Diego Armando Maradona

The pint sized Argentinean striker gave joy, anguish and surprise to so many football fans for more than 20 years and whether you love him or hate him you cannot question the ability he possessed and the achievements that ability brought to both himself and the Country of Argentina.

He made his presence known to the football World in the 1979 Youth World Cup where he captained a victorious Argentina side that he now refers to as ‘The best team he’d ever played in’. Beginning life as a professional footballer Maradona played in Argentina before the inevitable knocking from Europe came and it was Spanish giants Barcelona that introduced him to the continent hoping the famous number 10 would bring them all the success he potentially could inflict on a team not knowing that a small southern Italian club would be the one to largely benefit on Diego’s European tenure in later years.

His Barcelona career was blighted by injury and illness as Maradona came down with hepatitis which was followed by a broken leg caused by a clinical late foul. He never really clicked into gear out in Spain due to these set backs and wanted out of his unhappy on going nightmare after numerous bust ups with the board. During a crisis meeting with Barcelona officials Maradona was informed that they did not wish to sell the player. The Argentine then proceeded to smash trophies and ornaments that surrounded their meeting until an agreement could be made. After a couple of valuable losses both parties began to see eye to eye funnily enough and a deal between player and club was agreed. Soon after Maradona was on his way out of Spain and into Italy and to the Worlds surprise Napoli was his next destination.

In Naples Maradona would become a hero. The small Italian club could never had anticipated the glory Maradona was to bring them and it was this individual strangle hold he could inflict on a team that brought Napoli and Argentina great prizes throughout his captaincy and presence which alone makes him the greatest footballer that’s ever lived. Led by Maradona Napoli won two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italian, one UEFA Cup and one Italian Super Cup. Expectations at Napoli were surpassed by gigantic proportion during Diego Maradona’s spell with the club.

In 1986 he reached his potential and crowned the finest point of his career by leading his Country to the World Cup in Mexico. A very basic Argentina were picked up and dragged through the tournament by their very determined and gifted captain, this was to be Maradona’s finest hour and his main goal of becoming a World Champion had been fulfilled.

Diego Maradona was much more than a footballer, he was an icon and because of his high profile and pressure his affair with drugs was highly publicised and the press tried to take Maradona the outstanding footballer and replace him with Maradona the drug addict. His on pitch antics maybe seen as un-human like but he is a human being after all and will make mistakes which in his case could only be made off the pitch due to his outstanding talents on it.

My view of the man is that he’s patriotic, passionate and emotional in all things he did and continuous to do now. People that perceive the Argentinean other than a great are ignorant anti football people; if you love football you should at least appreciate the greatest man to play football.

In order for a single man to win a game takes a tremendous amount of skill and ability but for a single man to win a tournament, especially a World Cup takes something extraordinary, it just doesn’t happen, it takes a Diego Armando Maradona.