Not saying you’re wrong for favoring Maradona(I love him), but still Messi made it to Copa America and WC finals in back to back years, losing both by the slimmest of margins with teams and coaches that at, best, only tepidly embraced him as the player around whom to build the squad.
Sure what Maradona did in ’86 was unprecedented and make him the pre-Messi GOAT(better than Pele), but damn man, the international game has changed so much the past 30 years hasn’t it?
Only a few teams manage to facilitate a national identity in their squad, Germany, Italy, and Urguay. The rest, often more talented, struggle to assemble a cohesive squad out of a collection of extremely talented free agents who are often uninterested in the national team beyond self promotion.
Who are the worst of these? Brazil, England, and Argentina. Teams with immense talent each WC cycle who lack cohesion and team spirit due to the individual players’ immersion in domestic club leagues and shoe contracts.
While the ’86 team perhaps had less talent, it did make up for it with team cohesion, a core philosophy(get the ball to Maradona), and a unified national identity for how the game should be played.
Messi has had none of those benefits during his international career dating all the way back to ’06 when Jose Peckerman should have built the squad around him, but lacked the courage and fortitude to do so. Had Messi been the center of that team, he might have a World Cup trophy already…