Maradona was born on October 30, 1960 at the Evita Interzonal Acute Hospital, in LanĂșs Oeste, IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BUENOS AIRES. He was the fifth of eight children, and the first boy, from the marriage between Diego Maradona (who died on June 25, 2015 at age 87) and Dalma Salvadora "Tota" Franco (who died on November 19, 2011). Her siblings were Ana MarĂa, Rita, Elsa, MarĂa Rosa, Claudia, RaĂșl and Hugo, The latter were also soccer players.â His family, originally from Esquina, a city located in the southwest corner of the province of Corrientes, Argentina and of Galician descent.â was based in Villa Fiorito, Lomas de Zamora district, a town located in the first cordon of the southern area of ââthe Buenos Aires suburbs, IN THE SOUTH OF THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF BUENOS AIRES. He developed his game in a pasture in Fiorito called "Las Siete Canchitas", his first contact with football occurred in 1969, when he took the test to enter the lower divisions of the Argentinos Juniors club. Los Cebollitas was the name of the 1960 class team, created by Francisco Cornejo to compete in the Evita National Games in 1973 and 1974, since the teams could not register under the name of the institution. The team won that tournament and the 8th division championship in 1974, and the squad remained with Cornejo until they turned 14, the age at which Argentinos could sign them into the Argentine Football Association. This team, which went undefeated in 136 games,39 played tournaments not only in Argentina, but in countries such as Peru and Uruguay. On September 28, 1971, when he was only ten years old, he appeared for the first time in the ClarĂn newspaper. The note said that "there was a kid with the demeanor and class of 'crack', although in the note they called him "Caradona". He also began to be known by Argentinos Juniors supporters, since during halftime of the Argentinos Juniors matches First Division entertained them by juggling the ball. Due to this skill, he was summoned to one of the highest-rated television programs of the time, 40 SĂĄbados Circulares hosted by Pipo Mancera. Maradona's debut with Argentinos Juniors was already generating high expectation in the club, although it had to be delayed, because he had to pay a five-date suspension for an expulsion in a match against VĂ©lez for the seventh youth category. "I have the habit of talking too much on the field. The referee kicked me out after the end and they gave me five suspension dates," Maradona recalled years later. His debut finally took place on October 20, 1976, ten days before turning 16 years old, for a National Championship match. opportunity in which his team Argentinos Juniors faced Talleres, one of the best teams in the country at that time. Maradona was a substitute, and at halftime the team's coach, Juan Carlos Montes, asked him to enter. He entered with shirt number 16 , as a replacement for RubĂ©n AnĂbal Giacobetti at the beginning of the second half. In the first play he made a shot at Cabrera, central marker of Talleres, exciting the local fans.â In reference to that afternoon, Maradona said: "that day I touched the sky with his hands."After the game, Maradona even received a small fee, but the biggest reward was the respect of the fans. The following month, on November 14, he scored his first goal in a match against San Lorenzo de Mar del Silver.â That afternoon he converted the same. The goalkeeper was RubĂ©n Alberto Lucangioli. Those were his only goals during that 1976 for Maradona. In '77 Maradona already consolidated himself in the team's starting lineup, he had a great season playing 49 games and scoring 19 goals, on par with his official debut with the Argentine national team. During a match against HuracĂĄn at the Metropolitano, it is said that Maradona scored one of the best goals in history , by eluding the entire rival team from midfield. This fact was later represented in Jorge Porcel's film " I'll break your rating."â In December, he suffered the first expulsion of his career, against Belgrano at the Gigante de Alberdi. â Argentinos would finish in ninth position at the Metropolitano, and would not be able to advance to the final phase of the National. Due to his very good year, the main South American and European clubs began to "scouting" the young Argentine talent, but Diego rejected them all, preferring to prepare for the World Cup in a calm environment. By the beginning of 1978, Diego was shaping up to be one of those included in the World Cup that was being held in Argentina. During the 1978 Metropolitano, his scoring average increased. However , despite his growing figure in Argentine football, for Menotti, the coach of the National Team at that time, Diego was nothing more than a figure of change and a project for the future, having played only 4 games. This is how, despite entering the pre-called list, on May 19, 1978, Menotti surprisingly left Maradona out. Two days later, Diego played a match with Argentinos against Chacarita at the Metropolitano, where he scored two goals and was awarded a penalty. In the locker room, he would declare the following: âToday is not revenge for me. No way. Mr. Menotti thought I was room 10 and I had to leave. I respect his position because he is the coach, but that does not mean that I share it. When they told me that he was disaffected, it hurt me a lot. Explanations? No, they didn't give them to me of any kind. I didn't need them either .â With the emergence of Diego, Argentinos Juniors would improve their performance from the previous year and finish 5th in the Metropolitano. Maradona would finish as the tournament's top scorer for the first time in his career, with 21 goals, together with Luis Andreuchi. At Nacional, Diego would play 4 games and score 4 goals BUT he could not enter the final phase. This year, he officially appointed Jorge Czysterpiller as his representative, who had represented him until now but without any contractual relationship uniting them. During the summer of '78, Maradona was very close to being transferred to Sheffield United. The new coach of the English team, Harry Harlem, arrived in Argentina through Antonio RattĂn to watch the games of the young talent he had been told about. Harlem was very impressed by Diego's skills, and a pre-agreement was established with Argentinos for 200,000 pounds. However, the English club could only afford to pay 160,000, so the deal fell through, and the club ended up signing another Argentine playmaker, Alejandro Sabella. According to Harry's son, Keith, the club's director, John Hassel , rejected the deal, saying: âThere is no 18- year-old player worth 400,000 pounds" with Argentinos Juniors, Diego once again established himself as the top scorer in the First Division, both for Metropolitano and Nacional, scoring 14 and 12 goals in both tournaments, respectively. At the end of the season, in which Argentinos finished 3rd in the Metropolitano and the Nacional, Maradona won the Olimpia Award for Argentine Soccer Player of the Year and the Olimpia de Oro for Argentine Sportsman of the Year, marking a total of 26 goals in 26 games played. The following year, Maradona had his best season in Argentinos Juniors. He once again became the top scorer in the two Argentine championships with 25 and 18 goals, which allowed him to become the only player in the history of the First Division of Argentina in being the top scorer of the tournament on 5 consecutive occasions. The team was runner-up in the Metropolitano, which River Plate won. On September 14, Maradona scored his 100th professional goal against San Lorenzo. However, the excess of attention from the press and the constant absences in Diego's key tournament matches for the national team negatively influenced Argentinos' performance in the final stages of the tournaments, not being able to crown a title as they would have deserved, both Diego as Argentinos.