Diego Maradona - 1960-2020

He might have been one of the greatest players, but in 1986 he went a long way down in my estimations!

 

And I would have won the Wimbledon doubles had I not failed to execute a forehand volley at 5-4 up in the tie break against Meredith Mc`Grath and Patricia Hy!
You can't prove that Keighley can you?!
As a man you probably wouldn't want to go near him.
As a footballer few could GET near him.
The best that I have seen,although I never saw Puskas,Di Stefano,Edwards,Matthews or Finney.

 

No, of course I can’t but I’m just suggesting the margins in these events, and thus the way history unfolds, are wafer thin. As it was, England were within a few inches of equalising and if Maradona’s cheating had been spotted, as it would have been today, then it’s very possible we would not be talking about him effectively winning the WC for his country.

Personally, I think Cruyff was better. I’m too young for Pele.

 

Such is the nature of sport.
The fact is Argentina won it and he was,depending on one's view,instrumental or a huge part of that.
Cruyff was superb and how Holland managed to **** up the '74 final is a great shame,not unlike Hungary in '54 ( so I'm told!). I think the Dutch managed to taunt the West Germans,Second World War being fresh in their minds and animosity/ hatred still a strong memory.
Travesty.

 

Was he taken advantage of? Or did he discover drugs and loose women and realise that lifestyle is much more enjoyable than training hard for football matches?

I've done drugs, shagged loose women and trained for football matches and I can tell you which are the most enjoyable of the pursuits.

 

Yes, quite so but it’s worth remembering how very easy it would have been for history to have been different when we assess who is/was the best.

One of the reasons I favour Cruyff is that he elevated a completely nondescript footballing nation to two WC finals., albeit losing both. I would suggest Argentina had a stronger heritage.

 

Greatest footballer ever.

Was physically assaulted in every game he played in Spain and was forced to go to Naples. Probably the worst place he could have gone.

Ian Rush was a worse cheat.

 

I didn't think JC went to Argentina in '78 but I take your point. He had good company too,Kroll,Van der K twins,Rep,Neeskens. Decent team!

Ah but he's BRITISH,so he doesn't count!
Insert funny little face thingy!

 

Well, I don’t disagree there. Welsh, too.

 

You are quite right. My aged memory is playing tricks.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/apr/17/newsstory.sport?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Time for my bedtime Horlicks!

 

Yes."Time for bed Zeberdee!"

 

I've got up as I can't sleep due to a racing mind after work trouble,this story and tonight's game. The film mentioned earlier is on More 4 at 1.15am so I'm going to watch it.
Both cats have gone berserk downstairs so they must have brought another vole in yesterday morning as I feared.
What a day!

 

Watching his goals against England and Belgium in ‘86, I was reminded of Messi, who has been compared numerous times to him - his precision, control, dribbling ability and way of finding a route to goal no matter how many players were round him were just phenomenal.

But there was even more to him than that - he was capable of scoring goals from any range as spectacular as any by Beckham, Ronaldhino, C Ronaldo etc - look at goal #2 and how seemingly nonchalantly he lifts the ball above the wall:

 

He liked a lob more than Lleyton Hewitt!
Is it the hour or is the England goal faster than it should be?

 

He was the best I've seen. Unbelievable, and he was remarkably one footed. If his right was anywhere near as good as his left he would have been absolute perfection.

To dwell on one hand-ball is just churlish in my book. There will be thousands of players that cheated with their intentional fouls trying to stop him. And watching the amount of cheating these days, with the continual diving and falling over at the merest touch, puts one intentional hand-ball into perspective.

He admitted his instinctive handball, and I think the referee and linesman who "missed" such an obvious handball were the real villains.

 

Maradona was better than Messi. Messi has done nothing in WCs.

 

Pedantic point but Cruyff only played 1974.

 

Yes, acknowledged this above, I had forgotten.

 

RIP

 

And Thatcher who was in deep political trouble here mid way through her first term

 

For those who haven't watched the film I would urge you to do so,especially our younger fraternity.
It is uplifting and heartbreaking in equal measure.
A reminder of how football was before it became a non contact sport.
A reminder of the divisions in society in the world and especially Italy where the south and in this instance Naples,was viewed as vermin.
I'm not sure I remember the elbow Fenwick delivered to Maradona in '86.
Spellbinding player.

 

Yes,if in trouble start a war to whip up patriotic fervour.
One of many stains on that dreadful woman's career.
However at least she knew the price of a loaf of bread unlike her current colleagues.

 

This **** is everywhere and has now made it onto a watford forum

I don't like coke heads and I'm not going to change my opinion on that because the person was good at football (or good at cheating)

Reminds me of my exes mum losing it over cigarettes and then crying in the kitchen when Winehouse overdosed on heroin. **** em

 

It's better to burn out than to fade away, you utter bore.

 

You know what, you're right, I am an utter bore. I've just called my dealer, wanna rack up some lines with me?

One less coke head in the world. Good news

 

You don't have to like the man to admire his craft.
It is possible to separate the two.

 

I assume your taste in music begins with Shirley Temple and ends with Cliff Richard

 

Congratulations, you're on the same side of of argument as bitter obnoxious horrible right wing old tory **** Peter Shilton.

 

Fellow director used to play in the parks of Buenos Aires with him. Maradona just came over one day and asked if he could join in their kickabout. Knocked about regularly with them for a few weeks and got them good seats at the equivalent of their FA Cup final. I mean ****ing hell, Maradona knew him by name....I'd have made sure everyone I met knew that within 60 seconds of meeting me. And no he wasn't kidding.

 

His dribbling style was incredible, I find it hard to explain, it’s like the ball was pre plotted on a sort of angular route to goal, then sucked back to his boot at each coordinate by a piece of elastic. If you were to compare him and Messi, Messi dribbles in a more natural looking way, not to say that’s better, far from it.

 

I bet the people that dislike Maradona and condemn his handball goal, are the same ones who hammered Fessi when he produced that absolutely glorious dive against Wolves a few years back.

I’ll shocked if the correlation isn’t close to 100%.

If you can’t love a maverick, completely and utterly flawed genius, what can you love?

 

Have a look at twitter. Maradona haters are always brexit voters with union flags in there username. You know the type. Low IQ little englander tory voters.