It is a tough day to be an Argentina soccer fan after their 1-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup Final. As if it couldn't get any worse, Argentina legend Diego Maradona called out FIFA for giving Lionel Messi the Golden Ball Award.
Maradona spoke with The Guardian and said that Messi wasn't the best player at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and called the situation a “marketing plan” by FIFA.
"Messi? I would give him heaven if possible," Maradona said. "But it’s not right when someone wins something that he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan.”
Maradona’s opinion carries an incredible amount of weight in soccer circles, but he wasn't the only person of authority to be surprised by the winner of the award. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he was surprised that Messi received the award and left it at that.
While Messi is considered the best player in soccer, he managed only three shots on target in Argentina’s four games in the knockout round. Messi spoke to Spanish newspaper AS on the situation and shook it off by saying the award was not his goal and all he wanted was a World Cup championship.
“Right now I don’t care about the prize. I don’t care about anything. I wanted to take Argentina to the World Cup for all the people,” Messi said.
We deserved it a bit more after the game we played. It’s very painful to lose the way we did because we were near penalties.”
Although he came incredibly close this time, Messi needs to bring a World Cup title to Argentina or Maradona, and his 1986 World Cup title, may haunt him.
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