Diego Maradona

Soccer Player

• Born: October 30, 1960
• Birthplace: Lanús, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sport: Soccer

Early Life

Diego Armando Maradona was born on October 30, 1960, to a poor family in Lanús, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At his birth, the midwife said to his mother that there was no need to worry—her son was all muscles. Maradona had eight brothers and sisters. Like many other poor children in South America, the children spent much of their time playing soccer with a makeshift ball in the back streets. Maradona’s remarkable talent marked him from an early age. In later years he said he had two reasons to make money in soccer: The first was to earn enough so that his father would not have to work hard; the second was to buy a pair of trousers of his own.

With the exception of Pelé, perhaps no soccer player ever showed as much natural talent as Maradona. By the time Maradona was fifteen, the Argentine national team coach Cesar Menotti said that he already had first-class technique. Maradona was already an excellent soccer player before he started serious training. Still, several years passed before he reached true greatness.

The coach of Argentine Juniors, a local team, first spotted Maradona’s talents when Maradona was thirteen. Maradona’s ball control amazed everyone who saw him. Though Maradona was short—he grew to only 5 feet 5 inches as an adult—he was stocky and immensely fast. By the age of sixteen he was playing professionally. At seventeen he made his international debut for Argentina. To Maradona’s annoyance, however, Menotti left him off the Argentina squad for the 1978 FIFA World Cup, which Argentina won.

Professional Career

Over the next few years, Maradona’s honors accumulated. In 1979 and 1980, he was the top marksman in the Argentine league. In 1979 and 1980, he was named South American player of the year. In 1981, his new team, Boca Juniors, won the Argentine League Championship. Still, experts believed that Maradona was not achieving his true potential. They complained that in a team game he played as an individualist.

The 1982 World Cup confirmed the critics’ suspicions. A poor Argentine team was defeated early by Brazil, and Maradona was ejected for kicking an opposing player. The same year he transferred to FC Barcelona in Spain for a fee of $10 million. His two years there, before a transfer to the Napoli club in Italy, were unhappy ones. Injury and illness prevented him from showing his best form.

Not until the World Cup in 1986 did Maradona finally emerge as the truly great player people had always said he could become. He had gradually matured as a person and a player, and he had learned to handle the adulation that had received since his mid-teens. On the soccer field he still showed fantastic individual touches, but he became a team player.

In 1983, Argentina appointed a new national coach, Carlos Bilardo, who immediately flew to Europe to meet with Maradona. Bilardo told Maradona that he would have to follow his orders at all times. Eventually Bilardo grew to have such confidence in Maradona that he made him captain of the Argentine team.

Before the 1986 World Cup Final, two players were most often mentioned as the greatest soccer players in the world: Maradona and Michel Platini of France. Many, including Pelé, believed that Platini, with his accurate passing and great team play, had the edge. In addition, the teams on which Platini played usually won.

By the competition’s end, Maradona was undisputedly number one. Reporters said that some of his five goals would be talked about for fifty years. To score his second goal against England in the World Cup quarterfinal, he collected the ball on the halfway line and beat three opponents and the goalkeeper before placing the ball in the back of the net. Two more goals followed in the semifinal versus Belgium. In the final, Maradona set up all three Argentine goals as his team beat West Germany and became the world champion.

Maradona’s success continued with the Napoli club, which won the Italian League championship in 1986–87 and again in 1989–90. In between, Napoli collected the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup, winning a competition held among some of the greatest teams in Europe.

No longer could anyone say that Maradona did not play with successful teams or that he could not blend his talent with a team’s overall strategy. Moreover, he still had uncanny ball control with his left foot. It seemed as though no space was too small for him to beat an opponent. Rival teams assigned two players to mark Maradona, and he still won games by setting up goals for his teammates. Though Maradona disliked training, he was always fit for important matches. Sometimes, as in 1989, he gained weight, but when he needed to lose it, he did. Though he was officially a striker, he roamed over soccer fields, always in the thick of the action. People talked about his goals as miracles, goals only he could have scored.

