Brief answer: no.
Reasoned answer: Manel Estiarte says in the interview that he's conceded us that Messi is not already comparable to Maradona, but even better. He's not the only one who thinks so and, besides, he gives his good motives to it; which may be, in my opinion, arguable, but they're also reasonable. I think that Messi is, of course, the best soccer player at present, but I underscore the "at present" thing: I understand that, in the height of fever of the present and in a discipline of historical memory as brief as soccer is, parallelisms favor the most recent player.
Estiarte also says, subscribing to a comment that Michael Robinson made us in that sense, that current Barcelona is the best team he has ever seen —and I'm not going to discuss that because it's possibly one of the most serious candidates— and here is where we can start unstringing comparisons: Messi can do exceptional things as much technically as statistically (number of goals, for instance) but he does rallied around by a team that counts on the best top in almost all of the posts at the world level. In fact, contemplating the amazing level of the team he plays in, Messi not providing with his good bunch of goals and fantastic plays would be pretty inexplicable. Let's imagine Romario or Van Basten in this same team. Barcelona is such a good team that no-one could understand that Messi didn't make such an impression.
Reasoned answer: Manel Estiarte says in the interview that he's conceded us that Messi is not already comparable to Maradona, but even better. He's not the only one who thinks so and, besides, he gives his good motives to it; which may be, in my opinion, arguable, but they're also reasonable. I think that Messi is, of course, the best soccer player at present, but I underscore the "at present" thing: I understand that, in the height of fever of the present and in a discipline of historical memory as brief as soccer is, parallelisms favor the most recent player.
Estiarte also says, subscribing to a comment that Michael Robinson made us in that sense, that current Barcelona is the best team he has ever seen —and I'm not going to discuss that because it's possibly one of the most serious candidates— and here is where we can start unstringing comparisons: Messi can do exceptional things as much technically as statistically (number of goals, for instance) but he does rallied around by a team that counts on the best top in almost all of the posts at the world level. In fact, contemplating the amazing level of the team he plays in, Messi not providing with his good bunch of goals and fantastic plays would be pretty inexplicable. Let's imagine Romario or Van Basten in this same team. Barcelona is such a good team that no-one could understand that Messi didn't make such an impression.
But Maradona never played in a team of such quality. Never, not by a long shot. The best team where he was was precisely Barcelona, but hepatitis and Goikoetxea's brutal kick, a little harder and he takes him off soccer, stopped Maradona from reaching glory in the city of counts. His biggest successes were gotten in teams that, overall, pale next to the current Barcelona (and even next to the Barcelona that he went through) and, in fact, it wouldn't be exaggerated to assert that, without Maradona, they were teams of the bunch. The Naples where he forged his legend was basically a coarse crew built up around him: there were no Xavis or Iniestas to make him things easy. In fact, it was Maradona who performed as Xavi or Iniesta for the rest of the team, at the same time as he played Messi, too. The most similar to a star that Maradona had beside him was the Brazilian Careca, and that wasn't it until his second Scudetto. Besides, we talk about the Italian league of the 80s: catenaccio, merciless defenders (in all senses) and soccer absolutely opposed to the fluency the current Barcelona gets (and they get it not only because they're a great team, but also because soccer has "melted" —fortunately!— and circumstances allow them to). Soccer from the 80s was hard, and nowadays the press and public would kick up a real shindy if, in just one match, defenses subjected Messi to a 50% of the fouls and kicks Maradona was regularly subjected to.
The Argentinian team from 86 wasn't a memorable team either; almost all the comentators agree that Mexico's World Cup became not Argentina's, but Maradona's world cup, and that it was practically the only occasion when only one player's talent led a team to victory (that's to say, quite the opposite of the grouping soccer that gave triumph to Spain, for example). But let's be fair and let's wait in order to check what Messi can do in the world cups of the future. For the time being, let's do the only comparison we can do: Messi's South Africa's World Cup leaves a lot to be desired before Maradona's World Cup 82 (which was generally considered a disappointment, that much was expected from Maradona at the age of 22). In only one match of the year 82 —for example Argentina against Hungary— Maradona showed quite a lot more things than Messi did in all his last championship. Diego, I remind it again, was 22 years-old back then. The video library is there, in case someone wants to do something other than comparing on paper and see it with their own eyes.
The Argentinian team from 86 wasn't a memorable team either; almost all the comentators agree that Mexico's World Cup became not Argentina's, but Maradona's world cup, and that it was practically the only occasion when only one player's talent led a team to victory (that's to say, quite the opposite of the grouping soccer that gave triumph to Spain, for example). But let's be fair and let's wait in order to check what Messi can do in the world cups of the future. For the time being, let's do the only comparison we can do: Messi's South Africa's World Cup leaves a lot to be desired before Maradona's World Cup 82 (which was generally considered a disappointment, that much was expected from Maradona at the age of 22). In only one match of the year 82 —for example Argentina against Hungary— Maradona showed quite a lot more things than Messi did in all his last championship. Diego, I remind it again, was 22 years-old back then. The video library is there, in case someone wants to do something other than comparing on paper and see it with their own eyes.
