[Football] Maradona has died

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El Presidente

El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
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Jul 5, 2003
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Pattknull med Haksprut
Doc Lynam said:
Bit of a rare one here; this is one of technically the most impressive things I've ever seen. As recounted by Zidane, in a small exhibition match at the end of the game Maradona hits the post (on purpose) 5 times then chips the keeper!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK843s9BwVs
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Meh, I've seen Leonardo Trossard do similar, apart from chip the keeper at the end. :glare:
 




Randy McNob

Randy McNob

> > > > > > Cardiff > > > > >
Jun 13, 2020
4,724
Perfidious Albion said:
Maradona ......a great player certainly , but the best ever? Such claims are subjective but for me Pele was the more complete footballer.
Maradona the man was , sadly, a terrible person... but the world remembers, quite rightly his skill. Hardly worth all the outpouring of praise though, in my opinion.
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well before my time but didn't Pele play all his football in south america then the mickey mouse US league?

and would Brazil won the WC in 70 without him? absolutely....
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Back on 4OD - well worth a watch.

390762-diego-maradona-9-1557633983.jpg
 


Bold Seagull

Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,464
Hove
Herne Hill Seagull said:
The G.O.A.T. debate will always be impossible to pin down because of the evolution of the game. But for me, you can't be the GOAT if you're a cheat. And he was a cheat. Bernd Schuster, his teammate at Barcelona, said after the '86 quarter final that he practised that handball move in training. And then he was slung out of the 94 World Cup for failing a drugs test.

Is Armstrong still the greatest cyclist of all time? Maradona shouldn't even be part of the conversation IMO.
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A troubled genius no doubt about that.

Bernd Schuster who fell out with just about everyone, from his national football association to team mates, throughout his career as a coach. Take what he says with a pinch of salt.

I'm also not sure the kind of drugs Diego was doing can be considered performance enhancing, well unless you're flagging a bit on a dance floor at 4am. :mad::rave:
 










A

allystrat

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Dec 19, 2011
275




hart's shirt

hart's shirt

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Jul 8, 2003
11,079
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Easy 10 said:
Lovely story from Lineker when he played with Diego in one of those England v ROTW games. In the warm-up, Maradona was hammering the ball directly up, high into the sky on the volley, and did it 13 times without the ball touching the floor, he barely moved 3 yards. Lineker went back to Barca the next day and they all tried it - the most anyone could manage was 3, and they were proper running and stretching for the 3rd.

Different gravy.
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Durlston

Durlston

"You plonker, Rodney!"
Jul 15, 2009
10,017
Haywards Heath
As I'm trying to get some work (ha!) done, out of the corner of my eye is my World Cup 1990 Panini sticker album collection. Fully completed with every tournament, goal, sending-off, etc recorded inside. On the front cover is Diego Armando Maradona joyfully lifting the World Cup four years earlier and the euphoric crowd with him as like a God, he is treated. What a wonderful image. Would I ever part with my 'bible'? No. Not even for all the money in the world.

Maradona fought his way out of poverty in some of the most dangerous streets in the world, 25 miles from Buenos Aires. For what he achieved the footballing world has lost its most talented son. With a ball at his feet, the magic of weaving his way past defenders as if he had the ball glued to his feet will always live with me forever. And I will never ever tire of watching his best goals on Youtube which could take hours. Growing up in the eighties and being in school playgrounds a handball was simply called a 'Maradona'. But we all knew what a legendary player he was. A school assembly was called a couple of days after the 'hand of God' goal which helped England exit the tournament. "Cheats never prosper!" bellowed my headmaster. But this one did and what glory he achieved.

Thanks Diego. You were probably the biggest influence in getting me to love football. A life certainly well lived and 60 years of incredible stories. Thoughts with his family. I did cry for you last night, Argentina. :clap2:
 


Pavilionaire

Pavilionaire

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Jul 7, 2003
31,265
Easy 10 said:
Sorry Pav, I normally nod sagely to your posts as we are usually on the same wavelength, but this is proper bobbins.

I'm not denying that courtesy of Diego, we happened to be on the receiving end of 1 of the 2 singlemost greatest travesties in the ENTIRE HISTORY of the World Cup (the other being Lampards 'goal' against zee Germans). But you cannot extrapolate that Maradona handball incident in 86' as the example that set all ills in the modern game.