â In Argentinos Juniors, already in the month of October, on the eve of the club's match against Boca Juniors, Boca goalkeeper Hugo Orlando Gatti said in an interview that Maradona was not a bad player, but the media They inflated his importance too much, and also called him "chubby." In response, Maradona in the press called Gatti envious. Before the match, Gatti approached Diego and told him that he had not said anything like that, but Diego did not care: Maradona, angry with the goalkeeper's words, scored 4 goals. This match is recognized by many like Diego's best game in Argentinos Juniors. The last time Diego would be seen wearing the Bicho shirt would be on February 4, 1981, in a friendly against Villa DĂĄlmine. Although Maradona had previously received offers to play for other clubs, such as Colombian club AmĂ©rica de Cali, in 1981 he was determined to leave Argentinos Juniors, due to his constant fights with the board. The most important offer had been made by River Plate, who also offered him to earn the same money as the club's highest paid player, Ubaldo Fillol. However, Maradona would end up being transferred to his biggest rival, Boca Juniors, a club that was going through a bad financial situation and was not in a position to buy his pass. During those weeks, he declared to an Argentine media that the "illusion of playing for River" had been taken away from him. This phrase would cause controversies and debates between which club Maradona really wanted to play. Some time later, Diego admitted that he said that only to put pressure on the Xeneize club to end up signing him, since he had repeatedly mentioned his and his family's love for the team. Finally, he was loaned out for a a year and a half to Boca, which reserved the purchase option. The contract was signed on February 20 and debuted two days later, again against Talleres. Unlike his debut with Argentinos, this time he got even and, with two goals from him, Boca beat his rival 4 to 1. On April 10, he played his first superclĂĄsico against River, in La Bombonera. The match was played on a rainy night and ended with Boca's victory 3-0, with two goals from Miguel Brindisi and one of great quality from Maradona, in which he left Fillol and Tarantini on the floor with successive feints and dribbles. In his first months in Boca, Maradona suffered several problems. At first the relationship with Silvio Marzolini, as with many of the coaches who directed him, was not entirely good since it did not offer him the same prerogatives that he had in Argentinos Juniors, and he had certain demands, in terms of concentrations and training, which Maradona could not stand. In addition, the team suffered pressure from Boca's brave crowd. On one occasion, after drawing four games in a row, the head of the bar JosĂ© Barritta, nicknamed El Abuelo, entered armed along with several members of the fans to demand better results. Despite these pressures, the team managed to have a good campaign. On August 9, a date before the end of the 1981 Metropolitano, Boca had the possibility of becoming champion if they achieved a draw against Rosario Central, in Rosario. However, the match, in which Maradona missed a penalty, ended with a 1-0 victory for the Rosario team. A week later against Racing Club at home it ended 1-1 and gave them their only title in Argentine football. The 1981 National Championship was a failure, as the team fell in the quarterfinals against VĂ©lez Sarsfield. This poor performance was due to the large number of friendly matches that Boca played to improve their economic situation, which ended up exhausting the players. The last game was on February 6 against River, which ended with a defeat. He would leave Boca Juniors playing 40 games and scoring 28 goals. IN 1982 his sale to FĂștbol Club Barcelona was made official . The club paid 1,200 million pesetas for his pass, 80% of the money went to Argentinos Juniors, who owned his pass, and the rest to Boca Juniors, who had resorted to the justice, so that he would desist from his actions and a significant figure for the time could be transferred abroad to Argentina. Maradona appeared for the first time with the Barcelona shirt on August 3, 1982, at the Hindenburg stadium in Meppen. in a friendly against SV Meppen. The first official match was on September 4, 1982, where, despite scoring a goal, his team lost to Valencia by 2 to 1. In December 1982, having played 13 matches in the League and scored 6 goals, hepatitis was detected, so he had to leave the fields for three months. He missed 14 League games and the European Cup Winners' Cup qualifiers, in which Barcelona, ââdiminished by his absence, was eliminated. The German coach Udo Lattek, with whom Maradona had had various discussions, was dismissed, and the board hired the Argentine CĂ©sar Luis Menotti as the new coach. Maradona reappeared on March 12, 1983, in a match against Betis, but Barcelona could no longer aspire to the League and only achieved fourth place, remaining six points behind the champion, Athletic Club. Maradona played 20 league games and scored a total of 11 goals. However, Barça had an excellent performance in the domestic cups, since on June 4, 1983 they won the Copa del Rey in Zaragoza against Real Madrid by 2 to 1 with goals from VĂctor and Marcos. On the 26th of that same month they won the League Cup, also against Real Madrid, with Diego Maradona scoring a goal in each of the two games of the final. The goal scored at the Santiago BernabĂ©u Stadium, which marked Barcelona's victory, provoked a standing ovation from the Madrid fans, who recognized the beauty of the goal despite being scored by the rival team.â Despite the four- month absence due to hepatitis, the 1982/83 season closed well, with two titles, and Maradona considered one of the great stars of Spanish football. The 1983-84 season started very badly for Maradona. On September 24, 1983 , Barcelona and Athletic Club faced each other at the Camp Nou, on the fourth round of the League. Valencia won 4 to 0 but, in the 59th minute, Maradona was taken off on a stretcher with an injury to the ankle of his left leg after a tough tackle by Andoni Goikoetxea. Maradona was operated on in Barcelona by Dr. GonzĂĄlez AdriĂł, and reappeared only three and a half months later, on January 8, 1984, when he contributed two goals as Barcelona defeated Sevilla 3-1. In the end, Maradona was only able to play 16 games that season, in which he scored a total of 11 goals, and they finished third. However, he was able to contribute to Barcelona reaching the Copa del Rey final for the second consecutive year. During the semi-final, Maradona was sent off after seeing a red card, which initially prevented him from playing in the final. However, the Spanish federation decided to withdraw the sanction against the Argentine. Despite that, that match marked the final point for Maradona in Barcelona. The match, played at the Santiago BernabĂ©u Stadium in Madrid on May 5, 1984, pitted Barcelona against Athletic Club, the current League champion, with whom the Catalans had a tough rivalry. The match was the reunion between Maradona and Goikoetxea, the player with whom he had the collision that caused the injury. The final was surrounded by great tension, both in the days before the match, with insults exchanged, and during the match. In the end, Athletic won 1-0, but the worst came at the end of the match. When the referee whistled the end of the match, Maradona attacked Athletic player Miguel Ăngel Sola. The players of both teams engaged in a pitched battle, including punches and kicks, in front of all the spectators and the main Spanish authorities who were in the box. After the scandal that arose, several players were heavily sanctioned: the Spanish Football Federation imposed a three-month ban on Maradona without being able to play in Spanish competitions. Maradona's feeling of injustice in the face of the sanction also weighed, as well as his frustration with the referees and Spanish football authorities. The player's feeling that the FC Barcelona board had not defended him sufficiently before the Royal Spanish Football Federation, increased the distance between Maradona and president NĂșñez, who had previously criticized him for considering that he did not take enough care of his life. private, since nights out began to be constant in his life. Years later, Maradona recognized in his autobiography Yo soy el Diego, that his departure to Napoli was also motivated by economic reasons, since his then representative Jorge Czysterpiller had made poor management of his financial investments. Maradona left Barcelona having played a total of 58 games and scored 38 goals. The journalist Jimmy Burns, in his biography of Maradona titled The Hand of God, revealed the hectic private life that Maradona had led in Barcelona, ââwhere he first came into contact with drugs. In his autobiography, Maradona confirms that his relationship with the drug began at that time. That sanction, which kept him away from the Spanish playing fields until December 1984, was one of the reasons that pushed the president of Barcelona, ââJosĂ© Luis NĂșñez, to accept an offer from the Italian Napoli to transfer the Argentine. . â Napoli's original offer was a friendly match against Barcelona, ââwith the idea of ââseeing Maradona play in Italy. Although Barcelona initially accepted the match, they later confirmed to the Italians that Maradona could not attend because he was "sick", although in reality they wanted to avoid a possible injury, which had become a constant problem for Diego at the Spanish club. The president of Napoli, Corrado Ferlaino, stated that he had then been told that Maradona was actually fighting with the Barcelona leadership, so Ferlaino took the opportunity to make an offer. Finally, on June 29 , 1984, Maradona's transfer to Naples was confirmed for 1.3 million pesetas (8 million euros) and a four-year contract. The presentation was on July 5, 1984, in front of a Stadio San Paolo that was attended by 75,000 Napoli fans, in what is estimated to be one of