Whether Maradona is the best to have played football at the highest level is debatable, but for me he is the best coz I haven’t seen much of the ’’black pearl’’..(at least live)... whereas I have had the opportunity to see Diego in action.. live..
Well, a lot has been written about the 1986 Mexico Worldcup and the (in)famous ’’hand of God’’, but it surely requires mention... It was this goal that Diego scored against England but it actually was ’’fisting’’ and not ’’heading’’ as he claimed it to be....’’if there was any hand involved in it, it was the hand of God’’.... perhaps he thought himself as God?? Well, he had all the reason to think so coz he was single handedly (pun not intended) carrying the hopes of his nation in that edition of the world cup..... The one thing that was missed in this controversy was the other goal that Diego scored in the same match... defeating 3 defenders with his guile and netting the ball...and he went on to score again in the semi’s.. and set up a goal in the finals... and Argentina went on to win that world cup.... One has to watch the videos of his game in Naples in the league coz that was when he was at his best.... and that was what prompted people to take more notice about him... ..
In the next edition, he was a pale shadow of his self...and he was ’’marked’’ well by the opponents.. but still he did have a good game (i think against Romania.. if my memory is right)... where he scored the all important goal their team needed to move to the knock out stage.. After that, he was more into play-acting... looking for penalties...and a complete negative game..but in that edition too, he was the ’’game-maker’’ and Cannigia and Batistuta fed on his passes and they had a good world cup.
Letz not talk about the 1994 worldcup where he was sent back bcos of cocaine (or was it something else?) detected in his urine sample..
Maradona was really short and his burly figure, maybe made it more easy for him to turn around and literally ’’dance’’ around defenders.... when he was in his prime, he was really a treat to watch.. and I haven’t seen anyone else after him to be so good in that.....