Despite all of his personal troubles, many believe what Maradona did both on and off a soccer pitch is what will always set him apart
Diego Maradona will forever be remembered as one of the greatest players to don a uniform for both club and country.
Before Lionel Messi — and to some even after Messi finally decides to call it quits — Maradona was the best player to ever represent Argentina, which he did proudly for close to 20 years, scoring 34 goals for his country in 91 appearances.
What he was able create with a soccer ball at his feet still mesmerizes to this day.
His most infamous goal technically wasn’t a goal at all. Maradona infamously scored what would be known as the Hand of God, where a perfectly placed hand by his head in the box scored the goal that would give Argentina a lead over England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.
That controversial goal would be followed with one of the most majestic goals in a FIFA World Cup in which Maradona dribbled the length of the field beating British defender after British defender to score the eventual game-winner in a 2-1 final.
That tournament was perhaps highest of the highs for Maradona as he led Argentina to a World Cup crown in that tournament defeating West Germany in the final. His was a performance that would cement him as the greatest player of a generation, one sandwiched between the greatness of Pelé and the magic Messi has continued to produce for over 20 years.
What goes up sadly came down
But there was another side of Maradona, one well-documented with multiple addictions, chronic health issues and alleged tax issues, and spastic outbursts that showcased him as a creative magician on the pitch but an absolute dice roll (since no one ever knew what to expect of him) off of it.
Maradona passed away in 2020 at the age of 60 due to cardiac arrest just 13 days after leaving the hospital for brain surgery. His death sent shockwaves around the soccer world 23 years after he played his final game for Argentina’s Boca Juniors in 1997.
In 2017, when popular soccer magazine Four Four Two named Maradona No. 1 on its list of greatest players of all-time, writer Andrew Murray noted:
“Pele scored more goals. Lionel Messi has won more trophies. Both have lived more stable lives than the overweight former cocaine addict who tops this list, whose relationship with football became increasingly strained the longer his career continued. [But] if you’ve seen Diego Maradona with a football at his feet, you’ll understand.”
Murray also even quoted Messi, who once said:
“Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.”
Photo by Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images
The Golden Boy
Perhaps the reason why even Messi doesn’t view Maradona as an equal is it was the player dubbed El Pibe de Oro, or “The Golden Boy,” who first showed the world a diminutive Argentine with control of a soccer ball like one has never seen.
Not only was he hard to defend, but Maradona mesmerized with how every touch looked like the ball was glued to his feet as he effortlessly turned and spun and chipped balls high into the air around imposing defenders.
It was that same talent that landed him as one of the highest-paid players in the world by the time he turned 24, earning a reported $8.7 million dollars when he moved to then-Italian Serie A giant Napoli in 1984.
It would be the second of two of the largest ever reported fee for a soccer player at the time — one he also was the recipient of the first after Spanish League giants Barcelona agreed to pay him over $6 million in 1982.
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But perhaps the biggest of why Argentina dubbed him as their Golden Boy was his ability to act not just as a distraction but as an intermediary between the people and the strains of governmental control, as at the time Argentina was led under several different dictatorships.
Jorge Valdano, a former teammate of Messi, predicted in a 2006 ESPN interview that Messi is destined to replace Maradona as the “new Messiah of Argentine soccer,” the impact of Maradona transcends what he displayed on the pitch and won’t soon be forgotten.
“At the time that Maradona retired from active football, he left Argentina traumatized,” Valdano said. “Maradona was more than just a great footballer. He was a special compensation factor for a country that in a few years lived through several military dictatorships and social frustrations of all kinds. Maradona offered to Argentines a way out of their collective frustration, and that’s why people there love him as a divine figure.”
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