the largest presentations in the history of football. The debut in the Serie A took place on September 16, 1984 against Verona, with a 3-1 defeat. The team could not find its way, in the first round of the tournament it only got 9 points. However, on February 24, 1985, in a match against Lazio, a turning point occurred in the team, thanks to the outstanding performance of Maradona, who scored a hat-trick, which included an Olympic goal and a Vaseline goal. Thanks to that, in the second round the team recovered and got 24 more points in the league won by Hellas Verona. Maradona achieved third place in the scoring table, after scoring 14 goals. With the good performance of the 1984-85 season, the leaders realized that they could fight for the title, so they decided to improve the squad by hiring players who had had a good performance, such as Claudio Garella and Bruno Giordano, whom Diego had tried to convince during their confrontations on the field and who would end up becoming one of his great partners up front. In the 1985-86 season, the prelude to the World Cup in Mexico, Maradona's performance went from lowest to highest in the year in which Napoli achieved a great third position in the league won by Juventus, achieving a place in the UEFA Cup. Maradona on this occasion scored just 11 goals. In October 1985, Guillermo CĂłppola became its new representative, replacing Czysterpiller. Upon returning from the World Cup in Mexico, Maradona began an excellent season with Napoli. After the historic third place achieved the previous season, the team had been motivated to improve, added to the signings of Di Napoli and the scorer Andrea Carnevale. In that season they won the first scudetto in the history of the institution, and also won the Italian Cup. The Scudetto/Copa Italia combination (double) was an achievement that only Torino, Juventus and Inter had been able to achieve up to that point, all clubs from the north of Italy, which maintain a silent and historic dispute with those from the south. Maradona scored ten goals in the tournament and was the top scorer of the title, which would mean his passage to the immortality of the Neapolitan institution. After winning a scudetto and the World Cup, Maradona became one of the most important players in the world. The businessman Silvio Berlusconi wanted to incorporate him into AC Milan, however Maradona (with a certain social commitment to the south of Italy) renewed his contract with Naples until 1993, with a salary of five million dollars per year. ++in 1985, in Acerra, a town near Naples. Maradona was barely ascending to his throne as Napoli's greatest idol and he smeared himself with mud to reach the deepest depths of the heart of the people: he played a charity match on an impossible field against a very modest team, Acerrano. All to save the life of a child who needed urgent surgery . And that match took place against the wishes of Napoli's president, Corrado Ferlaino, who had just paid a million dollars for his transfer from Barcelona and wanted his biggest star not to end up with a broken leg from playing in the mud. "I'm not surprised by Diego's generous attitude in Acerra. It was a meeting between the poor, between the despised, between people with brown skin," Argentine journalist Alicia Dujovne, who wrote the book "Maradona is me" in 1993, tells BBC Mundo. " He immediately identified with that. He felt like he was one of them. Acerra's game shows a lot of what Diego was as a person," he adds. In the fourth season, 1987-88, Careca joined the team, forming the MaGiCa formula (Maradona, Giordano and Careca). In the first 19 games the team had achieved 87% of the points, however shortly after the end the team's performance began to decline and a decisive defeat against Milan at the San Paolo, on matchday 29, was decisive for that other team would get the league. Naples was in second place, three points behind the leader, and Maradona established himself as a scorer with 15 goals. Many accused the team of selling the tournament, due to pressure from those who handled clandestine betting . Some players, and especially Maradona, were linked to the camorra, something that was never proven. The 1988-89 season was very successful for Naples. They once again achieved second place in the league, eleven points behind the champion, Inter Milan. However, the most important achievement would come on the international level, by winning the club's first international title: the UEFA Cup. In the semi-finals, they left the top candidate, Hans-Dieter Flick's Bayern Munich, on the way, where Maradona had a warm-up before the match where he was seen dancing with his boots with untied laces to the song Live Is Life, one of the images that would become one of the most iconic moments in the history of football. The final was played against VfB Stuttgart, in which JĂŒrgen Klinsmann played, on May 3 and 17, 1989. The first match was won by Napoli, at the San Paolo, by 2 to 1, while the second ended with a three-goal draw Despite this victory, Maradona wanted to be transferred to Olympique de Marseille, then chaired by magnate Bernard Tapie, due to his wear and tear after five seasons in Italy. However, the request was denied by Ferraino. The joy would also be transferred to the family level, in May of that year their second daughter was born: Gianinna. The 1989-90 season was also memorable in the club's history: Napoli would win their second scudetto. With two dates left, both Naples and Milan were in first position with 47 points. On that date, the 33rd, Napoli beat Bologna 4-2, while Milan was defeated 2-1 by Verona. On the last date, although they only had to draw to win the title, the Azzurri beat Lazio 1-0, winning the scudetto. Maradona was the third scorer of the tournament with 16 goals, behind Marco Van Basten with 19 and Roberto Baggio with 17. After the World Cup in Italy in 1990, Maradona fired his representative Guillermo CĂłppola and hired Marcos Franchi. In the football part, the 1990/91 season would begin successfully by winning the Italian Super Cup against Juventus in December by 5 to 1. However, it would not end in the best way, since he would fail an anti-doping control for first time in his career. On March 17, 1991, on the 25th date, Naples beat AS Bari 1-0 with a goal from Gianfranco Zola. After the match, Maradona was chosen for anti-doping control, which ultimately tested positive for cocaine. The Italian Federation imposed a sanction on him that would keep him away from the stadiums for fifteen months. Maradona decided to return to Argentina on April 1, and settled in Buenos Aires. On the 26th of that same month, a police operation raided the apartment that Maradona had. in the Caballito neighborhood. The player was with two friends and drugs were found in his possession, for which he was detained by the police. A day later, after paying bail of 20,000 pesos, he was released. Although criminal proceedings were not initiated against him, Judge Amelia Berraz de Vidal ordered him to undergo rehabilitation treatment. The Italian justice system sentenced him, in September 1991, to 14 months of suspended prison for possession of narcotics. While serving his suspension and undergoing rehabilitation treatment imposed by justice, Maradona decided to participate in various benefit matches. The one that had the greatest significance was the one carried out to help the family of BĂșfalo Funes, a prominent Argentine soccer player who died on January 11 of that year. On July 1, 1992, the 15-month suspension imposed by FIFA expired and his pass was still in the possession of Naples, a club that was seeking his reinstatement to the squad. But Maradona wanted to get away from Italy and play for a club that did not have great sporting demands. The first conversations for his transfer were with Sevilla and Olympique de Marseille, finally leaning towards the first, who paid the sum of six million euros. for the pass, a large part of which was paid for by Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset company. However, given Napoli's refusal to authorize his transfer, FIFA's intervention was requested to unblock the conflict, which occurred on September 22, 1992. Maradona signed for Sevilla due to the insistence of Argentine coach Carlos Bilardo, then coach of the Sevillian team. However, Maradona still needed judicial authorization to leave the country, due to the problem he had had the previous year in his apartment in the Caballito neighborhood. After being authorized by the judge in the case, he was able to negotiate his contract and joined Sevilla once the season's League began. His presentation occurred on September 28 in a friendly match against Bayern Munich, a team in which his friend Lothar MatthĂ€us played. He made his official debut with the Sevillian team on October 4, 1992, in a match corresponding to the fifth round of the League. Curiously, Sevilla's rival was Athletic Club, the same club against which they had played their last game in