“Maradona has the ball, two mark him, he touches the ball. The genius of world football dashes to the right and leaves the third and is going to pass to Barruchaga. It’s still Maradona! Genius! Genius! Gooooooal! I want to cry. Dear God. Long live football! Diegoaal! I want to cry! An unforgettable run, in the play of all time. Leaving in your wake so many Englishmen, so that the whole country is clenched fist shouting for Argentina? Argentina 2, England 0.”- Literal Translation of Victor Hugo Morales’ commentary on arguably the Greatest Goal of time.
We all have witnessed this moment of genius- courtesy YouTube- the majestic 10-second storm that wreaked havoc through England in the 1986 World Cup Quarter Final, tearing apart their team and leaving us all in awe. Football had found a new God.
England’s defeat in 1986 stripped them of their prestige. The match always had an added political intensity to it with the Falklands War having taken place between the two countries just four years prior. The outrage on his controversial “Hand of God” goal was justified on part of the Englishmen but it could not take away what happened exactly four minutes later. The goal of the century. Perhaps, the importance of this fixture could be summed up best in Maradona’s words itself- “It was much more than winning a match, it was about knocking out the English.”
Arguably one of football’s most gifted players; the Argentine possessed a rare combination of flair and flamboyance both on and off the field. Short and squat, a man just five feet five inches tall. Yet his physicality masked something much more valuable than just the term. It was about the vision-space-time that he created, controlled, adjusted, manipulated, and conquered. It was much more than just fitness and finesse. It was art- the physical art of football.
Hailing from a poor household in Buenos Aires, he turned out to be at one point in time, the most expensive player in the world. His life beyond the field too is a story in itself. An anti-imperialist, socialist, and advocator of progressive movements and governments throughout the world; he openly defied imperialism and colonialism. He compared the corruption in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to a mafia. “We are lefties on the feet, we are lefties on the hands, and we are lefties on the mind.” He donned a Che Guevara tattoo on his arm and a Fidel Castro one on his much-fancied left leg. Not only did he idolize the latter, he considered him as his “second father”. After all the years of love and admiration coincidentally or not, Diego passed away on the same date as Castro. Comrades indeed.
259 goals in 491 matches which included 34 goals in 91 appearances for his country. He was influential in a strong Argentinian team which won the 1978 World Cup. But his biggest individual football feat of all time was winning the 1986 World Cup single-handedly. As a sportsman, he had no match. At the peak of his powers, he took his club side Napoli to a League win and took his country to another Final in the 1990 WC.
He had it all-the greatest solo goal; the magical left foot; the controversial life off the field, including all his stints with drug abuse and a controversially vocal political opinion - he was a mad passionate genius much beyond our imagination.
He was a flawed God in every sense. He never did the “right” thing; he never played it politically smart, but in the game of football, he was the best to have ever played. He changed the game with his hand, feet, head and pure moments of geniuses. He was crazy but he was divine. He was a rebel. And when you have so many attributes, is always hard to hate a man like this.
Some players are iconic to each generation and then some legends bring two generations together.
Goodbye, Diego.
(cover art by Soham Chattopadhyay)
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