Diego Still The Greatest
May 3, 2006 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Prepare yourselves for some unashamed hero worship today as I watched When Gary Met Diego last night and I’ve still got a smile on my face after seeing some great interaction between two of my all-time footballing heroes.
Lineker as a Spurs goalscoring legend in the late 1980s/early 1990s goes without saying for a young Spurs fan who had to endure the taunts of the all conquering Liverpool side’s fans through his childhood but having a true world superstar like Gary Lineker banging them in for us helped make it better.
Diego Maradona is another story altogether though. I’ve mentioned before my earliest World Cup memories being collecting the Panini Mexico ‘86 sticker collection and watching the action unfurl from across the world on our TV screen as one Northern Ireland legend in Pat Jennings broke the world record for international caps (119 at the time) and an Argentinian superstar at the very peak of his powers delivered a set of performances that have gone down in football history.
As far as I’m concerned Diego Maradona is the greatest footballer to ever have laced up a pair of boots and despite countless arguments to the contrary it’s an opinion I’ll never sway from. The man was a genius with a football and to see him speaking to Gary Lineker last night on BBC TV speaking candidly about his drug and food addictions as well as his World Cup winning antics with his country made me smile. I was happy because one of the game’s truly flawed geniuses had shown that given some time and the support of a strong family unit that it is possible to exorcise your demons and come back to the very things that mean most to you in life.
In Maradona’s case this means his family including his two daughters and his parents who he now lives with in Buenos Aires and his true football love in Boca Juniors. To see the little man back to his playing weight and looking in fabulous shape was a great testament to his willpower since overcoming his cocaine addiction and watching him almost leaping over the balcony of his private box while watching Boca play means a lot to this blogger so many miles away who remembers watching the same man on the screen twenty years ago weaving his way in and out of tackles and doing the ultimate in bringing the World Cup back to his country.
There will never be another footballer quite like Diego Armando Maradona and I for one am rather glad. There will always be only one Diego.
I too still have vivid memories of watching Diego’s shining moment on TV, but it has been sad to watch his steady decline in recent years … that said, he was indeed the greatest I’ve seen too
That’s what made last night’s programme so great Keith, Diego seems to have finally found a way to tame his demons and get his life back on track.
To see him back to fitness and laughing and joking surrounded by his family is infinitely more preferable to seeing him so overweight and close to death from drug overdoses.
Long may the good times continue for him.
as the blogger for http://www.sportinformer.com i disagree with you, pele was the greatest footballer that ever lived.maradona could not go all the way.he did not have a successful career.
Bit of a spammy opening to your comment jonathan but I’ll play along…
Did not have a successful career? Maradona won the World Cup with an average Argentina side, dragged them to the final again four years later and won two Serie A titles with relative minnows Napoli.
If that’s not successful then I don’t know what is.
Pele never played outside Brazil. He never proved himself on the European stage and he played in probabaly the greatest Brazil sides ever during the 1960s and 1970.
For me there can only be one winner and it’s Diego.
Diego had a monster career. Just funny how people could think otherwise.
Oh sheeesh, I wasn’t born when Pele did his tricks and I was “way way” too young when Maradona was at his prime. I can’t appreciate them enough to have them as the greatest in my heart.
Ronaldo is my guy.
Ronaldo definitely displayed promise before the injuries did for him but I have to say he never approached the genius of Maradona.
From my point of view…Diego Armando Maradona who known as Maradona to every human being in the world, is the greatest of all footballers came in football history without any doubt.Pele was great in his time for being a participant of winning the world cup, but he had very good companies with him at that time that made his winning the cup.
Maradona is the greatest footballer in Football history.Still no footballer like Maradona did come in football.He can be compared to himself.I strongly believe that if he could utilize his football talent he had got from the creature, no one would ever dare to compare any other footballer with him. Pele was great in his time as he had many of companions such as Vava, Garinza and many more with him.His success was as a result of total team work.On the otherhand, all knows that Maradona was not scorer, he was play-maker. But he proved himself both scorer and play-maker.He showed the whole world that only one player can lift a country by winning the world cup in 1986 if he had talent and can use the talent with devotion.That’s why he is one and only footballer ever came in football history.