Calcutta: Italy legend Andrea Pirlo is of the opinion that Lionel Messi cannot claim to be the best player of all time unless he wins the World Cup.

According to the former Italian set-piece specialist, Messi — despite all his achievements and records for Barcelona so far — can’t overtake Maradona until he lifts football’s biggest prize.

“It will be important for both Messi himself and for Argentina to win the World Cup in Russia. Messi is always compared to Maradona, but he needs to win the World Cup because if you don’t win that, you can’t be up there with the very best.

“Messi cannot eclipse Maradona unless he wins the Cup,” Pirlo told a football-specific website.

Argentina’s preparations for this World Cup have been fraught with difficulties, but Pirlo believes the two-time champions can still do well.

“Argentina have had the time now to improve and find the right players for the World Cup, and I think they are going to do well in Russia despite the big loss they had against Spain (in the friendly). 

“Argentina have a lot of good players and if their top players perform, they are going to do well,” he stated.

Pirlo named Brazil as his favourites to win the World Cup, terming them the “most concrete” team, while he also singled out England’s Harry Kane as a player he is looking forward to watching.

“My favourite England player is Harry Kane,” Pirlo said. “He’s really good and powerful, he’s scored so many goals in the last years and he is one of the players I am going to follow closely at the World Cup,” he said.

With Italy failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, Pirlo revealed that he will not be cheering for any other team instead.

“As Italy are not there, I will not be supporting any team in particular. I’m going to watch all the games, but I’m not going to support any teams,” he said.

Pirlo played in three World Cups, lifting the trophy in 2006, but his last appearance four years ago in Brazil was a disappointing one as Italy were eliminated in the group stage after losing 0-1 to Uruguay.

That game is remembered for Luis Suarez biting Giorgio Chiellini, an offence that saw the striker banned for four months. 

However, Pirlo holds no grudge towards Suarez despite the incident being crucial in Italy’s elimination especially as the scoreline was goalless at that time.

“After the game, the Italy players and myself were just depressed by the result,” Pirlo recalled. 

“The biting incident was something else, but we were more disappointed as we had lost and were out of the World Cup.

“It was an incident that can happen on the pitch and in this case the referee didn’t see it.”