Diego Maradona has died aged 60. | Vital Football

Diego Maradona has died aged 60.

Hi autobiograpy is fantastic.
The love for football shines through.
His addictions are admitted and explained.
and his opinions on the 50 or 60 players he played against or are up and coming at the end are spot on.
What he did at Napoli was glorious.
Remarkable player.
Remarkable life.
 
I don't get all that Nick.
Owen.
Shearer.
Different kind of cheats.
He was a class apart on the pitch.
Off the pitch he was a troubled soul. He didn't shy away from that.
He always said of he hadn't been hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol imagine the player he could have been.
 
stupops said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1331646817050746883

Imagine....
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Thanks Stu. Remember that day well.

I wonder if many English football fans would change their opinions of Diego had the ref ruled hand ball?

We'd all take the goal if it were us scoring it, but then again, we wouldn't have used our hand.

Great naturally gifted player that didn't realize 100% of his potential due to some very bad life choices.

R.I.P Diego Maradona
 
Critical_Spur said:
Is that because of hand of god or a general reference to the seedy side of his life?

No doubting the talent, but never considered him a role model for the younger generation.

RIP.
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Both...I was once on a plane from Paris to Madrid when who should come on board but the man himself and his entourage...he sat right in front of me and at one point on the flight he put his seat back as far as it would go and stretched his arms back over the seat and there it was, the hand of God within reach... I thought “If only I’d brought my chopper with me”.
 
stupops said:
I don't get all that Nick.
Owen.
Shearer.
Different kind of cheats.
He was a class apart on the pitch.
Off the pitch he was a troubled soul. He didn't shy away from that.
He always said of he hadn't been hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol imagine the player he could have been.
Click to expand...

He played with performance enhancing drugs and got caught and banned I think. Who knows how long he had been using ?
 
He used Cocaine as early as 1982, got caught with half a kilo of it in 1991, surely that's a dealers quantity. He tested positive for Ephedrine in 1994, a performance enhancing drug which increases energy levels. He had connections to criminal gangs. But never mind all that, let's celebrate his football ( which he cheated at ).
 
I'm not going to rip the man for things he's done in his private life, none of us are perfect. However great the man was as a pro he will always be labelled a cheat. That's punishment enough for me. Love him or loathe him he remains one of the greatest footballers of all time.
 
Can't defend his private life, but have more angst towards Shilts, the ref and lino for their mass incompetence in the hand of god goal. It should have just been disallowed and a yellow card branded with Shilts getting away with won. Instead they won the WC.

What also annoyed me more is 4 years later when Bobby Robson put Shilton back in goal for the next World Cup. Him not being able to get his feet off the floor at 40 for the Brehme goal still haunts me, not to mention his lack of reactions for every penalty.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
He used Cocaine as early as 1982, got caught with half a kilo of it in 1991, surely that's a dealers quantity. He tested positive for Ephedrine in 1994, a performance enhancing drug which increases energy levels. He had connections to criminal gangs. But never mind all that, let's celebrate his football ( which he cheated at ).
Click to expand...

I'm always bemused at the hand of God 'instant' - he cheated, what turned it into more than it was, not even that we lost against him, but of course his use of it as some sort of divine retribution because of how the British reclaimed the Falklands.

That was for most what stuck in peoples throats - I personally lost ALL respect for him when it was clear he was taking performance-enhancing drugs which after a long investigation by the authorities, it was clear he and his teammates had been for many years - to me that undermined all and any achievements he may have claimed, Italian football was forced to clean it's game up, and it wasn't long before some of the incredible Italian league clubs and their national team couldn't quite reaching some the heights they did; we now know, they were all at it.
 
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