On a second thought, I would also put Bundesliga just ahead of La Liga which was, undoubtedly, the best league a few years ago. Two years ago I ,actually, went to the ground to watch Freiburg hosting Bayer Leverkusen which ended in a draw. But, Frieburg being such a small club still played very good football -technically speaking.
English League is "competitive" but full of sub-standard players compared to other major European leagues. Somewhat "competitive" akin to a Bangladesh v Zimbabwe series. Until recently English brand of football was a physical and long ball "playing in the sky" one. Technique or "beautiful football" wasn't on the agenda. And, the result is England not winning anything since 1966. That should be a major pointer. Where Italy, Germany and Spain has won major tournaments.
Back to Maradona - Messi debate; the game has gone through a lot of changes since the days of Diego. The major one being clamping down on the "razors", the "killers", the "butchers" i.e the defenders. They cannot hack down an attacking player anymore like they used to do back in the days. Red cards shown for fouls nowadays wouldn't even have seen the yellow cards then. As a result, attacking, skilful and flair players can express themselves on the pitch without worrying much about ending up with a career ending "tackle". Which makes a HUGE difference. The playmakers and centre forwards are much more "protected".
Said that, Messi is still a very special one and I think he would have done equally well in that era. Perhaps, wouldn't have been allowed that much of "show-boating" on the pitch, though. Maradona would be unstoppable in todays "working conditions" -not that many were able to stop him anyway. And, he had bucket-loads of charisma to boot and a "hand of God" to go with it.