Spanish football eight years earlier. Three days later, at the SĂĄnchez PizjuĂĄn, he scored his first official goal with the NerviĂłn team and it would serve to give the club victory. Despite the good start to the season, Diego would begin to have problems with the managers due to his constant nights out and missing training sessions. This caused the club to end up hiring a detective, who followed their activities off the field. Furthermore, at that time he suffered from an old knee injury, which is why he played undercover in many games. During halftime of the match played with Real Burgos on June 13, 1993, Maradona asked for a change due to this injury, but Bilardo asked him to continue, so the team doctor gave him three injections of an anti-inflammatory in his knee. . However, at 53 minutes Bilardo decided to replace him with Pineda, provoking the anger of the player who publicly insulted the coach. This episode ended up breaking relations between Maradona and the leadership. That was his last game. Maradona played a total of 29 games in all competitions and scored 6 goals and 9 assists. Sevilla finished La Liga in seventh position with 43 points, 15 behind champion Barcelona. In 1993 he returned to Argentine football, this time with the Newell's Old Boys shirt. On September 13, 1993, the first training session arrived and 40,000 people had gathered to watch it, in the middle of a party organized by coach Jorge RaĂșl Solari. On October 7, 1993, a friendly match was held to celebrate Maradona's debut with the Newell's shirt, against Emelec of Ecuador. Their official debut occurred on October 10, losing 3 to 1 against Independiente as a visitor. Maradona would also play the games against Belgrano, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, Boca Juniors and HuracĂĄn. During this last match, played on December 2, 1993, he suffered a muscle tear that left him I would be away from the playing field for a few weeks. At this point in the championship Solari had left technical management, and his relationship with the new coach, Jorge Castelli, was not good, since he did not allow him some licenses that he had agreed with the previous coach, in addition to the fact that he had been the one who had given him closed the doors in San Lorenzo. This was one of the reasons that precipitated the departure of Maradona, whose last game at the club was a friendly against Vasco da Gama played on January 26, 1994. He played five official games for Newell's Old Boys, without scoring goals. After spending the first months of 1994 without a club, and suspended throughout the 1994-95 season, Maradona's dream for his return to football was to be a coach and player for Boca Juniors, but there were two important problems; The first was that at that time the technical leadership was again in charge of Silvio Marzolini, and the leadership had no interest in dismissing him. The second was economic, the financial situation in which the club found itself did not allow the payment of the sums to which he was accustomed. The first was solved at the initiative of Maradona, since he gave up on becoming a coach, and the second at the initiative of several businessmen willing to contribute money, among whom was Eduardo Eurnekian. Once the contract that sealed his return to Boca was signed , Maradona began to get fit for debut day. Waiting for the day, he had a small participation in the film The Day Maradona Met Gardel, starring Alejandro Dolina and Esther Goris. But he also carried out activities related to football, since on September 28 he founded the World Football Players Union in Paris, which would not later acquire much relevance, together with footballers of the stature of Ăric Cantona, George Weah, Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Laurent Blanc, Tomas Brolin, RaĂ, Ciro Ferrara and Michel Preud'homme. His official return was in Seoul on September 30, in a match against the South Korean national team that Boca won 2 to 1. A few weeks after his debut in the Argentine tournament, he received another recognition: he was summoned to give a conference in the University of Oxford.â In the first tournament, the Apertura 1995, Boca Juniors did not have a good campaign as they only achieved fourth place. This produced disapproval from fans at election time. The club finished the tournament with a new president, Mauricio Macri, and with the departure of Marzolini from the technical direction. The new year began with problems, because the club's board of directors had decided to hire Carlos Bilardo as technical director. As a result of the fight they had at Sevilla, Maradona initially threatened to leave the club if Bilardo took over, but then decided to support him. Another problem was with the leadership, since Macri wanted to reduce the bonuses that would be granted to the team in the event that the sporting objectives were met. Despite this, Boca came to fight for the title but lost all chances after losing against Racing, in the famous farewell of Piojo LĂłpez, in which Maradona missed his fifth consecutive penalty. On August 11 , 1996, Boca played against Estudiantes de La Plata for the penultimate date of the Clausura Tournament, with no chance of winning the tournament. After the match, which ended in defeat, Maradona would leave the stadiums and return only 11 months later. The championship was won by VĂ©lez Sarsfield, while Boca only achieved fifth place. That year Maradona carried out the "Sol without drugs" campaign, organized by the Argentine government. Within the framework of the campaign, he had to mention the negative aspects of drug consumption, and, as he expressed, "I do the Sol without drugs campaign for the kids. Drugs exist everywhere and I don't want kids to take them. I have two girls and I thought it was good to say all this, a father's obligation... I was, I am and I will be a drug addict. On April 21, he signed the contract that would determine his return to Boca Juniors, whose technical leadership was in charge of HĂ©ctor Rodolfo Veira, hiring Ben Johnson as a physical trainer since he needed to get in shape. His return occurred on July 9, against Newell's Old Boys. On August 24 he played the match in which Boca defeated Argentinos Juniors 4-2. Afterwards, he was drawn to undergo an anti-doping control, which finally gave a positive result due to the presence of benzoitilecgonine and methylecgonine, metabolites of cocaine. This caused the AFA to impose a provisional suspension on him until the results of the countertest were known. , which would also be positive. â Maradona had made a police report in the month of July, due to some alleged phone calls in which they threatened to plant drugs on him. â Judge Claudio BonadĂo verified these threats, and after a request presented by the lawyers of the player, ordered a measure not to innovate, forcing the AFA to withdraw the provisional suspension until a DNA test was carried out on the urine analyzed to verify that it belonged to the player. This allowed Maradona to continue competing, but the judge ordered In addition, a mandatory anti-doping control had to be carried out 24 hours after each match. The DNA study could not be completed, due to the small amount of genetic material that was found in the samples that the AFA had sent to the institution in charge of doing so, the PRICAI (First Argentine Center for Immunogenetics). Given this impossibility, When Judge BonadĂo lifted the measure of not innovating against the provisional suspension of the AFA, which ultimately would not happen before the player retired, this institution could apply the corresponding sanction. Despite being cleared to play, in a match against Colo-Colo for the Super Cup he suffered an injury that would keep him inactive for several days. He would only play again on October 25, 1997, in the match that Boca Juniors defeated River Plate 2-1 as a visitor, being replaced at halftime by a youthful Juan RomĂĄn Riquelme. That would also be his last official match, since he announced his retirement from professional football on the same day as his 37th birthday, October 30. Diego Maradona officially debuted with the Argentine National Team on February 27, 1977, against Hungary in La Bombonera, when he was only 16 years old. Prior to his debut, he had only played 11 games with Argentinos Juniors and CĂ©sar Luis Menotti, coach of the National Team. At that time, I had only trained him with the youth divisions. After finishing a practice where he faced youth players with seniors, Menotti announced to Maradona that he would count on him for the next match. Maradona entered the second half, replacing Leopoldo Luque, with the match already settled 5 to 1 in favor of the Argentines. In half an hour of play, he almost scored his first goal. After the match, Maradona would confess years later that "his legs shook" that day. Despite having played several games for the National Team during 1978, that year Menotti did not call him up to play in the World Cup held in Argentina due to his youth. According to his colleagues who were at the rally, he cried uncontrollably next to a tree throughout the night they left him outside. After Argentina became world champion for the first time in its history, Menotti did call up Maradona for the 1979 Youth World Cup held in Japan. Maradona was already the undisputed figure of Argentinos Juniors and Argentine football, so his performance in the championship was excellent. He scored three goals during the group stage, where Argentina came out first against Indonesia, Yugoslavia and Poland. