Diego, the diminutive colossus
A flawed genius, yes, but the late great Maradona’s magic on the pitch outweighed his troubles off it
BUENOS AIRES — Diego Maradona’s death at the age of 60 on Wednesday sparked an outpouring of grief and tributes from the soccer world and beyond, with many declaring the game had lost its greatest ever player.
Arguably Maradona’s biggest rival for that moniker, Pele, reacted to the news of the Argentine’s demise from a heart attack by saying he had lost “a dear friend”. “One day, I hope, we will play soccer together in the sky,” Pele said in a statement.
The most heated wrangling over who was the better player was often conducted between Maradona and Pele themselves. “He thinks it’s him,” Pele once said. “But we all really know who was the best.”
Being born 20 years apart meant the duo never settled their rivalry on the pitch. Interviewed once by Pele, Maradona playfully asked the Brazilian how he accumulated an apparent goal total of 1,281. “Who did you score them against?” Maradona asked. “Your nephews in the backyard?”
The greatest- of- all- time debate will continue to rage, but even his biggest detractors could not deny that the 5- foot- 5 ( 1.65- meter) Maradona was truly a genius with a ball at his feet.
He is perhaps best known, however, for a goal he scored with another part of his body — the “Hand of God” — when he punched the ball into England’s net during a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal. In the same game, he later scored what is considered one of the greatest goals of all time to earn Argentina a 2- 1 win.
Maradona captivated fans over a two- decade career with a bewitching style of play that was all his own.
Although his reputation was tarnished by a cocaine addiction and an ill- fated spell in charge of his national team, he remained idolized in soccer- mad Argentina as the “Pibe de Oro” or “Golden Boy”.
“You took us to the top of the world,” Argentina President Alfredo Fernandez said on social media. “You made us incredibly happy. You were the greatest of all.”
Bold, fast and utterly unpredictable, Maradona was a master of attack, dodging and weaving with his low center of gravity and shrugging off countless rivals — during an era when tougher tackling was permitted by referees. His goals were often fired home by a devastating left foot, his most powerful weapon.
“Everything he was thinking in his head, he made it happen with his feet,” said Salvatore Bagni, who played with Maradona at Italian club Napoli.
A ballooning waistline slowed Maradona’s explosive speed later in his career and by 1991 he was snared in his first doping scandal when he admitted to a cocaine habit that haunted him until he retired in 1997, at 37.
Hospitalized near death in 2000 and again in ’ 04 for heart problems, he later claimed he had overcome the drug problem.
But more health problems followed, despite a 2005 gastric bypass that greatly trimmed his weight. Maradona was hospitalized in early 2007 for acute hepatitis that his doctor blamed on excessive drinking and eating.
He returned to the national team in 2008 when he was appointed Argentina coach, but after a quarterfinal exit at the 2010 World Cup, he was ousted.
Humble beginnings
Maradona was the fifth of eight children who grew up in a poor barrio on the outskirts of Buenos Aires where he played soccer on the kind of dirt patches that launched the careers of many Argentina stars. None of them approached Maradona’s fame. In 2001, FIFA named Maradona one of the two greatest in soccer’s history, alongside Pele.
Maradona reaped titles at home and abroad, playing in the early 1980s for Argentinos Juniors and Boca Juniors before moving on to European clubs. His crowning achievement came at the 1986 World Cup, captaining Argentina in its 3- 2 win over West Germany in the final and the feisty quarterfinal win over England.
Over the protests of England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, the referee let stand a goal by Maradona in which, as he admitted years later, he intentionally hit the ball with his hand in “a bit of mischief ”.
Four minutes later, Maradona spectacularly weaved past multiple opponents from midfield to beat Shilton for what FIFA later declared the greatest goal in World Cup history.
Many Argentines saw the match as revenge for their country’s loss to Britain in the 1982 war over the Falkland Islands.
“We said the game had nothing to do with the war,” Maradona wrote in his 2000 autobiography I am Diego. “But we knew that Argentines had died there, that they had killed them like birds. And this was our revenge. It was something bigger than us: We were defending our flag.”
It also was vindication for Maradona, who in what he later called “the greatest tragedy” of his career was cut from the squad of the 1978 World Cup — which Argentina won at home — because he was only 17.
Maradona said he was given a soccer ball soon after he could run. “I was 3 years old and I slept hugging that ball all night,” he said.
At 10, Maradona gained fame by performing at halftime of professional matches, wowing crowds with his ball- juggling skills. He played from 1976- 81 for first- division club Argentinos Juniors, then went to Boca for a year before heading to Barcelona for a then worldrecord $ 8 million.
Glory days
He was sold to Napoli in 1984 and almost single- handedly led it to the 1987 Serie A title.
A year after losing the 1990 World Cup final to West Germany, Maradona moved to Sevilla, but his career was on the decline. He played five matches at Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys in 1994 before returning to Boca from 1995- 97 — his final club and closest to his heart.
Drug problems overshadowed his final playing years. Maradona failed a doping test in 1991 and was banned for 15 months, acknowledging his longtime cocaine addiction. He failed another doping test for stimulants and was thrown out of the 1994 World Cup.
In retirement, Maradona took part in charity and exhibition events. But he quickly gained weight and was clearly short of breath as he huffed through friendly matches.
In 2000, he was hospitalized at a Uruguayan holiday resort with a heart that doctors said was pumping at less than half its capacity. Blood and urine samples turned up traces of cocaine.
After another emergency hospitalization in 2004, Maradona traveled to Cuba for treatment at Havana’s Center for Mental Health. There he was visited by his friend, then Cuban president Fidel Castro.
He made a return to the national team in 2008 when he was appointed Argentina coach, but after a quarterfinal exit at the 2010 World Cup, he was ousted — ultimately picking up another coaching job with the United Arab Emirates club Al Wasl.
Most recently, Maradona coached Argentine top- tier team Gimnasia — work that was halted by brain surgery following a stroke in early November and ultimately by his death two weeks later.