Whatever is old, whatever is from the past, whatever we have not witnessed, we humans have a tendency to exaggerate them.

Some say, "Now-a-days politics means corruption. Can anyone think of corruption in the times of Dr. Bidhan Roy?" Some comment, "What do you people watch in the names of movies these days. There was only one actor, Amitabh Bachchan!" Some again again argue, "Okay, Rohit Sharma is good. But it was Viv Richards....oh!"

Only in case of 2 sports probably the rule is a bit different - tennis and football. I haven't seen Pele play. As much as I have watched Maradona in his boots, there can be no comparison. Yet, putting together all the stalwarts of the football ground, it can be confidently claimed that in the last 20 years the globe has never as 'perfect' a footballer as the Magical Messi.

With every Soccer World Cup comes in the comparison between Maradona and Messi. Statistics say that between Maradona and Messi is just 1 win. Both have escalated Argentina twice to the finals. But outside statistics, in the larger world, Diego Maradona is Maradona.

That was the Cold War era. Britain and Argentina got into a terrible war over Falkland. Soviet Russia was witnessing the Gorbachev era. FIFA, like the middle class bengali, still had the same stand, "Do anything but politics." But would he pay heed? In 1986, defeating England by 2-1 with the 'hand of God' and the best goal of the century, Maradona had declared that this was Argentina's answer to the many Argentinian deaths in Falkland.

In those days of the all encompassing reign of the giant America, Maradona's icons were Fidel Castro and Che Guevera. He did not flicker a bit before announcing President Bush a 'murderer'. Obviously, the Argentinian Federation to FIFA, none spared him a chance to be accused and punished. The best combination of Latin American disobedience, revolution, courage, emotions and compassion was probably Diego Maradona.