Arab world mourns passing of a football legend
The debate as to whether Diego Maradona is the best player the world has ever seen will spark back into life with the news of his death due to heart attack at the age of 60 on Wednesday. However, those lucky Saudi fans who saw him in action in Jeddah in 1987 will surely insist that he was the greatest. Even those who do not will join the Arab world in mourning the loss of Argentine. Maradona is best known internationally for leading Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup. So to see him in Jeddah a year later wearing the shirt of Al-Ahli was something special. He had joined to help celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary in an exhibition game against Brondby of Denmark.
Inspired by the star’s presence, Al-Ahli defeated their European opponents 5-2.
Maradona scored just once against Arab opposition but fans of Morocco will not mind that their defense was breached by the maestro in a 1994 friendly against Argentina. It was his last penultimate goal for his country and after failing a drugs test at the subsequent World Cup, he never played on the international stage again. He did coach the Argentine squad. Less than a year later, he shocked the football world and thrilled those in the UAE and the wider region by taking over Al-Wasl.
He was fired in July 2012 after a turbulent 14 months in charge with Al-Wasl ending the season in eighth place. He wasn’t done with the UAE and took over Fujairah in the second division in 2017 but left the following year after failing to secure promotion. That will, rightly, be a footnote as the world mourns the passing of a legend.