Diego Armando Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona was one of the greatest and most charismatic footballers in history, a player whose extraordinary talent transformed Napoli and carried Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986.
He was born in Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, on October 30, 1960. He grew up in Villa Fiorito, a poor district on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires, in a large family. Football became an escape and an obsession from an early age. His extraordinary ability with a ball was apparent almost immediately.
As a child, Maradona became known as a gifted street footballer, developing the close control, balance and improvisational skills that would later become his trademark. His short stature and low centre of gravity allowed him to change direction at remarkable speed, while his extraordinary left foot gave him the ability to pass, dribble and shoot with equal precision.
At the age of eight he joined the youth system of Argentinos Juniors. He developed rapidly and was already being regarded as a phenomenon before he had reached his teens. In 1974, a group of children from the club known as Los Cebollitas, with Maradona as their outstanding player, went on an extraordinary unbeaten run that helped establish his reputation throughout Argentina.
Maradona made his first-team debut for Argentinos Juniors on October 20, 1976, ten days before his 16th birthday. He became the youngest player to appear in the Argentine top flight at the time.
Over the next five seasons he became the principal attraction of the club. Argentinos Juniors did not have the resources of Argentina's biggest teams, but Maradona turned them into a formidable side. He won the Argentine Primera División's top-scorer award in five consecutive seasons and scored 116 league goals in 166 appearances for the club.
Despite his extraordinary youth, Maradona was already considered a potential international star. He made his Argentina debut against Hungary in February 1977, aged only 16.
His greatest early international success came at the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship in Japan. Maradona was the tournament's outstanding player and led Argentina to the title, winning the Golden Ball.
The tournament confirmed that Argentina possessed a player who could potentially become the successor to the generation that had won the 1978 World Cup.
Yet Maradona experienced his first major disappointment soon afterwards.
Argentina coach César Luis Menotti selected the squad for the 1978 World Cup on home soil without the 17-year-old Maradona, deciding that he was still too young. Maradona later recalled the disappointment of watching the tournament from home as Argentina won the World Cup.
It was a decision that would haunt him for only a few years.
In 1981 Maradona moved to Boca Juniors, one of Argentina's biggest and most passionately supported clubs. The transfer placed him under enormous pressure, but he responded almost immediately.
He helped Boca win the 1981 Metropolitano championship, his first major senior title. His performances attracted the attention of Europe's biggest clubs and, after the 1982 World Cup, Barcelona paid a then world-record fee to take him to Spain.
Maradona joined Barcelona in 1982 and arrived in Spain with the reputation of being perhaps the most exciting young player in world football.
His first season was interrupted by hepatitis, but he still demonstrated the qualities that had made him famous in Argentina. In his second season he appeared to be reaching his full potential before suffering a serious ankle injury in September 1983 after a brutal challenge from Athletic Bilbao's Andoni Goikoetxea.
The injury kept him out for several months.
Maradona returned to help Barcelona win the Copa del Rey and Spanish League Cup in 1983–84, but his relationship with the club became increasingly difficult.
Tensions with the board, opponents and sections of the Spanish football establishment culminated in the infamous confrontation during the 1984 Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao.
After only two seasons in Barcelona, Maradona left Spain.
His next destination would define his legacy.
In the summer of 1984, Maradona moved to Napoli for a transfer fee of around £6.9 million, at the time a world-record fee.
The transfer was extraordinary because Napoli were not simply signing a brilliant footballer. They were placing the hopes of an entire city on his shoulders.
Napoli had never won the Italian championship. Serie A was dominated by the wealthy northern clubs, Juventus, Milan and Inter, while Napoli were regarded as outsiders. Maradona's arrival changed the balance of power.
More than 70,000 supporters reportedly attended his presentation at the Stadio San Paolo. The city had found its hero.
Maradona made his Serie A debut against Verona on September 16, 1984. The first season was difficult for Napoli, who finished eighth, but Maradona immediately demonstrated why he had been considered worth a world-record fee.
He was not simply a goalscorer. He operated primarily as a playmaker, often receiving the ball deep and carrying it forward himself.
His low centre of gravity made him extraordinarily difficult to dispossess. He could accelerate away from defenders, stop suddenly, change direction and deliver passes with either exceptional disguise or extraordinary accuracy.
He also possessed a powerful shot, a superb free kick and an instinct for creating something from situations in which other players could see no possibility.
Maradona's influence grew during the following seasons.
In 1986–87, Napoli finally achieved what had previously seemed impossible. They won their first Scudetto, with Maradona as the undisputed leader of the team. They also won the Coppa Italia, completing a domestic double.
The significance of the achievement went far beyond football. Napoli had broken the traditional northern dominance of Italian football, and Maradona became a symbol of the city's pride.
He was no longer simply a footballer. In Naples, he became an idol.
His relationship with the supporters was unusually intense. The city identified with his background, his defiance and his refusal to conform. His success was seen as the success of Naples itself.
At the same time, Maradona was preparing for the greatest international tournament of his career.
By the time of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Argentina coach Carlos Bilardo had built the team around him. Maradona was captain and was given extraordinary freedom to influence matches.
The system suited him perfectly.
Argentina's 3–5–2 structure provided protection behind him while allowing Maradona to operate between midfield and attack. Sergio Batista supplied control from midfield, Jorge Valdano offered a target in attack and Jorge Burruchaga provided movement and pace.
Maradona responded with arguably the greatest individual World Cup campaign ever produced by a player.
He scored five goals and provided five assists as Argentina won the tournament. He was awarded the Golden Ball as the competition's outstanding player.
