A GENIUS FROM THE STREETS
He could be a devil but few played the beautiful game so beautifully
DIEGO MARADONA is finally in the hands of God. The Argentina legend, one of the greatest footballers of all time, died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 60 at his Buenos Aires home.
Argentina’s reverence was reflected in a declaration of three days of national mourning for the country’s favourite son.
Maradona will never be viewed in the same way in this country – the handball goal against England in the 1986 World Cup will never be forgotten or forgiven.
But far better to remember Maradona’s other contribution to that quarter- final in Mexico – the exquisite second goal, a majestic individual conjuring trick started in his own half and finished with the England defence shattered into a million tiny pieces, showed the genius of the man.
He entranced and enraged in equal measure, a backstreet scamp who rose to sit on a gilded throne. Born a pauper in the slums of the capital of Argentina, he became a prince of the world game.
Compatriot Lionel Messi once said: “Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona. Not that I’d want to anyway. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.”
No footballer in his generation could affect a game single- handedly in the way
Maradona could. With his low centre of gravity and boxer’s strength he was almost impossible to remove from the ball by fair means or foul – and there were plenty of those.
His era saw much less protection for attackers like him and he was kicked from pillar to post but never lacked courage.
He scored 34 goals in 91 appearances for Argentina and played in four World Cups. 1986 was his golden time, turbocharging a modest Argentina team to the trophy with an incomparable one- man show which, as well as his devil- and- angel double against England, also included two goals in the semi- final against Belgium.
He also drove Argentina to the 1990 World Cup final in Italy, having by then moved from Barcelona to Napoli, but his country lost to West Germany.
His time at Napoli brought two Serie A titles and cult- hero status but also signalled the beginning of a collapse into drug and alcohol dependency.
He would regularly go on cocaine binges after games, dragging himself back in time to be a match- winner again at the weekend. His time there also brought links with the Mafia and a squalid paternity suit in acknowledge the son, Diego.
In later life the two were reconciled but by then addiction had taken hold. He was banned for 15 months in 1991 after testing positive for cocaine.
He exited the 1994 World Cup in disgrace after another drug test failure and, although he attempted to carve out a post- playing career in management, having retired at 37, he was never able to stick in one place for long.
He was sentimentally appointed Argentina manager in 2008 but the which he refused to existence of his own
experiment ended in failure at the 2010 World Cup.
He went on to work in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico but was back in Argentina at Gimnasia y Esgrima when he was taken ill a fortnight ago and had emergency surgery on a brain clot.
His reprieve proved temporary.
There have been few figures in football as colourful as Maradona and even fewer who could play the beautiful game so beautifully. He may have been a rogue but it was impossible not to appreciate the gifts of a great.