the times | Thursday November 26 2020 2GM 73
Sport
March 29, 1991 Found
guilty of taking cocaine
after failing a drugs test.
He is given a 15-month ban
from football and does not
play for Napoli again.
Nov 17, 1993 Back to form,
he captains Argentina to a
World Cup play-off victory
over Australia.
Jun 30, 1994 Having
impressed in Argentina’s
opening two World Cup
games, Maradona is kicked
out of the tournament after
a positive drugs test.Jan 13, 2000 Argentine
doctors blame cocaine and
alcohol after Maradona is
treated for heart problems.Apr 18, 2004 Spends 11
days in hospital because
of acute heart failure.Mar 6, 2005 Has stomach
surgery after becoming
eight stone overweight.Apr 22, 2007 Enters a
clinic in Buenos Aires in his
fight against alcoholism.Nov 19, 2008 His first
match as manager of
Argentina — a 1-0 victory
away to Scotland.July 3, 2010 (right)
Maradona’s Argentina team
are beaten 4-0 by Germany
in the World Cup quarter-
finals, and he leaves his
post shortly afterwards.Nov 3, 2020 Enters a clinic
in Argentina amid reports
that he is depressed and
dehydrated, but undergoes
surgery to treat a blood
clot on his brain.Yesterday Maradona dies
of a heart attack at his
home in Buenos Aires,
aged 60.force, the spirit that was as essential to the
success of Argentina and Napoli as his talent.
And what a talent. Billions kick a football
but Maradona could do it perhaps better than
anyone who ever tried. That, surely, is how
we remember him.
On his television show, La noche del Diez —
“The Night of the Ten” — in 2005, Maradona
mused about his epitaph. He talked about his
gratitude for being able to play the game, the
sport that “gave me the most joy, the most
freedom, like touching the sky with my hands”.
In conclusion, he said, he would want his
gravestone to include the inscription: “Thanks
to the ball”.
We should give thanks to Diego Maradona,
and football’s most epic life.Sport
Diego lived ten epic lives
I was there
when Naples
fell in love
In the first week of July 1984 I flew to
Italy to visit an old school friend in
Naples. The first Virgin Atlantic flight
had just crossed the pond and Britain
was about to abolish the dog licence.
The cassettes for my Sony Walkman
included Billy Joel singing Uptown Girl
and I carried a Rubik’s Cube.
Naples was a young city then, full of
children and teenagers. There were
tripe vendors on the narrow streets,
the driving was Darwinian, the
language loud and accompanied by
fabulous but often terrifying
gesticulations. The city seemed to
vibrate to the music of humanity. It
was a dirty, difficult, colourful, smelly,
noisy, passionate place.
My friends told me matter-of-factly
that morning that it was on the news
that Diego Maradona was coming.
They were neither of them football
fans but they said the announcer had
seemed excited. Oh, and later we’d
take the kids down to the Lungomare,
and walk beside the bay.
The azure surge reached us when
we got to Piazza del Plebiscito.
Without warning we were engulfed by
a tide of Neapolitans waving blue
banners and newspapers with
Maradona’s picture, dancing, hugging,
drinking, all almost mad with pure joy.
I’ve been in plenty of football
crowds before and since. Nothing
comes close to the excitement of that
day. And we were just the overspill. A
mile or two away at Napoli’s stadium
70,000 people were cheering the man
himself on his first appearance.
Maradona was in the city whose
football team he was born to play for. I
don’t know of a more exact fit
between a footballer and a place than
the one sealed that July 5.
There will have been tears under
Vesuvius last night.‘I’ve lost a friend,
we lost a legend’
- Pelé hails great
rival Maradona
favourable recovery after brain surgery to have
a blood clot removed in a hospital in Buenos
Aires last month.
Gary Lineker, who was a member of the
England team that lost to Argentina in the now
infamous quarter-final in 1986, wrote a poignant
tweet that said: “After a blessed but troubled life,
hopefully he’ll finally find some comfort in the
hands of God.”
