At the age of 60, one of the all time greatest footballers has passed away. Diego Armando Maradona died from a heart attack in his home in Argentina on Wednesday November 25th. Maradona went in for an emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain at the beginning of the month, and was supposed to make a full recovery.
In the 1986 World Cup, Maradona and the Argentina national team took on England in their quarter-final match which went down in history as one of Maradona’s most notable games of his career. He scored two goals in that game to lead Argentina to the semi-finals, and ultimately winning the world cup, but not without controversy. One of the goals Maradona scored has been titled “The Hand of God” where Maradona goes up for a header against the English goalkeeper and hits the ball into the back of the net using his hand. If you don’t know the basic rules of soccer, then you wouldn’t know that using your hands – especially to score goals – is not allowed, and it went undetected.
The other goal Maradona scored was incredible. To give the best visual I can. Picture a man, 5 feet 5 inches tall with a soccer ball basically bungee tied to his feet, dribbling through an entire team, leaving them in his dust, and scoring a goal. Maradona did both of these things in one night. Actually, Maradona scored goals like this almost every night. He was a natural goal scorer. He was unstoppable.
Maradona lived his life full of controversy. He lived a rockstar lifestyle. Fast and dangerous. He was fuelled by drugs and alcohol, and had a boatload of financial issues. Although these issues always followed him wherever he went, one thing was for certain, he was a great footballer.
I hope you take a moment to watch the video attached. It’s Diego Maradona in 1989 warming up before a game against Bayern Munich. Live is Life by Opus blaring over the PA system. Diego with his shoelaces untied living the dream. I would try to replicate this video as a kid with the song blasting on my stereo in the backyard, trying to be like Diego.
Rest in peace, legend.