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Algeria 5-0 with another goal from Maradona, and in the semifinals, they faced Uruguay in the Rio de la Plata classic. RamĂłn DĂaz, the other great figure of the team, and an attacking duo with Maradona, scored the first goal, followed by another scored by Maradona himself. In the final, they beat the Soviet Union 3 to 1, despite having started losing, with a goal from Alves, DĂaz, and Maradona, from a free kick, crowning Argentina as champion of the Youth World Cup at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo before 35 thousand Japanese who were amazed by the talents of that young Maradona, who received the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament and the Silver Boot as second top scorer, with six goals. After winning the tournament, the Argentine delegation, with Maradona and Menotti at the head, was received by Jorge Videla and the military Junta in Casa Rosada, who had prepared a popular celebration in Plaza de Mayo to overshadow the arrival of the Inter-American Commission of Human rights . After his consecration in the youth championship, Maradona continued to shine in Argentine soccer. Therefore, there was a lot of expectation in the Argentine media and fans for his World Cup debut in Spain. CĂ©sar Luis Menotti made a call where he mixed the current champions from '78 with the young promises who won in Japan the following year, making Argentina one of the main candidates to retain the title. On the other hand, Maradona was personally seeking revenge for not having managed to join the team that triumphed four years earlier. Maradona made his debut in that World Cup on June 13, 1982 against Belgium at the Camp Nou in front of 92,000 spectators. Prior to the debut, the team had had days of tension due to the country's surrender to England due to the Falkland Islands war, added to the pressure they had exerted for being the current champions. That afternoon, Argentina would lose 1 to 0, Cinco Days later, the team managed to rebound with a 4-1 win over Hungary, where Maradona scored his first two goals in the tournament, and finished sealing its classification to the second phase with a 2-0 victory against El Salvador . In the second phase, Argentina had to face two great candidates for the title: Italy and Brazil. Against the Italians, future world champions, Argentina had no chance and lost 2 to 1; Maradona was brutally marked by Claudio Gentile, and obtained the record of being the player with the most fouls received in a single match in the history of the competition, with 26,133. Against Brazil, Argentina succumbed to Brazil and was eliminated 3 to 1, with Maradona frustrated and sent off after a violent tackle on Batista 40 minutes into the second half. After the 1982 World Cup, Maradona was classified in the Argentine media as a "disappointment" and was harshly criticized. In turn, Menotti He was replaced by Carlos Bilardo. Bilardo's first measure was to change captaincy: while the representative captain during the Menotti era was Daniel Passarella, during the Bilardo era it would be Maradona. Even so, since his expulsion against Brazil in the World Cup, Maradona would not play another match with the coach until May 10, 1985, since Bilardo wanted to build a base of players who played in Argentine soccer. The return, after almost three years of absence, occurred in a friendly against Paraguay played in Buenos Aires, in preparation for the 1986 Soccer World Cup qualifiers. The match ended with a 1-1 draw, with a goal from Maradona. The group in which Argentina had to qualify was made up of Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. The debut took place on May 26, in a tough match against Venezuela in San CristĂłbal, which was Maradona's official return to the national team. Argentina won 3 to 2, with a double from Maradona and the remaining one from Passarella. To qualify, Argentina had to have at least a draw against Peru in El Monumental on June 30, 1985. That match featured the characteristic situation of the Peruvian defender Luis Reyna's brave man-to-man mark on Maradona, who followed him all over the field without respecting his position. Argentina had a very tough game and reached the last minutes losing 2 to 1, so they had to play a home run. However, a last-minute header from Passarella put the final tie and sealed the team's final qualification for the World Cup. The Argentine delegation arrived in Mexico 28 days before the official debut. In the middle, the president of Argentina, RaĂșl AlfonsĂn, asked that Bilardo be fired, so Maradona publicly declared: "if Bilardo leaves, we all leave." In addition to this, the relationship between Maradona and Pasarella became tumultuous. for his discussions about the captaincy in front of the team. Even so, the official debut in the tournament, on June 2, 1986, was a 3 to 1 victory against South Korea. Maradona was marked violently by the South Korean defenders, causing eleven fouls during the match; Despite this, the Argentine captain gave three assists in the match, having an excellent debut. The second match, the revenge against Paolo Rossi's Italy, resulted in a draw thanks to an acrobatic goal by Maradona at 34 minutes of the first time.â Maradona continued to shine and sealed the team's qualification for the round of 16 after beating Bulgaria 2-0 .â During this phase, both Maradona and Jorge Valdano criticized the FIFA authorities for scheduling matches at noon, because if Although this schedule was functional for the television broadcast, the high temperatures could affect the health of the players. In the round of 16, Argentina faced Enzo Francescoli's Uruguay in a Rio de la Plata classic, winning with a solitary goal from Pasculli 42 minutes into the first half. Years later, Maradona would declare that this was "his best game in the World Cup", even having a goal disallowed and a free kick hitting the crossbar. In the quarterfinals, Argentina had to face England, in the most memorable match of Maradona's career. The match had extra-football connotations, since four years earlier the Falklands War had occurred, which also produced incidents in the stands between Argentine and English supporters. The match, played on June 22 at the Azteca Stadium in the city from Mexico, had two of the most remembered goals in the history of the World Cups, popularly known as the Goal of the Century and the Hand of God. The "hand of God" occurred in the 51st minute, when the English defender Steve Hodge mistakenly rejected the ball towards his own goal and, in a disputed ball between Maradona and the English goalkeeper Peter Shilton, the Argentine player raised his left fist, impacting the ball and scoring the goal. The name of the goal is due to the statements made after the match, when when asked if he had scored it with his hand, Maradona responded "I didn't touch it, it was the hand of God." In the second goal, chosen in 2002 as the best goal of the World Cup ("Goal of the Century"), Maradona started from his own half and eluded six English players (Glenn Hoddle, Peter Reid, Kenny Sansom, Terry Butcher, Terry Fenwick and goalkeeper Shilton) before finishing and convert the goal.