On Saturday, March 6, the 46th anniversary of Diego Maradona's first official goal from a free kick will be celebrated
.
He was 16 years old, it was at the Gasometer and against Platense.
At 16 minutes into the second half, they made it 3-2 but then Squid equalized the duel that 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 chose to nail it against the base of the left post and give
PSG
the agonizing victory against
Lille
, for Ligue 1
.
It is not about comparing the two greatest players that the history of Argentine soccer gave.
But to specify, detail and observe the evolution of each one.
Also analyze two goals from Diego, one awarded and the other not, based on the images that began to circulate since the growth of social networks and easier access to information than in other times.
Free kicks Maradona
Investigation:
Oscar Barnade
Infographic:
Clarín
In the 1970s,
free kick goals were a healthy habit
.
And Diego got used to trying from outside the area from the beginning.
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 by Maradona, but four by Alvarez and one by Sebastián Ovelar and another by Carlos Carrizo.
The auctions were not yet exclusive to Diez.
In the four years he played for Argentinos (1976-80), Diego scored 20 free-kick goals
(he scored 116 in total).
Later, in his first stage in Boca, another 4 of 28. In addition, he converted two in 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.
Maradona's 25 Best Free Kick Goals
During his time at Barcelona he scored 38 goals, 5 from free kicks.
Diego Dal Santo (@diego1010ar on Twitter), a lawyer from the Pampas, a fan of Diego and who published a book with all the official and friendly matches of the 10th, told Clarín in
2021
.
“With the appearance of digital libraries, I had the chance to read chronicle by chronicle, for example, from Mundo Deportivo de Barcelona and ABC.
There are free kick goals that here the newspapers, 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, who was the promoter of a project in 2003 and approved in August 2005 for the first street bearing the name of D10S in Santa Rosa, La Pampa (www.facebook.com/CalleDiegoMaradona), is that it also specifies
the number of goals from free kicks in friendly matches.
"There are another twenty
: 7 in Argentinos, 5 in Napoli, 4 in the National Team, two in Boca and one in Barcelona and the youth team."
Diego's number between officials and friendlies, then, reaches 81.
When he arrived at Napoli, at the age of 23, Diego already had 32 free kick celebrations.
He then made 24 for Napoli, 3 more for the National Team, 1 for Sevilla and another for Boca.
But
there are two goals, one that has historically been counted and the other that hasn't, that are worth dwelling on
.
Because the images and the criteria used by journalists are often not the same.
On March 3, 1985, Napoli lost 2-1 to Milan in Serie A. The Italian media, addicted at the time to giving the last man to touch the ball the goal, reported that it was against Ray Wilkins.
But it was a free kick from Diego that deflected off the wall, as you can see.
Like Beto Alonso's goal against Boca at La Bombonera, the day of the orange ball.
That is to say, Diego has one more goal at Napoli but he was never accounted for.
Milan - Napoli 2-1, series A 1984-1985, ninetieth minute
On the other hand, during his time in Seville, some statistics show 6 goals and others 7. The celebration of the discord corresponds to the game on January 31, 1993 against Albacete (1-0).
Precisely the official account of Sevilla remembered that last goal by Diego.
In the image it is clearly seen that he threw a cross into the area and the deflection in defender Catali was key.
That is ,
against
These two goals do not modify the final number of celebrations in Diego's career, 353, but the free-kick goals do, which would be 62. However, in the official records of the Italian Federation the goal against Milan appears against.
In Italy and in Napoli, especially, they always considered that Diego scored 115 goals and not 116.
On October 1, 2022, it had been the last goal that Lionel Messi scored from a free kick
,
against Nice
.
He got 50 with the Barcelona shirt, two with PSG and the other nine with the National Team.
Unlike Diego, La Pulga scored more than half in the last five years.
Between 2004 and 2015 he did 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', he yelled at me. And he told me that my free throws looked like little balls. He wanted me to watch him kick Román (Riquelme). He was one of the first to start with it. Later I remember that in South Africa, with the Profe (Signorini) and Diego we stayed practicing
," Messi said in an interview with TyC Sports on June 5, 2019. The next day, Coco ratified everything said by the Barcelona player And on the channel, they made a good game of images and statements.
Lionel Messi All free kicks 51 goals
Meanwhile, Fernando Signorini recalled in his book
Soccer called to rebellion.
The dehumanization of sport
the anecdote of the free kicks between the two greatest.
“Read, read, come, dad.
Let's do it back.
Put the ball here and listen carefully: don't take your foot off the ball so quickly, because if you don't, it doesn't know what you want
”.
And Signorini finished off the anecdote: "he caressed it with his left foot and nailed it in the corner, inflating the net before Messi's admiring gaze."
Messi already has 16 goals this season (in addition to 14 assists) and only two were from free kicks, both for Ligue 1 and to win, like this Sunday against Lille, surely special because he was the first as world
champion
.
A necessary update for a record that may soon change owners. Just a detail among so much magic
.
look too
Messi's free kick: the reaction of Antonela Roccuzzo and DT Galtier for the agonizing triumph of PSG against Lille
Neymar's glass ankle: injury, grief and another problem for Messi's PSG