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BUENOS AIRES: Diego Maradona scored more than 300 goals, many touches of genius, but the two most famous came four minutes apart on June 22, 1986 in Mexico: one was voted Goal of the Century, the other is even more famous.
Maradona and Argentina came to that World Cup with something to prove. Four years earlier in Spain, Maradona’s first World Cup had ended with early elimination and a red card for a spectacular foul against Brazil.
In Mexico, Argentina outscored their group, edged out old foes Uruguay in the round of 16 and then faced England, an enemy of a different kind, in the quarterfinals at the vast Estadio Azteca.
Maradona has given repeated accounts of that match: in his autobiography Maradona; in a book with Argentine journalist Daniel Arcucci about that World Cup titled Touched by God, and in interviews. The language may be more or less colorful, but the details remain the same.
Maradona recalled the humiliation of the Falklands War – over the British-owned archipelago in the South Atlantic known in Spanish as the “Malvinas” – four years earlier, when Argentina surrendered to the British shortly after the start of the World Cup. in Spain.
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“It was England, let’s not forget, and the ‘Malvinas’ were fresh in the memory,” he said. “It was a battle, yes, but on my battlefield.”
The first half was cautious.
“He was very bored,” wrote his teammate Jorge Valdano in The Guardian 20 years later. “Eleven officials from each side trying not to be wrong.”
That changed in the 51st minute. Maradona beat three men in midfield. Finding his way blocked, he pinged Valdano and set off in anticipation of a return.
Steve Hodge stole the ball. The pass back to the goalkeeper was still legal and that was what the English midfielder tried.
“The ball bounced well,” he said later. “I absolutely got it on the spot. It was the contact I wanted, pulling it back with a bit of a dip. When I got it, I didn’t think for a moment that it might be a problem, because I didn’t know where Maradona was.”
JUMPED LIKE A FROG
Maradona, as usual, thought faster than anyone and ran towards the goal while Peter Shilton advanced to catch the ball.
“It floated towards me like a little balloon. Wow, what a delight,” Maradona said.
“Shilton thought I was going to hit him. But I jumped like a frog.”
Maradona was about 18 cm shorter than the England goalkeeper.
“If you look at my feet, you’ll see that I’m already in the air, moving upwards. I keep moving upwards and he hasn’t even left the ground,” Maradona said. “I had an idea, put my hand and head.”
Maradona’s left hand tossed the ball into Shilton’s open arms and into the goal.
“The one who realized what happened was (Terry) Fenwick,” Maradona said. “But apart from him, nothing, no one else.”
When the England defender appealed, BBC commentator Barry Davies assumed it was offside. Even the celebration was part of Maradona’s deception.
“I kept running, not looking back,” he said.
Argentine coach Carlos Bilardo had forbidden midfielders to expend energy running to join in the celebrations. Maradona gestured his teammates towards him.
“This time, I needed them. I really needed them.
“(Sergio) ‘Checho’ Batista was the first to arrive, but slowly.
“He asked me, ‘Did you use your hand?’ I said ‘Shut your mouth and keep celebrating!’ We were still afraid that they wouldn’t allow the goal. “
“As a child in Fiorito he scored goals with his hand all the time. And he did the same in front of a hundred thousand people, but nobody saw him,” he said.
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Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser looked at Bulgarian linesman Bogdan Dochev and then scored the goal.
“All they saw was the yelling after I scored. And if they yelled that loud, it was because they were sure I had scored. So how could we blame the Tunisian referee?”
Maradona says his other handball goals included several for Argentina and two for Napoli.
He said that once in Argentina, “many years before Mexico”, they caught him and the referee “advised me not to do it anymore, I thanked him, but I also told him that I couldn’t promise anything. I imagine he was celebrating” . like a madman against England. “
“STEAL FROM A THIEF”
Maradona came up with the phrase “Hand of God” at the post-match press conference.
“At the beginning, I kept saying that I had led it. I don’t know, I was afraid that, as I was still in the stadium, they might disallow the goal. What did I know?
“In passing I said to someone: ‘It was Maradona’s head and God’s hand.’
Hodge traded jerseys at the end, but other English players remain less forgiving.
“Shilton got mad,” Maradona said. “He said, ‘I’m not going to invite Maradona to my testimony. Ha! Who wants to go to a goalkeeper’s testimony?”
Four minutes later, Maradona ran more than half the field, defeating six England players and scoring the Goal of the Century. He was also the winner of the match.
But his first goal, athletic, cunning and illegal, remains his most contested.
“We must not forget that we were Argentines, representatives of a country that rationalizes with the word ‘exuberance’ what in other places is called cheating,” Valdano wrote.
Maradona did not regret it.
“Of course, it wasn’t God’s Hand. It was me. I don’t regret marking with my hand. I’m not sorry at all! For me, it was like robbing a thief.”