By the late 1980s, Maradona was probably the most famous sportsman in the world outside the United States. Wherever soccer was played, Diego was recognized as its most talented exponent. By the time of the 1990 World Cup, Argentina had lost many of its best players. Sometimes three opponents would mark Maradona, and when he would beat them he would be fouled. Troubled by a foot injury, Maradona failed to score in any match. Nevertheless, his team reached the final game before losing to West Germany. Such was Maradona’s popularity with Neapolitan fans that when Argentina played Italy in Naples some cheered for Argentina against their own country.

Maradona’s career was interrupted in 1991, however, when he was arrested by police in Buenos Aires for drug possession. The result was a fifteen-month suspension from Italian and world competition, effectively marking the beginning of the end of his career. Following his reinstatement, he tried to revive his career in Seville and later with Argentina. He returned in 1994 but was expelled from the World Cup competition when he tested positive for ephedrine. Maradona finished his career with the Boca Juniors and formally retired in 1997. In 2005, he became the vice president of Boca Juniors, a position he held for one year. He has written a best-selling autobiography and was briefly the host of an Argentine talk show entitled La Noche del 10. He became the head coach of the Argentine national team in 2008 and led the team to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup. From 2011 to 2012, he was a manager for the Dubai-based team Al Wasl. Starting in 2017, he coached Al Fujairah, a United Arab Emirates second-division club, for eleven months. According to a statement by his lawyer, Matias Morla, Maradona and the team mutually decided in April 2018 that he would leave his position after the team failed to secure promotion to the Arabian Gulf League. In addition to coaching, Maradona has served a UK nongovernmental organization, Football for Unity, as its president for Latin America since his appointment to the post by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015.

In May 2018, filmmaker Asif Kapadia released a documentary, Maradona, about Maradona’s career. The documentary incorporates more than 500 hours of previously unreleased footage. Shortly after the film’s release, FIFA paid Maradona a reported $13,000 per 2018 World Cup game to attend the tournament as an ambassador. Maradona displayed what was reported as erratic behavior during the tournament. Maradona’s antics were captured by Kapadia’s film crew, leading to speculation that his behavior was intentional and for the purposes of publicizing the documentary.

Summary

Diego Maradona’s achievements rank him with the greatest soccer players of all time: Pelé, Alfredo di Stéfano, Franz Beckenbauer, and Johan Cruyff. The ball control of Maradona’s left foot, his explosive speed, his passing ability, and his team leadership made him a unique player with an instantly recognizable style. In 2000, in a tie, Maradona and Pelé were named the FIFA players of the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Bhardwaj, Vaishali. "Diego Maradona Sends a 'Big Hug to the Houses of Parliament' and Thanks the Queen." Evening Standard, 13 Oct. 2015, www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/diego-maradona-sends-a-big-hug-to-the-houses-of-parliament-and-thanks-the-queen-a3089616.html. Accessed 3 July 2018.

Burns, Jimmy. Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona. Guilford: Lyons, 2003. Print.

"Diego Maradona Leaves Position with Al-Fujairah FC in UAE's Second-Tier." ESPN, 27 Apr. 2018, www.espn.com/soccer/united-arab-emirates/story/3474093/diego-maradona-leaves-position-with-al-fujairah-fc-in-uaes-second-tier. Accessed 3 July 2018.

"Diego Maradona Sacked as Manager of Al Wasl." BBC Sport. BBC, 10 July 2012. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.

Ludden, John. Once upon a Time in Naples. Manchester: Parrs Wood, 2005. Print.

"Maradona Attacks Pele's FIFA Award." ESPN FC. ESPN, 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.

Maradona, Diego, Daniel Arcucci, and Ernesto Cherquis Bialo. El Diego. London: Yellow Jersey, 2005. Print.

Maradona, Diego, Daniel Arcucci, Ernesto Cherquis Bialo, and Marcela Mora y Araujo. Maradona: The Autobiography of Soccer’s Greatest and Most Controversial Star. New York: Skyhorse, 2007. Print.

Rogers, Martin. "Argentina Legend Diego Maradona's Behavior at the World Cup Could Be Just for Show." USA Today, 30 June 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2018/06/30/argentina-diego-maradona-wild-ways-act/746647002/. Accessed 3 July 2018.