The idea of Maradona's perpetual irregularity is a myth created in the years when he indeed started to be irregular. But before those years, in his age of glory, Maradona didn't fail. And he didn't fail because he wasn't a player of flashes as Messi may be; Maradona wasn't a forward, not even a midfield: he was a classic midfielder that wasn't near the area waiting for balls, but behind it, giving balls to the waiters. He was someone who was in not very exceptional teams, who constantly depended on the play he shared out and organized: if Diego didn't work, the team didn't work (that can hardly be said about Messi and Barça, of course, because the rest of Barça can perfectly play on its own). Maradona made passes for others to follow the play, for others to score goals. Even so, despite that dependency on him, he got to win Calcio titles and the UEFA cup, a tourney that was back then almost as hard as the European Cup, current Champions League. An irregular Maradona would've never gotten titles with those teams. And as if that weren't enough, in addition to being the team's heart, he had time and talent to frequently score his won goals and give us all sorts of extraordinary individual plays, too. And I think that it's those individual plays that mislead many by making them believe that Maradona was «that» kind of player.
When Messi is likened to Maradona, he is because of the most apparent similarities in the technical qualities of both of them, which are exceptional, but very especially for dodges and the ball conducting. Visually, Messi's style with the ball reminds a lot of Maradona, but beyond that there's a fact that people usually forgets: they're not the same kind of player. They don't play the same role or play in the same post. Maradona, necessarily, needed a more complete technical repertoire. The great Diego Armando —I repeat the idea again— was equal to Messi plus Xavi plus Iniesta. Literally. He did on his own what these three players do overall and they couldn't do separately. His dodges or his goals were just the most striking part of his game, but then it's his fantastic effectiveness in all sort of passes (short, long, triangulations or distribution... of any kind), his view of the game, his ability to make team decisions in a tenth of second and the way he could lead the rest of colleagues by sharing the game out from the central circle. And he continuously did, not by bursts. All the game passed through him and that is something Messi doesn't do in Barcelona. In fact, Diego himself made the mistake to expect Messi to perform as Maradona in South Africa: it didn't work, of course. It's not a question of age or Messi being still too young to be able to compare with justice: it's that they're not comparable players, they don't have similar functions, they don't have identical repertoires. That is not Messi's game; Lionel isn't by a long shot as technically complete as to develop all of his countrymen's functions. It'd be like asking him to shoot in fouls with the same poisonous danger as Maradona used to: Messi can't do it, there are things Diego could do and he can't. And there's nothing wrong about it, nobody can do all that Maradona did. In Barcelona they need several players to do it. In Madrid they aren't even doing it with several players. In any team of the world they might need several players to even try.
And finally —more subjective, but not less important— there's what Maradona means in soccer history and, even with the benefit of the doubt, it's quite unlikely that Messi gets to mean it some day. And there is, for sure and allow me the poetic license, romanticism too. Messi is a son of Argentina but a pupil of the masia: he grew up as it must be, rallied around in one of the best schools of the world —if not the best— and he plays, as it must be too, in the best team of the world. It's like the Lewis Hamilton of soccer. But Maradona, a son of Argentina too, is instead a product of the unknown Cebollitas and, basically, no-one's pupil. His natural talent flourished by itself in the middle of the roughest origins and, as if the rough were his fate, he always reached glory in adverse soccer circumstances.
The only thing I know is that comparisons began to shoot up with that magnificent goal of Messi's to Getafe which reminded so much of Maradona's famous "goal of the century". Maradona just did it against England —not against Getafe—, in the heat of a world cup —not in the Copa del Rey— and in the tense rematch of the Folklands' war —not in a routine round of national competition between two very unequal teams—. When it's said that it's unfair to forget Messi is still very young to compare, I wonder, instead, if it's unfairer to forget that, to be able to put a player in the same phrase as Diego Armando Maradona, that player has to demonstrate the practically indemonstrable thing. I am the first one to long to see a new Maradona appear. But I haven't seen him yet.
The only thing I know is that comparisons began to shoot up with that magnificent goal of Messi's to Getafe which reminded so much of Maradona's famous "goal of the century". Maradona just did it against England —not against Getafe—, in the heat of a world cup —not in the Copa del Rey— and in the tense rematch of the Folklands' war —not in a routine round of national competition between two very unequal teams—. When it's said that it's unfair to forget Messi is still very young to compare, I wonder, instead, if it's unfairer to forget that, to be able to put a player in the same phrase as Diego Armando Maradona, that player has to demonstrate the practically indemonstrable thing. I am the first one to long to see a new Maradona appear. But I haven't seen him yet.
I'd also like to believe in God, but I haven't seen him either.
Or I have.
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