NationStates

Diego Maradona, one of the greatest football/soccer players in history, has died of a heart attack at the age of 60; he had had brain surgery earlier in the month.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... d-cup-1986


I'll be forever scarred by 1986, but just this once I'll keep my thoughts on a certain match to myself.

And while I'll admit to preferring Pele, Maradona was an extraordinary player; there'll always be that second goal against England...

He's finally at the right hand of God.

May Allah give him a just reward.

RIP Pelusa

He was perhaps the greatest footballer of our time, this is a monumental loss. 2020 strikes again...

I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.
but RIP.

Mathuvan Union wrote:I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.

Maradona was onto something with the hand of god

Greater Cesnica wrote:He was perhaps the greatest footballer of our time, this is a monumental loss. 2020 strikes again...

Pele

In all seriousness, this was some bad news. Hope his family is alright

Twicetagram and JYPe wrote:

Greater Cesnica wrote:He was perhaps the greatest footballer of our time, this is a monumental loss. 2020 strikes again...

Pele

In all seriousness, this was some bad news. Hope his family is alright

It really sucks. In the midst of a global pandemic, what takes him is cardiac arrest. I can't begin to imagine how heartbroken his family must be.

Greater Cesnica wrote:

Mathuvan Union wrote:I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.

Maradona was onto something with the hand of god

He was finally grabbed by the Hand Of God.
this is a sad day for football. He may have been a questionable fellow but at the minimum he was a person (of which quite a few despised) but he deserves my respect.

Mathuvan Union wrote:I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.
but RIP.

Nah England wasn't' gonna win it in 1986. England always seems to get hyped up only for their expectations to be let down time and time again, especially by Maradona's play where they all tried to break Maradona's legs during the goal of the century.

Outer Sparta wrote:

Mathuvan Union wrote:I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.
but RIP.

Nah England wasn't' gonna win it in 1986. England always seems to get hyped up only for their expectations to be let down time and time again, especially by Maradona's play where they all tried to break Maradona's legs during the goal of the century.

England's a vicious cycle

Greater Cesnica wrote:

Twicetagram and JYPe wrote:Pele

In all seriousness, this was some bad news. Hope his family is alright

It really sucks. In the midst of a global pandemic, what takes him is cardiac arrest. I can't begin to imagine how heartbroken his family must be.

It must really suck. Never mind the dumb bullshit he did, he'll still stay in our hearts(positively or negatively).

Twicetagram and JYPe wrote:

Outer Sparta wrote:Nah England wasn't' gonna win it in 1986. England always seems to get hyped up only for their expectations to be let down time and time again, especially by Maradona's play where they all tried to break Maradona's legs during the goal of the century.

England's a vicious cycle

Greater Cesnica wrote:It really sucks. In the midst of a global pandemic, what takes him is cardiac arrest. I can't begin to imagine how heartbroken his family must be.

It must really suck. Never mind the dumb bullshit he did, he'll still stay in our hearts(positively or negatively).

It'll especially be Boca, Argentinos Juniors, Argentina, and Napoli fans that will be most affected.

RIP. 2020 has made many fall. I'll always remember his 2nd goal against England, though, positively or negatively.

Outer Sparta wrote:

Mathuvan Union wrote:I'm not letting him forget the hand of god incident. That was england's cup and he knew it.
but RIP.

Nah England wasn't' gonna win it in 1986. England always seems to get hyped up only for their expectations to be let down time and time again, especially by Maradona's play where they all tried to break Maradona's legs during the goal of the century.

That was not the goal of the century. Had Maradona's goal been rightfully disallowed, then the game would have gone to penalties easy. Maradona should've been sent off for that.

Twicetagram and JYPe wrote:

Greater Cesnica wrote:He was perhaps the greatest footballer of our time, this is a monumental loss. 2020 strikes again...

Pele

I believe you misspelt Zinedine Zidane.

I'm just a casual fan, but Diego is definitely one of my favorite players of all time. RIP.

And the 'goal of the century' is even better with this commentary.

Maradona is undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time, as much as he is despised over here but I think that should be put aside for this moment.

rip

Cocaine really fucks you up.

Probably the greatest player that ever was. RIP

A very sad day for football in general and for Argentina in particular. I love you Diego, thank you for giving this country so much happiness. Rest in peace.

RIP Maradona, not only was he a great soccer player but he was also incredibly based.

He was an incredible footballer and essentially the emblem of Argentina and Naples.

That aside he was an incredibly flawed character, it's really hard to make a judgment on him given his rise from abject poverty, his cocaine abuse, his rampant cheating - a plastic penis for god's sake - where perhaps the hand of god followed by one of the best goals of any WC kind of sum up the chasm between the foul and the sublime.

So, I guess, in the end one can simply say he was an incredible footballer and leave it at that.

It was all so sudden. He will be remembered.

I share with you a translation by myself of a famous text in reference to why some of us, despite all its contradictions and defects, still love him: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1467194.

Eluney wrote:I share with you a translation by myself of a famous text in reference to why some of us, despite all its contradictions and defects, still love him: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1467194.

I think it's hard for anyone to really understand what he means to Argentina..

In the 1920s, as Argentina, a booming immigrant nation, sought a sense of identity, it became apparent that football was one of the few things that bound its disparate population together. No matter what your background, you wanted the team in the blue and white striped shirts to win – and that meant the way the national side played was of political and cultural significance.

The debate was played out in the pages of El Gráfico, and a consensus emerged that Argentinian football stood in opposition to the game of the British, the quasi-colonial power having largely departed by the beginning of the first world war. On the vast grassy playing fields of the British schools, football was about power and running and energy. The Argentinian, by contrast, learned the game in the potreros, the vacant lots of the slums, on small, hard, crowded pitches where there was no teacher to step in if it got a bit too rough; their game was about being streetwise, tight, technical ability – and cunning.

If a statue was to be erected to the soul of the Argentinian game, El Gráfico’s editor Borocotó wrote in 1928, it would depict “a pibe [urchin] with a dirty face, a mane of hair rebelling against the comb; with intelligent, roving, trickster and persuasive eyes and a sparkling gaze that seem to hint at a picaresque laugh that does not quite manage to form on his mouth, full of small teeth that might be worn down through eating yesterday’s bread.

“His trousers are a few roughly sewn patches; his vest with Argentinian stripes, with a very low neck and with many holes eaten out by the invisible mice of use … His knees covered with the scabs of wounds disinfected by fate; barefoot or with shoes whose holes in the toes suggest they have been made through too much shooting. His stance must be characteristic; it must seem as if he is dribbling with a rag ball.”