Macron: Maradona foiled ‘Thatcher’s England’
French president pays tribute to player’s hand in Argentina’s ‘resurrection’ after Falklands War
EMMANUEL MACRON has hailed Diego Maradona’s World Cup victory over “Thatcher’s England”, which he said heralded Argentina’s “resurrection” after its defeat in the Falklands
War four years earlier. In an official tribute to the footballer, who died on Wednesday, the Elysée Palace said Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God” goal and a second virtuoso strike sealed “the most geopolitical match in football history”, namely Argentina’s 2-1 win over England in the 1986 quarter-final.
The victory came just four years after Margaret Thatcher’s defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War.
Maradona scored the first goal illegally with his fist – later saying he had been helped by the hand of God – before his dribble past most of the England team four minutes later wrapped up the match with one of the most celebrated goals of the 20th century.
In a 600-word missive, the French president, who was eight at the time of the 1986 World Cup, waxed lyrical about the player whose Panini sticker he had been desperate to add to his album.
“The hand of God placed a football genius on Earth,” he wrote. “It has just taken it from us, with an unforeseen dribble that has deceived all our defences.” Mr Macron said the tears shed by “millions of orphans” left no doubt that Maradona was “the greatest footballer of all time”, controversially even better than France’s World Cupwinning hero Zinedine Zidane.
“A dancer in football studs, not so much an athlete as an artist, he embodied the magic of the game,” Mr Macron went on.
The tribute then turned to Maradona’s fabled foul play, saying it changed Argentina’s fortunes after four years in the doldrums.
“It fell to him to write the history of a country scarred by dictatorship and a military defeat. This resurrection took place in 1986 in the most geopolitical match in the history of football – a World Cup quarter-final against the England of Margaret Thatcher,” he wrote.
“On June 22, 1986, in Mexico City, he scored his first goal with God as his team-mate. The miracle was disputed but the referee saw nothing: Maradona’s bluff won him the point. What followed was ‘ the goal of the century’, which rolled football’s greatest dribblers –
Garrincha, Kopa, Pelé into one move. Over 50 metres, in a mind-blowing run, he got past half of the England team, dribbled round Shilton, the goalkeeper, before propelling the ball into the net and the Albiceleste [Argentina’s nickname] into the World Cup final four.
“In the same match, both God and Devil, he scored the two most famous goals in football history.
“There was a King Pelé, now there is a God Diego.”
The eulogy ends with the words “Diego queda” – Diego remains.