November 25th 2020, is a day of mourning in the soccer community. Argentinian soccer player, Diego Maradona passed away due to a heart attack. I was originally going to write another article but when I opened my Twitter account (@jono_wes for those who want to see my tweets), the trending of hashtag #RIPDiego caught my attention. This led me to the instinctive decision to write about how Maradona impacted the lives of many soccer players around the world and the struggles he faced in his personal life.

Diego Armando Maradona Franco was born on October 30th, 1960 in Lanús, a city right outside of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. He was raised in Villa Fiorito, a slum in the south-central area of the city. At the age of 8, scouts from the soccer club, Argentinos Juniors, discovered him when he was playing for his local soccer team called Estrella Roja. One of the scouts said:

When Diego came to Argentinos Juniors for trials, I was really struck by his talent and couldn’t believe he was only eight years old. In fact, we asked him for his ID card so we could check it, but he told us he didn’t have it on him. We were sure he was having us on because, although he had the physique of a child, he played like an adult. When we discovered he’d been telling us the truth, we decided to devote ourselves purely to him.

He joined the Argentinos Juniors development team after he was scouted. Nicknamed the Los Cebollitas (Spanish for Little Onions), Maradona became well known among his teammates for his tactical abilities like dribbling and juggling. In 1976, he made his professional debut against Talleres de Córdoba. Being 15 at the time, he became the youngest player to play a match in the Argentine Primera División. It was during this match that he pulled off something miraculous. Only a few minutes after going on the field, he kicked the ball between the legs of Talleres defender, Juan Domingo Cabrera. During a post-match interview, Maradona said:

“That day I felt I had held the sky in my hands.”

After 5 years with Argentinos Juniors, the club sold him for $4 million dollars to Boca Juniors, one of the most successful soccer teams in Buenos Aires. Other rival teams in Argentina wanted to sign him up as well such as the River Plate. However, Maradona chose Boca Juniors because he always wanted to play for them.

During Maradona’s tenure at Boca Juniors, he had a successful run for Boca’s 1981 championship. Boca was able to win after securing a tie against Racing Club de Avellaneda. With his great ability to manoeuvre the ball, Maradona helped Boca Juniors to win that championship and it was the only time he won a championship in Argentina. 

Meanwhile, Maradona’s soccer skills were being noticed in Europe. After a disappointing performance for the national team in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, Boca Juniors transferred Maradona to FC Barcelona in Spain for $7.6 million dollars, a world record price at the time. Maradona had a good start with his new team. He not only helped his team to win many championships for Barcelona, but his skills became widely recognized by many players on the team. They were impressed by his soccer skills and techniques. He had great vision and could pass the ball so well to his teammates. He could even dribble the ball around his competitors and never seem to lose the ball. His teammate, Lobo Carrasco said the following:

He had complete mastery of the ball. When Maradona ran with the ball or dribbled through the defence, he seemed to have the ball tied to his boots. I remember our early training sessions with him: the rest of the team were so amazed that they just stood and watched him. We all thought ourselves privileged to be witnesses of his genius.

Maradona led FC Barcelona to win many championships in 1983. They won the Copa Del Rey (Spanish for the King’s Cup) and the Spanish Super Cup.

Despite the accolades, Maradona’s time with FC Barcelona was marred with controversy. The 1984 Copa Del Rey Final in Madrid against Athletic Bilbao was Maradona’s final time in an FC Barcelona jersey. Close to the end of the final, Bilbao defender Andoni “Goiko” Goikoetxea rough tackled Maradona. After Gioko said some xenophobic and racist insults towards his father’s Native American ancestry, Maradona snapped. He and his other teammates, who were defending him, started punching and kicking Bilbao players on the field. This fight erupted into the stands with spectators throwing solid objects at players, coaches and photographers. The brawl ended up with 60 people injured. The game was considered a national embarrassment as the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, was in attendance and half of Spain’s population were watching on television. This incident and disagreements with executives of the team ended Maradona’s future with FC Barcelona. His demands to leave the club led FC Barcelona to sell him to Napoli, a team based in Naples, Italy, for another record-breaking $10.5 million dollars.  

