How the ‘Hand of God’ quote went round the world

IT BECAME the most iconic sporting comment of all time but the Englishspeaking world very nearly did not get to hear Diego Maradona’s pithy reflection on his infamous goal in Argentina’s 2-1 defeat of England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

Reuters sports correspondent Rex Gowar was in the bowels of Azteca Stadium after the match when Maradona confessed to the most talked-about piece of cheating in football history.

“It was my first World Cup with Reuters,” Gowar recalled yesterday after hearing the news of Maradona’s death, aged 60.

“We were near the changing rooms with a group of Argentine football writers, it was the normal sort of melee that you had after a match of that importance.”

While it was long before the days of mobile phones, social media and 24-hour rolling news coverage, the outrage was already brewing after TV replays clearly showed Maradona had used his hand to knock the ball past England keeper Peter Shilton for Argentina’s opening goal in their 2-1 win.

The fact that his second goal, a few minutes later, was a work of genius was overshadowed by the raging controversy over the first. To pour petrol on the fire,

Maradona then uttered the words that filled back pages around the globe.

Un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios, (“a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”) Maradona told the select few reporters sniffing around for the day’s killer quote. It was gold dust.

“I was part of the melee that heard the quote,” Gowar said. “The quote came out of us probing him.

“No one knows who he said it to exactly but of course as soon as I heard the quote it impressed me and it certainly impressed my desk.” – Reuters