â The 2-1 victory, with the discount marked by Gary Lineker, allowed Argentina to reach the semifinals. After the match, Maradona was hailed by journalists, media and the public as the best player in the world. His performance in the match was called years later as one of the best individual performances in the history of sport. Due to the context in which the match was experienced, and the meaning of what Maradona's match was due to what happened in Malvinas and the years of dictatorship in Argentina, placed him in a new social status as a popular idol and cultural icon. The two goals he scored in that match gave name to an economic theory baptized as the Maradona Effect or Maradonian Theory, and were represented in various tributes, monuments and replicas in popular culture. The semifinal was on June 25 against Belgium, also at the Azteca. The Belgians had reached that stage after qualifying as the best third in Group B, beating the Soviet Union in the round of 16 and Spain on penalties in the quarterfinals. Argentina, now with an emboldened Maradona, had no major complications and beat the Belgians 2-0 with two high-quality goals from the Argentine captain. The final, played again at the Azteca, was against West Germany on June 29 before 114,000 spectators. The match started well for the Argentines, JosĂ© Luis Brown scored the first goal at 23 minutes and Valdano extended the lead at 55. However , two headed goals, one from Rummenigge at 74 and another from Völler ten minutes from In the end, they tied the game. Three minutes after Völler's goal, Maradona, surrounded by three Germans, maneuvers and places an impossible assist for Jorge Burruchaga, who scores the third and final goal of the match, and crowned Argentina as world champions for the second time. time in history, eight years after its first title. Maradona received the Cup as captain of the team. During the tournament, Maradona created more than half of Argentina's shots, attempted a tournament-best 90 dribbles (three times more than any other player), and drew a record 53 fouls, allowing his team win twice as many free kicks as any other player, also holding the record of being the player with the most fouls received in the history of the competition. Maradona scored or assisted on 10 of Argentina's 14 goals (71%), including assist for the winning goal in the final, the second best percentage of a champion team, only behind David Villa in 2010 with 75%. At the end of the World Cup, Maradona won the Ballon d'Or as best player of the tournament by unanimous vote and was considered to have won the World Cup virtually single-handedly, something he later stated he did not agree with. In tribute to him, the Azteca Stadium authorities built a statue of him scoring the "Goal of the Century" and placed it at the entrance to the stadium. Diego Maradona established himself in the World Cup in Mexico, scoring five goals and giving five assists in the seven games he played. After the World Cup in Mexico, the Argentine team had not been able to maintain football supremacy. In the 1987 Copa AmĂ©rica he had obtained fourth place, while in the 1989 edition he placed third , so the Argentine public had doubts about his performance in the next World Cup. Maradona, for his part, established himself as the best player in the world by taking Napoli to the football elite, winning the scudetto twice , and in turn, generating a social revolution in Italy by exalting the social status of the southerners with that of the northerners. In the run-up to the World Cup debut, Maradona publicly declared that it would be his "last World Cup", as he planned to fulfill his contract with Napoli and then retire in Boca. The team debuted as defending champions on June 8 against Cameroon at the San Siro stadium. During the first half, Maradona received a brutal shoulder attack from Cameroonian defender Victor N'Dip. The team continued to be violently marked by the African team, which finished the match with two men less. In the end, Argentina was surprisingly defeated 1 to 0 with a header from François Omam-Biyik. The second match, against the Soviet Union, faced Argentina with the obligation to win to be able to advance to the phase and they won two to zero. The match had the particularity of a second "Hand of God" by Maradona, who stretched his right arm to block a shot by the Soviets that had surpassed goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea. Despite the obvious handball, the match referee did not charge any foul or card for the Argentine. Maradona had to infiltrate against Romania and for the rest of the matches of the tournament. Argentina tied 1-1 against the Romanians, and ended up passing the phase among the best third parties. In the round of 16, they had to face their classic rival Brazil, one of the great candidates for the title. Maradona admitted that the Brazilians were better than them. Despite the inflammation of his ankle, he declared that he would play "even in a cast." Brazil dominated the entire game against Argentina, who resisted as best they could, and had three shots hit the woodwork. With nine minutes left, Maradona grabbed the ball in the middle of the field, dribbled past three Brazilians, and almost falling, he passed to Claudio Caniggia, scoring the final goal of the match, one of the most celebrated goals in the history of football . Argentine.â In the quarterfinals, Argentina faced Yugoslavia. In a tough match, the Yugoslavs managed to take the game to penalties. Maradona missed his penalty during the shootout, and Argentina could have lost if it were not for the outstanding performance of Goycochea, who saved the last two penalties. Argentina reached the semifinals of the tournament, where the great candidate for the title awaited them: the local Italy. The match, played precisely at the San Paolo in Naples, pitted Maradona against his audience who had already idolized him. During the preview, Maradona had stated that He requested respect for the Neapolitans, who were in favor of him, from the rest of Italy. Argentina and Maradona played their best game of the World Cup thanks to an excellent strategy by Bilardo, and took the game to penalties after tying 1 to 1. This time, Maradona did not miss his penalty, and, against all odds, he ended up eliminating the local team after Goycochea once again blocked the last penalty. Argentina faced Germany again in the final played on July 8 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. During the anthems, the Argentine was whistled loudly by the Italian public, which provoked Maradona's reaction by insulting them in front of the cameras. In a controversial match, Argentina was greatly diminished by the absence of Caniggia and the expulsion of Pedro MonzĂłn, and finally , ended up losing 1-0 with eight minutes remaining due to one of the most discussed penalties in the history of the World Cups taken by Codesal. Maradona ended up crying at the awards ceremony, and received the Silver Ball for the second best player in the tournament. After the runner-up, during an interview in a mixed zone, Maradona surprisingly announced his resignation from the national team, angry about the result of the final. The National Team, this time with Coco Basile as coach, swept the 1991 Copa AmĂ©rica and added new talents while awaiting the return of their captain. On February 18, he was called up again after three years of absence to play a friendly against Brazil for the AFA Centennial, and six days later, to play the Artemio Franchi Cup against Denmark, in which Maradona won his last trophy with the National Team. Despite this achievement, Maradona would not be called up again to play in the 1993 Copa AmĂ©rica, in which Argentina once again emerged champion, nor for the 1994 World Cup Qualifiers, where the team suffered the historic 5-0 defeat against Colombia that He condemned her to play a playoff against Australia to qualify. During the match, the Argentine public demanded Maradona, so Basile and Julio Grondona tried to convince the former captain to return for the playoffs. However, before his official return took place, Maradona had to reconcile with Oscar Ruggeri, who replaced him as captain, to settle locker room problems, in a meeting in which "we fixed everything in ten minutes," as Diez declared later. On October 31, 1993, Argentina, with Maradona again as captain, faced Australia in Sydney in the first leg of the playoff. The team, in a tough match, barely tied 1-1 with an assist from Maradona for Abel Balbo's goal, so they had to win in the second leg, played at El Monumental on November 17. With a goal from Gabriel Batistuta, Argentina won 1-0 against the Australians and qualified for the World Cup in the United States. Maradona underwent rigorous training to prepare physically, since he was without a club, after leaving Newell's. In April 1994, Fernando Signorini, his personal physical trainer, took him to a stay in La Pampa away from the city, to train him away from the tedious press that surrounded him. He lost five kilos in five days, and with a renewed appearance, he joined the squad for the World Cup. He also participated in four friendly matches before the World Cup; The AFA canceled a tour that the team was supposed to make to Japan because that country denied him a visa to travel due to his drug history. However, other matches were held, against Ecuador, Croatia and Israel, the latter of which had been a cabal of the national team since the 1986 World Cup. Due to the mix of new talents such as Gabriel Batistuta and Diego Simeone, added to the physical plenitude of Caniggia , and the already experienced Maradona, Argentina positioned itself as one of the great candidates to win the tournament. Upon arriving in the United States, Argentina stayed at Babson College, a place that the AFA had designated as a base. The debut was on June 21 against Greece, with a 4-0 victory, in which was the match where Maradona scored his last goal in the World Cup, culminating a collective play that included successive touches by the Argentine players. Your celebration, in which he approached shouting euphorically in front of the camera, became iconic in subsequent years. The second match, against Nigeria, also ended with a 