He cheated with a handball - NOT with diving, which you seem to be alluding to. If you take a look at any of those YT vids of him dribbling, the last thing Maradona was famous for is diving. Much like Messi, he routinely took an absolute hammering from the opposition, but invariably (and mostly successfully) tried to ride it out. If you can find me footage of Maradona taking a non-contact dive and rolling around in fake agony, then I will repost on here with an image of a 3-legged unicorn with a green cock.
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I didn't mention diving because that's about the only thing he didn't do - he believed he could beat anyone without having to go to ground.

I mean cheating in a wider sense - cheating with performance-enhancing drugs, cheating the tax system, as well as socialising with mafia criminals. He was the first real global football superstar, having played in South America and in Europe's two top leagues at the time, but he didn't set a very good example and dodging £33 million in tax in 1980s is a colossal figure.

Obviously, he carried everything to excess. I know I'm in the minority and most people don't care about what he did off the field. For me, he was a football genius who was also a bit of c*nt.
 




H

Herne Hill Seagull

Well-known member
Jul 10, 2003
2,985
Galicia
Simster said:
...just because he cheated against England.
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He didn't just cheat against England, though, did he? We weren't even at the World Cup in 94. It's not simply about what he did to England. Far worse than the handball was the glorying in it afterwards. Any player, no matter how good, no matter how worshipped in his own country, should be vilified in the event he comes out crowing about cheating so blatantly.

I'm not denying his genius as a player - I recognise that when I see it. But that just makes all the other crap so galling. That's why he's not in the conversation, in my view - it's got nothing to do with his ability. Greatness is about more than just how good you are.
 


herecomesaregular

herecomesaregular

We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
Oct 27, 2008
4,651
Still in Brighton
Pavilionaire said:
I didn't mention diving because that's about the only thing he didn't do - he believed he could beat anyone without having to go to ground.

I mean cheating in a wider sense - cheating with performance-enhancing drugs, cheating the tax system, as well as socialising with mafia criminals. He was the first real global football superstar, having played in South America and in Europe's two top leagues at the time, but he didn't set a very good example and dodging £33 million in tax in 1980s is a colossal figure.

Obviously, he carried everything to excess. I know I'm in the minority and most people don't care about what he did off the field. For me, he was a football genius who was also a bit of c*nt.
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My first reaction was '86 handball (I was 14, it had a big impact at the time) and oh, no surprise, he died after years of drug and alcohol abuse.
Then you are reminded where he grew up and came from and that even before the age of 10 he was given pills and injections "to boost his health" because he was so good so young that they thought he must be older and under nourished. Hard to criticise future drug misuse perhaps in those circumstances.
 


SeagullinExile

SeagullinExile

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Sep 10, 2010
6,191
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Herne Hill Seagull said:
He didn't just cheat against England, though, did he? We weren't even at the World Cup in 94. It's not simply about what he did to England. Far worse than the handball was the glorying in it afterwards. Any player, no matter how good, no matter how worshipped in his own country, should be vilified in the event he comes out crowing about cheating so blatantly.

I'm not denying his genius as a player - I recognise that when I see it. But that just makes all the other crap so galling. That's why he's not in the conversation, in my view - it's got nothing to do with his ability. Greatness is about more than just how good you are.
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For a bit of balance, you should really mention all the charitable stuff he did off the pitch. I mean, could you see any of todays players going against the wishes of their employers, and play a charity match to raise funds for a sick child? He did in 1984, at the height of his fame in Naples.
 






brightn'ove

brightn'ove

cringe
Apr 12, 2011
9,169
London
Pavilionaire said:
I'll be honest about this. As a footballer he had God-given talent but he has also been influential in creating the modern game we see today, and not in a good way.

I am old enough to realise that Argentina would have beaten us in 1986 - with or without the Hand Of God - but it seems everyone cheats like Maradona now, and football is the poorer for it.
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Can't say I really agree. Watch some of the clips and look at how he hurdles awful tackle after tackle - players of today could LEARN something from him. You don't have to go down to gain an advantage.

Only the english see him as a cheat, because of one incident. The rest of the world see him as possibly the greatest player of all time.
 




Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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S

SAC

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May 21, 2014
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brightn'ove said:
Can't say I really agree. Watch some of the clips and look at how he hurdles awful tackle after tackle - players of today could LEARN something from him. You don't have to go down to gain an advantage.

Only the english see him as a cheat, because of one incident. The rest of the world see him as possibly the greatest player of all time.
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Rubbish, I know lots of Italians who still think of him as the tax dodging drugs cheat that he was.
 


Stat Brother

Stat Brother

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SAC said:
Rubbish, I know lots of Italians who still think of him as the tax dodging drugs cheat that he was.
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Would those be Northern Italians?
 


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