Maradona was proud to represent his country, Argentina. During the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, he was chosen to play in every game for his country. Maradona’s national team career started picking up around this time. His most celebrated moment, which is cemented into sports history, is his goal against England in the quarterfinals. He did an awesome move when he dribbled the ball between five of England’s defenders. With his brilliant vision, he passed the ball to his teammate who then kicked and lifted the ball in the air causing England’s goalkeeper to fall on his back in an attempt to punch the ball away. Maradona knew where to locate himself and he headed the ball victoriously into the net. This goal, known as the “Hand of God”, made Maradona an overnight sensation throughout the world. Argentina would go on to win the 1986 World Cup against West Germany. 

Maradona’s time in Naples was a success. Napoli was struggling to win championships. They were dominated by teams like A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma. With Maradona in their team, Napoli achieved their most successful era in its team’s history. Winning the Italian Serie A Championship in 1987 marked the first time a team in southern Italy has won a championship. The entire city of Naples celebrated the win, which turned Maradona into a religious icon. There were figurines sold of Maradona and murals painted of him everywhere. Celebrations continued for weeks through the day and night. 

Unfortunately, like his past disastrous history with FC Barcelona, his tenure with Napoli came to a crashing end. His personal problems started to creep up on his career. He started doing cocaine in 1982 and soon his addiction started spiralling out of control. His drug abuse caused him to miss many practices and games. Napoli issued very heavy fines on him that led to his financial struggles. He relied heavily on the infamous mafia gang, Camorra Crime Family, to help support his lavish lifestyle. In 1992, he was forced to leave Napoli when he was discovered to have links with organized crimes and an affair that gave him an illegitimate child.

After serving a year and three-month suspension for his substance abuse, Maradona ended up as a journeyman or a player who plays for many clubs over a short amount of time. He played for Sevilla back in Spain in 1993, and went on to play for Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys in 1994. 

In his last attempt to revive his career, he was invited to play on the national team again for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, things ultimately went awry and ended Maradona’s international career. After repeated drug tests, all of which came back positive, he was sent home for ephedrine doping.

For the last 3 years of his career, Maradona played for Boca Juniors again. It was the last team he played for at the start of his career before leaving for Europe. Due to his sub-par performance, he retired from soccer and transitioned to being a soccer coach.

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) decided that a big name like Maradona as a coach would help the national soccer team win the 2010 World Cup. However, his tenure coaching the national team generated widespread controversy. After qualifying for the World Cup, he used inappropriate language during a press conference. This resulted in FIFA banning the team from all soccer-related activity for 2 months.

Maradona’s bad judgement got his team eliminated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The AFA was disappointed with the results of Maradona’s tenure with the national team. He was fired shortly after the World Cup concluded. Disgraced by this embarrassing World Cup performance, he went on to coach non-Argentinian teams in the Middle East and Mexico. 

Maradona’s post-retirement as a soccer player saw him faced unending health scares. To name a few, he started overeating and became dangerously obese. Then in early 2019, his hernia caused internal bleeding in his stomach. At the beginning of November 2020, he suffered internal bleeding in his brain. Unfortunately, the effects of substance abuse finally took a toll on his life. He passed away from complications of a heart attack on November 25th 2020.

His death sent shock waves throughout the entire soccer world. Despite his unsuccessful years later in his soccer career, Maradona was still remembered fondly by many. A large mural was painted near his childhood home in Villa Fiorito and many supporters of Argentinos Juniors had a celebration of life outside the stadium in honour of where he first started his career. In deep respect for Maradona, Boca Juniors postponed their Copa Libertadores matches against Sport Club Internacional and the President of Argentina declared three days of mourning for his passing. Two cities that Maradona played for, Buenos Aires and Naples, even created makeshift memorials for him.

Maradona, though a somewhat tragic figure in the soccer world, is seen as one of the most skilled players in the sport. Many top soccer players and coaches in the world gained so much from watching his examples of sheer speed and sophisticated skills. Among them are:

Maradona’s style of play helped improve the sport of soccer. He was like an adept artist every time the ball was in his control. Just as Uruguayan journalist, Eduardo Galeano, puts it:

“Football players [like Maradona] created their own language in that tiny space where they chose to retain and possess the ball rather than kick it, as if their feet were hands braiding the leather.”

For Maradona, the soccer pitch was his canvas, his feet were the brushes and the ball was his paint.