2-1 victory for the Argentines, with a goal from Caniggia after a quick Maradona's free kick that caught the Nigerian defense off guard. At the end of the match, Maradona was drawn to undergo an anti-doping test, and had to be slowly removed from the field by the hand of Sue Carpenter (dressed as a nurse although she was not one). According to journalistic versions, the Argentine cardiologist Roberto Maximino PeidrĂł told him He would have told the nurse: "Go look for Maradona so you can appear on the cover of all the newspapers." During the days before the match against Bulgaria, Maradona was informed by his representative that the test had been positive, which surely I would leave him out of the World Cup. And so it was: in the analyzes five prohibited substances were detected : ephedrine, norephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norseudoephedrine and metaephedrine, for which he was suspended for fifteen months, and had to leave the Argentine concentration. The National Team, considerably impacted by the loss, and even after being defeated 2-0 by Bulgaria, qualified for the round of 16, where they were eliminated by Romania, with a goal from Hagi, then nicknamed "the Maradona of the Carpathians." Maradona argued that he had not tried to take advantage in sports, but rather that those drugs were in a flu medication that his personal physical trainer, bodybuilder Daniel Cerrini, gave him. Cerrini was wrong to purchase an over-the-counter energizer â therefore unsuspected as a prohibited stimulant â whose brand name is Ripped, which came in two versions: Fuel or Fast. The difference was also in the packaging: one had a black background with red letters and the other the other way around, a red background with black and yellow letters. Maradona took the one that had pseudoephedrine and the control - at that time incipient - gave him a positive result.â In one historic press conference, Maradona expressed through tears the historic phrase: "they cut off my legs." Julio Grondona, the president of the AFA, would blame the player twelve years later, stating that "he cut off his legs by himself." Paradoxically, the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), which officially began operating in 1999, came to the conclusion that the amount ingested was not enough to be considered doping. Maradona's case was the first case that this agency studied to evaluate future changes in regulations, since the amount of pseudoephedrine and its derivatives found in his urine was striking . According to later sources, the positive result for which Maradona was suspended would not have been classified as such in subsequent decades with the new scales used. Finally, the match against Nigeria in Boston was the last one played by Maradona for the Argentine National Team, playing a total of 91 games and scoring 34 goals. A natural leader on and off the field, whenever there was a problem he spoke on behalf of the players. Maradona began his coaching career alongside his former Argentinos Juniors midfield partner , Carlos Fren. The couple led MandiyĂș de Corrientes in 1994 and Racing Club in 1995, with little success. In May 2011 he became coach of Dubai club Al Wasl FC in the United Arab Emirates. he was fired on July 10, 2012. In August 2013, he became "spiritual coach" of Argentine club Deportivo Riestra. He left this role in 2017 to become the head coach of Fujairah, in the UAE's second division, before leaving at the end of the season after failing to secure promotion at the club. In May 2018, Maradona was announced as the new president of Belarusian club Dinamo Brest. He arrived in Brest and was presented by the club to begin his duties in July. In September 2018, he was named coach of Mexican second division team Dorados. He made his debut with Dorados on September 17 with a 4-1 victory over Cafetaleros de Tapachula. On June 13, 2019, after Dorados failed to achieve promotion to the Mexican first division, Maradona's lawyer announced that he would resign from the position, citing health reasons. On September 5, 2019, Maradona was presented as the new coach of Gimnasia de La Plata, signing a contract until the end of the season. After two months in office, he left the club on November 19. However, two days later, Maradona rejoined the club as coach saying that "we finally achieved political unity in the club." Following the resignation of Argentine national team coach Alfio Basile in 2008, Maradona immediately proposed his candidacy for the vacant position. According to various press sources, his main rivals included; Diego Simeone, Carlos Bianchi, Miguel Ăngel Russo and Sergio Batista. On October 29, 2008, AFA president Julio Grondona confirmed that Maradona would be the coach of the national team. On 19 November, Maradona coached Argentina for the first time when they played Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow, which Argentina won 1â0. After winning his first three matches as national team coach, he oversaw a 6-1 loss to Bolivia, matching the worst margin of defeat in team history. With two matches remaining in the 2010 World Cup qualifying tournament, Argentina were in fifth place and facing the possibility of failing to qualify, but victory in the final two matches ensured qualification for the final. After Argentina qualified , Maradona used abusive language in the live post- match press conference, telling members of the media to "suck it and keep sucking it." FIFA responded with a two-month ban from all football activity, which expired on January 15, 2010, and a fine of 25,000 Swiss francs, with a warning about future conduct. In the World Cup final in June 2010, Argentina started by winning 1-0 against Nigeria, followed by a 4-1 victory over South Korea with a hat-trick from Gonzalo HiguaĂn. In the last match of the group stage, Argentina won 2-0 against Greece to win the group and advance to a second round, facing Mexico. However, after defeating Mexico 3-1, Argentina was defeated by Germany 4-0 in the quarterfinals to exit the competition. Argentina took fifth place in the tournament. After the defeat to Germany, Maradona admitted that he was reconsidering his future as Argentina coach, declaring: "I may leave tomorrow." On July 15, the AFA said he would be offered a new four-year contract that would keep him in charge until the summer of 2014, when Brazil hosted the World Cup. However, on July 27, the AFA announced that its board had unanimously decided not to renew his contract. Later, on July 29, Maradona claimed that AFA president Julio Grondona and national team director (as well as his former Argentine and Sevilla national team coach), Carlos Bilardo, had "lied to him," betrayed" and had effectively been fired from office. He said: "They wanted me to continue but seven of my employees were not supposed to continue, if he told me that it meant he didn't want me to continue working." In 1999, Maradona was ranked second behind PelĂ© on World Soccer magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Players of the 20th Century". Along with PelĂ©, Maradona was one of two joint winners of the "Player of the Century" award. FIFA" in 2000, and also came fifth in the "IFFHS Election of the Century". In a 2014 FIFA poll, Maradona was voted the second greatest number 10 of all time, behind only PelĂ© ,â and later that year, he ranked second on The Guardian's list of the 100 greatest World Cup players of all time , ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, once again behind PelĂ©. In 2017, FourFourTwo ranked him first on their list of the "100 Greatest Players", while in 2018, he was ranked first by the same magazine on their list of the "Best Soccer Players in Football History". World Cup"; in March 2020, too He was ranked first by Jack Gallagher of 90min.com in his list of "The 50 Greatest Players of All Time". In May 2020, Sky Sports ranked Maradona as the best player to never win the UEFA Champions League or the European Cup. In January 2000, Maradona was admitted to intensive care at the Cantegril Sanatorium, while he was on vacation in the Uruguayan city of Punta del Este. The player entered the clinic with a hypertensive crisis and ventricular arrhythmia. Many years later, Jorge Romero, a doctor who treated him in Punta del Este, commented on the situation that put the idol on the brink of death: âIf we didn't hospitalize him, he would die in a few hours. He stopped breathing for periods of five or six secondsâ In 2003, Diego Maradona ended two of his most important relationships: with his wife Claudia Villafañe and with his representative and friend Guillermo CĂłppola. His wife filed for divorce on March 7 for abandoning the home in 1998,292 after remaining married for more than 13 years. In April 2004, Maradona once again suffered a major health problem and was admitted to the Swiss-Argentine Clinic in Buenos Aires. The clinic authorities stated that the player had suffered "a hypertensive crisis, with a baseline picture of dilated heart