After Lionel Messi’s beautiful tribute to Diego Maradona, we need to give you the details and the truth behind the gesture and how it was planned.
Out of all the tributes to Diego Maradona after his passing, the most beautiful one was Lionel Messi’s. Throughout his entire career, Leo has always been compared to the Argentinos Juniors’ academy product due to the eerily similar style of play. There were two times in the past that Messi didn’t plan and scored goals that were similar to Diego’s most famous goals.
We are talking about the ones he scored against England in the 1986 World Cup. Even though Messi didn’t get them in a World Cup, the similarities are quite striking. With this in mind, Leo decided to embrace these comparisons by paying homage to them last Sunday against Osasuna. When he was 7 years old, Messi visited Newell’s Old Boys’ stadium to watch Maradona play his only season at the club.
Back then, the child was a passionate ‘Leproso’. Watching Maradona was a dream come true for him. On that evening, Diego scored his only goal from a short spell at Newell’s. Little did he know that he was about to tell the tale of a historic moment in sports history.
Leo copies Maradona again.
During that evening against Emelec, Diego Mradona scored a long range shot to the top corner with his right foot. It was the only time he sent the ball to the back of the net for his new club, he did it while wearing the typical red and black jersey with the Yamaha logo on it.
Cut to 2020 in the FC Barcelona vs Osasuna match. Nobody expected what Messi had in mind to honor Diego. It was the most beautiful tribute from one legend to another. Leo got hold of the exact same jersey model that Diego Maradona wore against Emelec in that game.
If you look at both goals, there is no way to avoid getting emotional with Messi’s attention to detail. A gesture that the whole world enjoyed from Messi to Diego. After the game, the Barcelona star simply posted an Instagram post that read: “Farewell, Diego.”