- Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack – just two weeks after he was released from hospital after a bleed on his brain.
- The Argentine will be remembered as one of, if not the best, to ever play football in history.
- In England, he is synonymous with the ‘Hand of God’ goal in the 1986 World Cup when he scored with a handball.
- That tournament saw him at his imperious best as Argentina won the World Cup when he was the Captain.
Diego Maradona rose from the poverty of the Buenos Aires slums to become one of the greatest ever despite controversy following him wherever he went, says an article on DailyMail.
The legacy
To many, Diego Maradona is best remembered for the Hand of God goal that knocked England out of Mexico 86 and his later descent into drugs.
An astonishing talent
Maradona had been disappointed to be considered too young at 17 to be part of the home glory of 1978. But the advent of the unlikely looking genius who was to become the most potent challenger to Pele’s mantle of Greatest Footballer Of All Time would not be delayed much longer.
When Argentina toured on from Switzerland, first to Hampden Park, then to Wembley, so the rest of Fleet Street saw Maradona’s brilliance for themselves – and were astonished.
Now, as the Hand of God hovers over his death-bed in Buenos Aires, it is time to remember the magnificence, not the human frailties.
A battle for his life
Argentina is crying for Diego, now he has lost at 60 his protracted battle with a cruel manner of self-inflicted illnesses, culminating in a brain haemorrhage and a heart attack.
Not for nothing is the world of football and beyond falling into mourning.
The famous handball goal
The facile tendency in England to vilify Maradona as nothing more than the culprit in the handball goal which helped defeat Bobby Robson’s brigade in the World Cup quarter-finals of Mexico 86 does no justice to one of the most gifted sportsmen of all time.
The genius with a colourful personality
Maradona, as he rose from the poverty of the Buenos Aires slums to play for Bocca Juniors.
He was a rascal, an incorrigible mischief-maker, a troubled human being and, ultimately, a waster of his own talent, only serves to make him all the more heroic to countrymen and women immersed in the melancholy of the tango.
That was one reason why Pele was so reluctant to embrace the natural successor to his throne. The other was that Maradona represented the most threatening challenge to the legendary Brazilian’s unique place in the pantheon of the game.
A blessing in the shape of a flaw
The unlikely body in which those mercurial gifts were to be found – short, squat, bowlegged and no-necked – made Maradona’s status in Edson Arantes do Nascimento’s beautiful game all the more difficult to acknowledge.Yet it was that low centre of gravity which blessed Diego Armando with a remarkable dexterity on the turn and acceleration with the ball. It was that capacity to produce magical skills at electrifying pace- especially in the deadly zone around goal.
A hero for Argentina
Maradona and Argentina deserved to win that World Cup. Four years later, he was the captain and hero of the team which lost that trophy.
Argentina staggered into the Final of Italia 90 – which Germany reached by virtue of their expert penalty shootout against England – under the self-inflicted handicap of several suspensions as a consequence of their cynical football.
Remembering his greatness not his faults
Maradona saw himself for what he was, the little fat boy who never grew up.In the eyes of his nation, he was Peter Pan, an enchanting child, albeit in a grotesque, misshapen form.
Now, after bringing so much pleasure, he is due a full measure of our sympathy.
Think of him not as the Hand of God. Think of him as the second greatest footballer ever to grace the game. Perhaps the greatest.
That blessing which the hand of God had delivered several times before. Until the Almighty decided the time had come to bring peace to this tortured soul.
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Source: Daily Mail