disease." After moving away from professional football, Maradona dedicated himself to more than one activity, among other various occupations, he was a sports commentator, vice president of the Boca Juniors Football Commission, television host and made several advertisements. He also participated in numerous football matches. charity football , and was a luxury guest at events involving various sports in addition to football, including basketball, boxing, field hockey, rugby and tennis. After his retirement, Maradona waited more than four years to play his farewell match. It took place on November 10, 2001, in La Bombonera, in a match between the Argentine team and an all-star team. After the match, an excited Maradona gave a speech, accepting mistakes, in which he uttered another of his remembered phrases: "I made a mistake and I paid, but the ball is not stained." Maradona and Villafañe married on November 7, 1989, at a great party held at the Luna Park stadium in the City of Buenos Aires. The contractual relationship and friendship that united them ended with CĂłppola , later initiating a lawsuit for alleged money owed. After leaving sporting activity, and due to his excesses with food and drugs, Maradona gained considerable weight, reaching 120 kilos in February 2005. In March 2005, he underwent bariatric surgery (gastric bypass) in the city ââof Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to control obesity and other problems related to overweight. Thanks to surgery and a strict diet, Maradona lost more than 50 kilos in a few months. Once his health problems were overcome, he was offered to host a television program that would be broadcast on Channel 13. This took place on August 15, 2005 with the first broadcast of his program, La noche del 10. As a guest for the first program He chose PelĂ©, with whom he had had a media confrontation for years. The program had interviews with several personalities, but the most important event was the interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, with whom he maintained a friendly relationship since his time on the island. On November 7 of the same year, the last program of the cycle was broadcast from Luna Park, and had American boxer Mike Tyson as the main guest. The program was the winner of the 2005 ClarĂn EspectĂĄculos Awards in the categories of Best Entertainment Program and Best Production; Maradona was chosen as Figure of the Year. In addition, he won the MartĂn Fierro in the Integral Production category. While hosting his television show, he also participated in the second season of the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars on the RAI network, which he finally resigned due to problems with the Italian treasury and because of how exhausting it was to travel to that country two times a week. In November 2005, Maradona gained political relevance by being one of the main figures at the People's Summit, where he demonstrated the opposition to the FTAA and the repudiation of George Bush, was attended by Maradona himself, the Venezuelan president Hugo ChĂĄvez, Silvio RodrĂguez, Adolfo PĂ©rez Esquivel and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. On March 28, 2007, he was admitted to the GĂŒemes Sanatorium, due to excess alcoholic beverages. He was diagnosed with "acute and toxic chemical hepatitis ", so he had to remain hospitalized until April 11. After his task as a coach, he began to perform the role of sports ambassador of the United Arab Emirates,316 while on February 3, 2013, his son Diego was born. In 2014, Maradona would return to a journalistic role by signing a contract with the teleSUR channel, co-hosting the program De Zurda with the Uruguayan VĂctor Hugo Morales . In it he carried out an analysis of the World Cup football matches , and the program was awarded the Rodolfo Walsh Prize by the National University of La Plata. . It was not the first time that Maradona played the role of commentator at a Soccer World Cup. In the 1994 edition in the United States, after being expelled for consuming ephedrine, he commented on the match between his country and Romania in the round of 16, while he also worked during the 2006 World Cup in Germany for the Spanish television channel Cuatro. . On September 1, 2014, Maradona, along with many current and former football stars , took part in the "Match for Peace", which was played at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, with the proceeds entirely donated to charity. [227] Maradona assisted Roberto Baggio during the first half of the match, with a pass filtered over the defense with the outside of his left foot. [228] Unusually, both Baggio and Maradona wore the number 10 shirt, despite playing on the same team. Maradona was voted number 1 in "The 10 Greatest World Cup Players of All Time" by the London newspaper The Times. In September 2006, Maradona, wearing his famous blue and white number 10, captained Argentina in a three- day Futsal World Cup tournament in Spain. In 1990, the Konex Foundation of Argentina awarded him the Konex Diamante Award, one of the most prestigious cultural awards in Argentina, as the most important sports personality in the last decade in his country. In 1993, two of their children would be born: Diego (the result of an extramarital relationship and recognized by Maradona 29 years later), on September 20, 1986, and Dalma, on April 2, 1987. In 1989, the joy would also be transferred At the family level, in May of that year their second daughter was born: Gianinna. In April 1996, Maradona had a three-round exhibition boxing match with Santos Laciar for charity. In September 2000 he published his autobiography, titled "Yo soy el Diego",286 in which he reviewed his football career and confessed the origins of his drug addiction. Former Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi also praised Maradona for his ability to work defensively without the ball in a 2010 interview with Il Corriere dello Sport. On February 2, Maradona attacked a group of journalists and photographers who were guarding the door of his villa located in Moreno with a compressed air rifle and for this act he was sentenced, some time later, to two years in suspended prison and to pay compensation. to the attacked journalists. In 2014, Maradona was accused of attacking his girlfriend, RocĂo Oliva, accusations he denied. In 2017, he gave her a house in Bella Vista, but in December 2018 they separated. Maradona's great-nephew, HernĂĄn LĂłpez, is also a professional footballer. Maradona was ideologically leftist. He supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and condemned military attacks in the Strip during the 2014 conflict, saying: "What he is doing to the Palestinians is shameful." He became friends with Cuban President Fidel Castro while receiving treatment on the island, and Castro declared: "Diego is a great friend and very noble too. There is also no doubt that he is a wonderful athlete and has maintained a friendship with Cuba without any material benefit of his own." Maradona expressed his support for Bolivian President Evo Morales and also supported former Venezuelan President Hugo ChĂĄvez. In 2004, Maradona participated in a protest against the US-led war in Iraq. Maradona declared his opposition to what he identified as imperialism, particularly during the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. With his upbringing in a slum, Maradona cultivated a man of the people personality. During a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1987, they clashed over the issue of wealth disparity, with Maradona stating: "I argued with him because I was in the Vatican and I saw all these golden ceilings and then I heard the Pope say that the Church was concerned about the welfare of poor children. Sell your roof then, friend, do something!" In September 2014, Maradona met with Pope Francis in Rome. In December 2007, Maradona gave a signed shirt with a message of support to the people of Iran: it is displayed in the museum of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Gianni MinĂ was one of Diego's most sincere friends. On November 25, at the age of 60, Maradona suffered cardiac arrest and died in his sleep at his home in Dique LujĂĄn, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Maradona's coffin , draped in Argentina's national flag and three Maradona number 10 jerseys (Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and Argentina), lay in state at the Presidential Palace, the Casa Rosada, with mourners filing past his coffin. On November 26, Maradona's wake, attended by tens of thousands of people, was interrupted by his family when his coffin was moved from the rotunda of the Presidential Palace after fans took over an interior courtyard and also clashed with the police. On the same day, a private funeral was held and Maradona was buried next to his parents at the JardĂn de Bella Vista cemetery in Bella Vista, Buenos Aires. That's it for the video friends, long live football, until next time.