Pelé, the Brazil superstar and the
longstanding rival to Maradona for the title of
greatest ever footballer, said: “I lost a great
friend and the world lost a legend. One day,
I hope we can play ball together in the sky.”
Lionel Messi, Maradona’s heir as Argentina’s
greatest player, said: “A very sad day for all
Argentines and football. He leaves us but does
not leave, because Diego is eternal. I keep all the
beautiful moments lived with him and I send my
condolences to all his family and friends.”
Maradona began his career with Argentinos
Juniors and also played for Barcelona and
Napoli, winning two league titles with the
Italian club.
Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, said
he had instructed European clubs to hold a
minute’s silence “in memory of Diego” before
this week’s matches, adding: “Diego Maradona
achieved greatness as a wonderful player with
a genius and charisma of his own. He will go
down in history as someone who set football
alight and thrilled fans young and old with his
brilliance and skill.”
The Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis
has said the club is considering renaming their
stadium the San Paolo-Maradona in his honour.
Maradona’s death brought an outpouring of
tributes as stars from the world of football
remembered him.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the Juventus and Portugal
forward, said: “Today I bid farewell to a friend
and the world farewells to an eternal genius.
One of the best ever, an unmatched magician.
Leaves too soon but leaves a boundless legacy
and a void that will never be filled. RIP. You will
never be forgotten.”
Gareth Southgate, the England manager, said:
“I didn’t get to see Pelé play, but Maradona I did
when I was a kid. He was the best in my lifetime.
He was a real genius, so comfortable with the
ball. It is a great shame to lose somebody of that
level so young.”
David Beckham tweeted: “A sad day for
Argentina and a sad day for football as we
celebrate the greatness of what this man gave
us. Someone that played with passion, spirit and
was nothing less than a pure genius. I was so
excited to meet Diego and we will all miss him.”
Osvaldo Ardiles, the former Tottenham
Hotspur and World Cup-winning Argentina
midfielder, said: “Thank dear Dieguito for your
friendship, for your football, sublime, without
comparison. Simply, the best football player in
the history of football. So many enjoyable
moments together. Impossible to say which one
was the best. RIP my dear friend.”1990, explained how Maradona had helped him
through his own bouts of addiction. He talked
about Maradona’s impact as a friend as well as a
leader. “I can tell you that he gave me much
more than he took back,” he said.
And it is not as though Maradona ever
claimed to be a saint. In our interview, which
eventually took place at a hotel in Madrid, he
was at pains to dismiss the idea that celebrities
should have to carry that burden. Parents, he
said, are role models, not footballers or pop
stars. He may apologise to his daughters, Dalma
and Giannina, for the errors and regrets of his
life but the rest of the world could forget it. “I
made mistakes, and I paid for them,” he said.
His last miracle was to survive until he was- That felt typical of the defiance, the life
Such craziness was the norm in Maradona’s
life. To watch him being mobbed any time he
left his house is to think of today’s superstars:
one-man corporations with their battalions of
lawyers, PRs, agents and security guards.
Maradona was in the jungle, fending for himself.
Fame corrupts and, of course, it led to some
appalling behaviour. In his private life there was
the son born to Maradona in Naples, whom he
denied for years. In his professional life, there
would be the disgrace of the positive test for
ephedrine at the 1994 World Cup, which he still
insists was a conspiracy cooked up by enemies
at Fifa. But to talk to his team-mates was to hear
how they would follow him to the ends of the
earth. Sergio Batista, a team-mate at Argentinos
Juniors then with the national team in 1986 and
David
AaronovitchMaradona, main,
was adored for
leading Napoli to
the Serie A title
after signing
from Barcelona,
below. But his
career and life
were filled with
controversy such
as being sent
home from the
1994 World Cup,
left, for failing a
drugs test and
his bizarre antics
in Russia two
years ago, aboveCAPITAL PICTURES; AFP/GETTY IMAGES; ICON SPORT/GETTY IMAGEScontinued from back