madrid, that's it but Italy had teams with big money who bought stars from all around the world like Milan, Inter, Juentus, Napoli, Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina, Parma etc these teams had some all time greats under contract.
But more importantly back in the day football allowed defenders to kick, punch and tackle strikers for 90 minutes without getting booked as easily as nowadays, let alone receiving the red card. Nowadays the players are highly protected by the rules, you can't tackle someone from the back otherwise you get the red card but that is what Maradona had to deal with every single game in his career! Look at Sergio Ramos, that guy has collected almost 30 red cards so far because it's too easy to be sent out.
Another thing is that nowadays you can play with 11 Superstars from all around the world. It was not possible in 80s and up to the mid 90s. Only 3 foreign players (in Italy at some point only 2) were allowed to play at once! If those rules were still on then Messi would have never had the chance to play with Neymar, Suarez, Alvez, Mascherano, Rafinha at the same time (or Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Deco and Henry when he was young) and Ronaldo would have never been able to play along the side of Marcelo, Pepe, Di Maria, Khedira, Kroos, Modric, Silva, Kaka, Bale und Benzema.
And here is another thing: how many of you younger football fans do even know that the Champions League used to be played only by the CHAMPIONS up to 1998? Messi and Ronaldo have been playing the CL every damn year since maybe 2004 or 2005. Why? Because now you can finish 4th in La Liga or the PL or the Seria A and still qualify for the CL. That was not possible in the past! Maradona only played the CL twice in his career, while Messi and Ronaldo have played the CL like 30 times combined. lol So that's why they have both won it like 5 times each with much superior teams as well. Back then every team who didn't win the national championship went straight to the UEFA Cup which means the UEFA Cup was basically like a CL itself without the champions. But you had all the other great teams in it like Manu, Real, Dortmund, Inter, Juventus, Arsenal, Ajax etc. Maradona has played the UEFA Cup maybe 4 times and won it once.
Now let's take a look at the stats that matter most because they show the real deal and what the players are made of.
Messi and Ronaldo have played 4 World Cups each and countless Copa Americas and European Cups. It's fair to say that they both sucked in almost all of these tournaments. Ronaldo won the EC 2016 but it's not like people remember him for his performances. Messi made it to the WC final in 2014 but he barely was noticable after scoring against such big teams like Bosnia and Iran. They both have scored less goals and have less assists than Maradona. Maradona has the record for most World Cup assists and he would have more if he didn't play with guys who couldn't even score with empty goals (cough Valdano cough). Maradona played 4 WC and only 2 Copas. He finished 3rd twice in both Copas and in one of them he scored the most goals. However let's focus on the World Cups.
Maradona set some records that are still on and will most likely never be broken:
WC 1982:
- he is being fouled almost 40 times in 5 games - to this day this is 3rd in the all time ranking. Just in comparisson, Pele was fouled 42 times in all of his World Cup games combined.
- against Italy he was fouled 23 times - which is still the alltime record for a single WC game. Can you imagine what it would mean nowadays? It would mean that half of the italian squad would have to be sent off of the pitch.
WC 1986:
- he was fouled 53 times- to this day this is the alltime record for a single WC tournament
- he scores 5 goals und 5 assists - to this day a record
- he is involved in 13 out of 14 argentinian goals
- he does the most and most successful dribblings ever done in a World Cup, still a record
- he also sets a record for most received freekicks and most executed crosses and shots in a single WC which proves how much more he worked than any player in history
WC 1990
- he is injured the whole World Cup because his ankle that was broken years before got infected and he also had a bruised toe (he had to be injected before every match) and yet he still gets fouled 50 times (2nd alltime best after 86 and 82) - which means Maradona holds all records for the most fouled player in WC history. Neither Messi and Ronaldo nor Pele are even in the top 5
These stats are important because they show the number of times Maradona had been prevented from scoring and assisting goals more than any player in history. If you watch the World Cup 1982 he was only 21 and was already the best player in the tournament or at least up there but the difference to 1986 was that the referees didn't even try to protect him, he was butchered against Italy and Brazil and had almost no support from his team mates either. There is a good chance that had Argentina made it to the 82 final that Maradona could have been fouled up to 60 times in that world cup.
So in the end yeah Messi and Ronaldo have better overall stats but if you look closer than Maradona is simply superior to any player in history because he was fouled and tackled the most and still became World Champion, still won Seria titles and a european Cup with mediocre teams while being a heavy coke addict.
