DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA

Diego Armando Maradona has been the greatest football player ever!
To prove this, just think that the most beautiful goal in the history of football was scored by Maradona in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico against England, when he dribbled 6 English players and the goalkeeper scoring an amazing goal... just few minutes after his world-famous "Hand of God" goal, when he scored with his hand and the referee did not notice that.
Born on October 30, 1960 in the poor slums of Villa Fiorito in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Diego grew up with soccer. In the halftime of the Argentinos Juniors matches, a young boy from the youth team entertained the audience playing and juggling with the ball. "¡Que se quede!, ¡que se quede!" (=let him stay!) the fans in the stadium said. His quick football career started in Argentinos Juniors where he made his debut in the Argentina first division at 15 years of age. He then joined Boca Juniors and led the Argentina youth team to win the world cup in 1979. After the 1982 world cup in Spain, when he was already an idol, he joined Barcelona and played in Spain for two seasons. In 1984 the dreams of millions of Napoli fans throughout the world became reality: he joined the team where he would win two Italian Championships in 1986/87 and 1989/90, one Coppa Italia (1987), one UEFA cup (1989) and one Supercoppa Italiana (1990). In the meantime, he became the hero of Argentina's triumph in Mexico 1986 World Cup where he almost single-handedly led the team to the final victory. Unfortunately, after failing a dope test in 1991 he was banned from the soccer fields. After the suspension, he went to Spain to play for Sevilla and then back to Argentina with Newell's Old Boys. Then, after a pair of coachings in Argentina for Deportivo Mandiyú and Racing de Avellaneda, he came back to play for Boca Juniors.

In the World Cup of 1994 in the USA, Maradona was tested after the match against Nigeria and was found to have used "ephedrine", not permitted by FIFA. He was suspended from playing soccer for more than a year as punishment. Although Argentina came in with a strong team in the 1994 World Cup, everything went downhill and, without their captain, they were soon defeated.

After the suspension, he started playing again for Boca Juniors until 1997: on October 30, 1997, day of his 37th birthday, he retired from football.

Nobody can judge somebody else's life. Even less can anyone judge such a difficult life as the one of a world-famous personality. But we must all judge Maradona for what he showed on the football fields all over the world, and we will certainly all agree that the spectacle he brought to the world of sports is something really unique and unforgettable. Thanks for everything, DIEGO.