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Religious faith is a psychological support for many footballers, but Diego Maradona, who died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack, went further and came to believe in his own divinity. His multiple talents as a creator, organizer and striker earned him worldwide recognition as one of the best players ever known, an award tempered, at least in the English mind, for the goal he scored for Argentina 51 minutes into the quarterfinals. against England in the 1986 World Cup final in Mexico.
Considered by the referee as a header, the ball was actually hit over the line and the foul went unpunished. It was, said his scorer, “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”
Four minutes later, Maradona scored what would turn out to be the winner of the match, a goal hailed as one of the greatest ever scored, in a matter of 10.8 seconds, 44 strides and 12 touches, during which he dribbled past five England players. , flipped the goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, with a feint, and slid the ball into the net.
“It made me want to applaud,” was the sad comment from English striker Gary Lineker. With Maradona as captain and scorer of five of his 14 goals, Argentina became world champion, beating West Germany in the final.
A diminutive attacking midfielder who played in the 10th position and who combined great acceleration, unrivaled vision and a touch and control of the ball that he attributed to the abnormal rotational ability of his ankles, Maradona captained Argentina two finals of the Cup of the World, winning one. and won numerous honors including South American Footballer of the Year in 1979 and 1980 and the World Cup Golden Ball in 1986 and the FIFA Goal of the Century in 20020.
In a career marked by glory, drama, indiscipline and the long-standing cocaine habit, he was a controversial figure in Barcelona, worshiped like a god in Naples and expelled from the 1994 World Cup final in disgrace. . It was also commercially exploited by clubs, associates, parasites and their national governing body, as well as by the military regimes of Argentina. According to Settimio Aloisio, vice president of Argentinos Juniors: “Maradona was a good diversion when things got tough for the regime. It kept people happy. The Romans used the circus, our military used the football stadiums. “
Maradona was born in Lanús, Buenos Aires, and his childhood home was a shack in Villa Fiorito, a shanty town reputed to be one of the most dangerous in the city. His father, Diego Sr., a low-paid worker in a bone meal factory, was of indigenous Guaraní origin; her mother, Dalma (née Franco), known as Tota, was a descendant of poor immigrants from southern Italy.
As his first son after three daughters, Diego Jr was adored by Tota and his grandmother Salvadora, who instilled in him their Roman Catholic faith and reminded him of his responsibilities as an eldest son. He got to work early, selling small pieces of scrap metal and discarded tinfoil from cigarette packs, but it was the leather soccer ball his uncle Cyril gave him on his third birthday that provided the route out of the city. poverty.
At the age of eight, Maradona’s prodigious abilities led him to a test with Francisco Cornejo, the coach of Cebollitas, the first division Argentinos Juniors youth team. Cornejo’s jaw dropped: “It seemed to come from another planet.” I have never seen a young man show such talent. Given Maradona’s diminutive physique and strangely large head, he initially thought he was lying about his age and demanded to see his identity card. Quiet, Cornejo hired him and became his mentor at Cebollitas, with whom, in 1974, Maradona won the Córdoba youth championship. Shortly after he had his first contract with Argentinos Juniors, who promoted him to the main team.
She made her professional debut in 1976, 10 days before her 16th birthday, scored her first top flight goal 25 days later and immediately became a teenage sensation. During his five years at the club he contributed 116 goals in the same number of appearances and was their top scorer in all seasons.
In 1979 he was the key man in Argentina’s victory in the final of the World Youth Championship against the Soviet Union, and at 20 he moved to Boca Juniors, where his 28 goals in 40 appearances helped the club win the Metropolitan First Division of Argentina. in 1982, the same year he appeared in his first World Cup, in Spain. Not surprisingly, Barcelona quickly paid a world record £ 5 million fee for him; At only 21 years old, he went to Spain before the protest of all Argentina for his departure.
His turbulent two years in Barcelona brought him 38 goals and a 1983 King’s Cup champion medal, as well as financial difficulties, the beginnings of his cocaine use and excessive alcohol consumption, a career-threatening ankle injury. inflicted by Andoni Goikoetxea of Athletic Bilbao, and increasingly frequent disputes with the club’s president, Josep Lluís Núñez. He was also the instigator of a massive fight against King Juan Carlos of Spain in the 1984 Copa del Rey final after Barcelona lost to Athletic Bilbao. It was his last game with the club.
A £ 6.9 million transfer fee that surpassed his own record brought him to Napoli and sparked a seven-year love affair during which he inspired them to end the soccer hegemony of northern Italy; in 1987 they became the first club from the south to win Serie A. The following season they were the top scorer in Serie A. In 1989, Napoli won their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, and in 1990 it followed. a second league title. For the Neapolitans he possessed a divine status in which he himself was ready to believe; his image appeared on murals and shrines on the city walls. The reality was darker; an addiction to cocaine, connections with the Camorra, the Naples mafia, and a son, Diego Sinagra, the result of an extramarital affair, whom for many years he refused to recognize.
When he left in 1992, Napoli officially retired the number 10 jersey in recognition of his contribution to the club, despite his record being clouded by a failed drug test for cocaine. At this point, in a precarious physical and psychological state, after a 15-month ban from soccer, he spent a year playing for Sevilla FC in Spain before returning to Argentina, where first Newell’s Old Boys and then Boca Juniors taught him. They delivered the much needed life jackets.
Maradona’s international career never again reached the top of Mexico 86. In Italy in 1990, weakened by an ankle injury, he was not the dominant force four years earlier, although he was captain of Argentina to the final, in which lost 1-0 to West Germany. Four years later, in the US, he played just two games before testing positive for the banned drug ephedrine. The disgraced expulsion ended his international career, during which he had appeared 91 times for Argentina, scoring 34 goals.
After his retirement from football in 1997 (having scored 259 goals in 491 league games for his club’s various teams), the body that had suffered years of physical abuse swelled and he became severely overweight, and in 2004 he was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack after excessive cocaine use.
Two years later, he underwent gastric bypass surgery to reverse his obesity and, in 2008, following the resignation of Argentine coach Alfio Basile, he was asked to take his place. Qualification for the 2010 World Cup final was secured despite a 6-1 loss, the second worst in Argentina’s history, to Bolivia and a two-month FIFA ban on Maradona for exploding in a abusive language at live post-match press conference. After Argentina was eliminated 4-0 in the quarterfinals by Germany, their contract was not renewed.
In 2011 he became the coach of the Dubai club Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates before being fired after just over a year in the position. After a five-year interregnum, in 2017 he was appointed head coach of Al-Fujairah in the UAE second division, moving the following year to the Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa and in 2019 back to Argentina, to Gimnasia y Esgrima La Silver.
Despite his many fouls and complicated personality, Maradona remained a hero in Argentina. “He offered Argentines a way out of their collective frustration and that is why people love him,” said his former teammate Jorge Valdano. “[That’s why he] he is a divine figure. “
He married Claudia Villafañe in 1984; they divorced in 2004. He is survived by his two daughters, Dalma and Giannina, and his son, Diego.
• Diego Armando Maradona, soccer player, born on October 30, 1960; died on November 25, 2020
