Saturday 6 March will mark the 46th anniversary of Diego Maradona’s first official free-kick goal. He was 16 years old, he was at the Gasometer and against Platense. In the 16th minute of the second half they score the 3-2 but then Squid equalizes the duel which was still far from being considered a classic. Diego converted 61 free-kick goals in his career and it was a record for an Argentine player. Until Lionel Messi this Sunday he chose to pin it against the base of the left post and give the heartbreaking victory to psg in front of Lilacfor League 1.
It’s not about comparing the two greatest players that the history of Argentine football has given. But specify, detail and observe the evolution of each one. It also analyzes two goals by Diego, one awarded and the other not, based on the images that have begun to circulate with the growth of social networks and easier access to information than in other times.
In the 70s, free-kick goals were a healthy habit. And Diego got used to trying from outside the area right from the start. In Metro 77, the first goal of the championship was scored by Carlos Alberto Alvarez with a header, after two minutes against Quilmes, after a free kick from the 16-year-old boy.
On the following date, 3-3 with Platense. AND Bicho’s three goals were free kicks. The first two by Bartolo Alvarez and the last by Diego. In that tournament, 76 goals were scored that way, Independiente scored 10 and Argentinos 9. Three were from Maradona, but four from Alvarez and one from Sebastián Ovelar and another from Carlos Carrizo. Auctions weren’t exclusive to Diez just yet.
In the four years he played for Argentinos (1976-80), Diego scored 20 free-kick goals (He scored a total of 116). Subsequently, in his first stop at Boca, another 4 from 28. In addition, he converted two at the Youth World Cup in Japan in 1979 and one in the senior team, in 1980 against Poland. Before emigrating to Spain in 1982, he already had 27 screams.
During his time at Barcelona he scored 38 goals, 5 from free kicks. Diego Dal Santo (@diego1010ar on Twitter), Pampa lawyer, Diego fan and who has published a book with all the official and friendly matches of 10, told in 2021 in clarion. “With the advent of digital libraries, I had the opportunity to read report by report, for example from the Mundo Deportivo de Barcelona and the ABC. There are free-kick goals that the newspapers here, at the time, only reported Diego’s goal but not how he did it. Some gave him 2 or 3 free-kick goals but he scored 5”.
The wonderful work of Dal Santo, promoter in 2003 of a project approved in August 2005 for the first road called D10S in Santa Rosa, La Pampa (www.facebook.com/CalleDiegoMaradona), is that it also requires the number of free-kick goals in friendly matches. “There are twenty more: 7 in Argentinos, 5 in Napoli, 4 in the national team, two in Boca and one in Barcelona and in the youth teams”. Diego’s number between official and friendlies then reaches 81.
When he arrived at Napoli at the age of 23, Diego had already celebrated 32 free kicks. Then he made 24 with Napoli, 3 more with the national team, 1 with Sevilla and another with Boca. But there are two goals, one historically counted and another not, which are worth dwelling on. Because the images and criteria used by journalists are often not the same.
On 3 March 1985, Napoli lost 2-1 to Milan in Serie A. The Italian media, devoted at the time to conceding the goal to the last man who had touched the ball, reported that it was against Ray Wilkins. But it was a Diego free kick that was deflected off the wall, as you can see. Like Beto Alonso’s goal against Boca alla Bombonera, the day of the orange ball. Namely, Diego has an extra goal against Napoli but it has never been counted.
On the other hand, during his stay in Seville, some statistics show 6 goals and others 7. The celebration of discord corresponds to the match of January 31, 1993 against Albacete (1-0). Just the official report of Sevilla remembered that last goal by Diego. In the image it is clear that he launched a cross into the box and defender Catali’s deflection was crucial. That is, against. These two goals do not change the final number of celebrations in Diego’s career, 353, but the goals from free kicks do, which would be 62. In the official registers of the Italian Federation, however, the goal against Milan appears against. In Italy and in Naples above all, they have always considered that Diego scored 115 goals and not 116.
October 1, 2022 was the last goal scored by Lionel Messi from a free kick, against Nice. He made 50 with the Barcelona shirt, two with PSG and the other nine with the national team. Unlike Diego, La Pulga has scored more than half in the last five years. Between 2004 and 2015 he had 22 and since 2016 he has 39.
“The first person who told me about free kicks was Coco Basile. “Let go of your foot, let go of your foot,” she yelled at me. And she told me my free throws looked like balls. She wanted me to watch him kick Román (Riquelme). He was one of the first to start with it. Then I remember that in South Africa, with the Profe (Signorini) and Diego we stayed to train”, Messi told in an interview with TyC Sports on June 5, 2019. A day later, Coco confirmed everything the Barcelona player said. And on the channel they made a nice game of images and statements.
Meanwhile Fernando Signorini recalled in his book Football called to rebellion. The dehumanization of sport the anecdote of the free throws between the two greatest. “Read, read, come, dad. Let’s do it again. Put the ball in here and listen carefully: don’t take your foot off the ball so quickly, because if you don’t, he doesn’t know what you want.”. And Signorini closes the anecdote: “he caressed it with his left foot and nailed it for a corner, inflating the net in front of Messi’s admiring gaze”.
Messi already has 16 goals this season (as well as 14 assists) and only two from free-kicks, both for Ligue 1 and for winning, like this Sunday against Lille, certainly special because it was the first as world champion.
A necessary update for a record that may soon change ownership. Just a detail among so much magic.
Source: Clarin
Jason Root is the go-to source for sports coverage at News Rebeat. With a passion for athletics and an in-depth knowledge of the latest sports trends, Jason provides comprehensive and engaging analysis of the world of sports.