The quarter-final against England became the defining match of his career.
Four years after the Falklands War, the political tension surrounding Argentina and England gave the match an extraordinary atmosphere. Maradona produced two completely contrasting goals.
His first came when he challenged Peter Shilton for a high ball and appeared to use his left hand to knock it into the net. The goal was allowed to stand and Maradona later famously described it as being scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God."
Four minutes later came something entirely different.
Receiving the ball inside his own half, Maradona embarked on a spectacular solo run, beating a succession of English players before rounding Shilton and scoring. The goal became known as the Goal of the Century and is still regarded as one of the greatest individual goals ever scored.
Argentina won 2–1.
Maradona scored twice more in the semi-final against Belgium before Argentina defeated West Germany 3–2 in the final. He did not score in the final, but he supplied the decisive pass for Burruchaga's winning goal.
At 25, Maradona was a world champion.
Maradona returned to Napoli with his international reputation now enormous.
The club continued to build around him and in 1988–89 Napoli won the UEFA Cup, defeating Stuttgart in the final. It was the first major European trophy in the club's history.
The following season brought an even greater achievement.
Napoli won the 1989–90 Scudetto, their second Italian championship. Maradona had now led the club to the summit of Italian football twice, while also delivering the UEFA Cup, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana.
FIFA credits him with five major trophies during his Napoli career: two Scudetti, the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana.
The 1990 title was particularly significant because it came just before the World Cup that was staged in Italy.
Maradona arrived at the 1990 World Cup as both Argentina's captain and the most famous footballer in Italy.
The tournament was very different from Mexico four years earlier. Maradona was struggling with injuries and his movement was more limited, while Argentina adopted a much more defensive approach.
Nevertheless, he remained the team's central figure.
Argentina surprisingly lost their opening match to Cameroon and struggled through the group stage. They then defeated Brazil, Yugoslavia and Italy on penalties to reach the final.
The semi-final against Italy was particularly dramatic because it was played at Maradona's home stadium in Naples.
He appealed to Neapolitan supporters to support Argentina rather than Italy, arguing that Naples had often been treated differently from the rest of the country. The match ended 1–1 and Argentina won the penalty shoot-out.
The final in Rome ended differently. West Germany won 1–0 through Andreas Brehme's late penalty.
Maradona, exhausted and heavily marked throughout the tournament, left the pitch in tears.
Maradona's relationship with Napoli began to deteriorate after the 1990 World Cup.
He had become increasingly troubled away from the pitch and was struggling with cocaine addiction.
In March 1991 he tested positive for cocaine following a Serie A match and received a 15-month suspension.
His extraordinary relationship with Napoli had effectively come to an end.
He left Italy later that year, ending a seven-year period in which he had transformed both the club and the city.
After his suspension, Maradona joined Sevilla in Spain in 1992. He spent one season with the club before returning to Argentina with Newell's Old Boys. Sevilla even played Lazio in a friendly which ended 1-1.
His final major chapter as a player came at Boca Juniors, where he returned in 1995.
Maradona played his final professional match on October 25, 1997, against River Plate. He retired from football shortly before his 37th birthday.
His playing career had taken him from the streets of Villa Fiorito to the biggest stadiums in the world. At club level he had represented Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys, returning to Boca for a second spell.
Maradona's international career ended at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
At 33, he was no longer the player who had dominated Mexico eight years earlier, but he remained capable of producing moments of brilliance. He scored against Greece before playing against Nigeria.
After the Nigeria match, however, Maradona was removed from the tournament after testing positive for the banned substance ephedrine.
It was a deeply disappointing end to his World Cup career.
In total, he represented Argentina at four World Cups: Spain 1982, Mexico 1986, Italy 1990 and USA 1994. He played 21 World Cup matches, scoring eight goals.
After retiring as a player, Maradona's life remained turbulent.
He worked as a television personality and later moved into coaching. His managerial career included spells with clubs in Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico.
In 2008 he was appointed coach of the Argentina national team. He led them to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where Argentina were eliminated by Germany in the quarter-finals.
His later years were marked by continuing health problems, weight fluctuations and struggles related to his long-term addictions. Yet his popularity never disappeared.
In Argentina, and particularly in Naples, Maradona remained an almost untouchable figure.
Diego Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, after suffering a cardiac arrest. His death provoked an extraordinary outpouring of grief in Argentina, Naples and throughout the football world.
His legacy is complicated.
There was the footballer: perhaps the most naturally gifted player of his generation, capable of controlling matches through dribbling, passing, movement and improvisation. There was the champion who won the World Cup and transformed Napoli into Italian champions. And there was the deeply flawed human being whose addictions and personal problems repeatedly threatened to overwhelm his career.
Trying to separate one from the other is almost impossible.
Maradona's genius was partly rooted in his instinctive, street-football style. He played with an extraordinary mixture of imagination and aggression. He could see passes before anyone else, manipulate the ball at impossible angles and carry it through several defenders while seemingly keeping it attached to his left foot.
But his importance went beyond statistics.
He gave Napoli something the club had never possessed: the belief that it could defeat the most powerful teams in Italy. He gave Argentina one of the greatest World Cup performances ever witnessed. And he became a symbol of a city, a country and a generation.
Few footballers have ever carried such expectations.
Fewer still have fulfilled them.
Maradona did.
And for all the controversy that surrounded his life, the image that remains strongest is still that of the small, stocky number 10, the ball seemingly glued to his left foot, accelerating towards another defender who already knew that he was probably too late.
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