Maradona: Age influenced Pele's thinking - he is now just a puppet controlled remotely © EuroFootball.com

The war of words between Diego Maradona and Pele continues: the Argentine stated that his colleague from Brazil has lost the ability to objectively assess the situation due to old age.

This was Maradona's response to the 71-year-old Pele's words two decades younger, saying that Barcelona striker Lionel Messi must first [link="http://eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=26029"]win the World Cup three times and score more than a thousand goals[/link] in order to be considered the greatest footballer of all time.

"Perhaps his thinking is affected by old age," said Maradona, who is currently in charge of the "Al Wasl" club. "You can't blame a guy who hasn't done anything for twenty years. I haven't even seen Pele in a store, so I really don't know what he's doing.

"These days, you can only see him at awards ceremonies next to the FIFA president. It seems like he's like a puppet, controlled by a remote control. So it's not worth being surprised by such statements."

Earlier, Maradona had said that Pele [link="http://eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=25568"]had mixed up the medicines he was supposed to take in the morning[/link] if he thinks Neymar is better than Messi.