Maradona hopes Messi can follow in his footsteps

World Cup Group B

Maradona took the tournament by storm 24 years ago in Mexico, scoring five goals – including stunning individual efforts against England and Belgium – and setting up five more en route to helping Argentina claim their second and most recent World Cup crown.

Maradona enhanced his superstar status in 1986, and now the eyes of the world fall on his heir apparent, Messi, to see if the Barcelona magician can do likewise.

“I would love to see that,” said Maradona. “I certainly would appreciate it if he could have the same impact on the World Cup that I had in 1986, the same leading role that I had then.

“But behind Lionel there is a whole team backing him up and he should be the cherry on the cake.

“I just hope from the bottom of my heart that Lionel gets to show what he can do and that he has the best performance of all time.”

Argentina fitness coach Fernando Signorini had voiced concerns earlier this week that Messi was still feeling the after-effects of a gruelling season with Barca, but after Thursday’s training session all 23 squad members were deemed fit for duty ahead of today’s World Cup opener against Nigeria.

Messi is likely to find himself the centre of attention during the World Cup and opponents know they will have to keep an extra special eye on the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year.

Maradona hopes that does not mean teams will cross the line in terms of their approach to dealing with either the diminutive playmaker or any other players, though, and called on FIFA to ensure fair play.

“Those looking for fair play shouldn’t stand alone, let’s really look for fair play and referees should understand what fair play is,” he said.

“I think FIFA must definitely look for fair play. If you don’t want to play clean football then go up into the stands. People want to see football and we want people to watch football peacefully, without violence.”

Meanwhile Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins insists his team must not fall into the trap of concentrating all their efforts on stopping the genius of Messi in today’s match.

The former Newcastle man said: “People talk a lot about Messi, forgetting that there are other very good players in the Argentinian team, such as Carlos Tevez and Diego Milito. It’s a team game and we also have our own stars for the day.

“It is an important match for all of us, the players and the technical crew.

“We know Messi is a good player and we can’t allow him to roam round the park just like that. But we also have our great players. They’ve got a couple of great players and we’ve also got a couple of great players.”