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I was brimming with mild excitement after the 'shock' of his death to see the online reaction. Member the Falklands?

Anyway removing the hand ball and that absolutely terrifying shot of him running at the camera off his swede at USA '94, he was clearly a master at his chosen art. In the main death thread I just posted the clip of warming up with that daft Opus song in the background. Just the best at what he does, pissing about effortlessly.

Completely fucking mad mind you.

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For those that missed it last night, the Asif Kapadia documentary Diego Maradona is on All4. It really is an excellent watch. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/diego-maradona

Edit: What @Arch Stantonsaid.

There is also a decent hour long documentary on Prime called Maradona: The Golden Kid, which is well worn footage, but with some nice bits, including from his testimonial.

Unfortunately Hero: The Official Film of the 86 WC has been removed from Amazon Prime, but there's a version here. Soundtrack by Rick Wakeman and narrated by Michael Caine, it's a mesmerising watch. Well worth your time.

 

A lot has been written about him since yesterday, and most of it has been really touching and positive so these are links to some articles that I've enjoyed. 

Jonathan Wilson-The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2020/nov/25/diego-maradona-argentina-child-genius-who-became-the-fulfilment-of-a-prophecy

(If you haven't had the chance to read Angels With Dirty Faces, Wilsons book on Argentinian football, do. It's so well researched and detailed.)

Rory Wilson-New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/sports/soccer/diego-maradona.html

Jorge Valdano-El Pais https://english.elpais.com/sports/2020-11-26/adios-to-diego-and-adios-to-maradona.html

Ossie Ardiles https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2020/november/he-was-beyond-extraordinary-ossies-tribute-to-maradona/ (sorry for making you click this website)

He gets a lot of flack for being a centrist little nob, but I found Lineker talking about him here really moving. (Warning: contains Michael Owen)

And finally, this. His face when the translator is talking is absolutely priceless. The king. This country needs to forget 1986 so badly. The smallest dick energy.

 

Edited by SuperBacon
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2 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

You don't have a clip of Peter Shilton's touching tribute to him from this morning's episode of Good Morning Britain? He gives Lance Storm's moving obituaries a run for their money.

I don't but I've seen the clip of Gazza (who it must be said, looked and sounded better than he has done for ages) absolutely mug that Tory off big time.

Thought he was going to cry.

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While Twitter virgins are busy arguing over whether Messi or the other Ronaldo are the greatest of all time, they're both wrong- it's Maradona. In an age where kicking the shit out of the opposition was encouraged, he waltzed around everyone and made it look easy.

Winning the World Cup with a half decent Argentina side was incredible in itself, but leading underdogs Napoli to a couple of Serie A titles plus the UEFA Cup is an even greater achievement for me- at a time when the Italian league was head and shoulders above the rest. No wonder he's treated as a god in Naples and I'm delighted to hear they're renaming the San Paolo stadium after him.

My earliest memory of Maradona was being told off by my mum for me wanting 'Maradona's team' to win in an Italia 90 match (I can't remember which match), because she said he was a dirty cheat. As a 7 year old I thought the hand of god was a special move, like the Pele (overhead kick). Until I got into football the following season, the only footballers I knew at the time were Maradona, Pele, Gazza, Lineker and Barnes (because he did the rap).

USA 94 was my first World Cup as a fan and me and my brother obsessively watched as many games as possible. I remember watching him score VS Greece and THAT celebration, and looking back now it sickens me how much of an example FIFA made of him with their drug test. Absolute cunts. They've always resented him for being compared to their flacid-pecekered golden boy Pele.

He was truly a man of the people. I love Cruyff, and if he's one of the greatest brains in the history of the sport, then Maradona is the biggest heart of the sport. I love this (lifted from his wiki page):

During a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1987, they clashed on the issue of wealth disparity, with Maradona stating, "I argued with him because I was in the Vatican and I saw all these golden ceilings and afterwards I heard the Pope say the Church was worried about the welfare of poor kids. Sell your ceiling then amigo, do something!"

 

Rest in peace, you incredible man.

Edited by PunkStep
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5 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Maradona, Pele, Gazza, Lineker and Barnes

What a 5 a side team that would've been.

Completely agree about 1994. They wanted him finished for good, and after seeing how hard he had worked to get himself 'fit' for the World Cup were looking for anything to nail him with.

7 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

I love Cruyff, and if he's one of the greatest brains in the history of the sport, then Maradona is the biggest heart of the sport.

Great phrase, and again, I suppose it depends on how you like football to be played, but the reason I enjoy those two over say, someone like Pele, is that I always found him incredibly robotic, whilst Cruyff and Maradona were these sort of free flowing spirits of some sort. I can't imagine Diego being arsed with anything resembling tactics or 'position'.

It's why stats bores will never win, as football isn't an exact science. Plus Pele wasn't and never will be cool. I remember being pissed off for years that they annihilated Italy in the 1970 final. For no reason other than Italians were cool and they weren't. I'm glad the 1982 team are seen as better than any of his.

11 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

but leading underdogs Napoli to a couple of Serie A titles plus the UEFA Cup is an even greater achievement for me- at a time when the Italian league was head and shoulders above the rest.

I'd say that the two leagues were the more important victories, but the UEFA Cup was the more impressive. They trod a pretty brutal path to the final, at a time when let's face it, the UEFA Cup was not that much difference in level to the European Cup. Juventus, Bayern Munich, Stuttgart is a hell of a QF, SF and Final route.

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1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

And finally, this. His face when the translator is talking is absolutely priceless. The king. This country needs to forget 1986 so badly. The smallest dick energy.

I remember that. As a Scotsman I was fucking affronted by that shite, which was egged on equally as much by our media as well. 

31 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

During a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1987, they clashed on the issue of wealth disparity, with Maradona stating, "I argued with him because I was in the Vatican and I saw all these golden ceilings and afterwards I heard the Pope say the Church was worried about the welfare of poor kids. Sell your ceiling then amigo, do something!"

What a quote. Sums the man up. For all his faults, he was as real as it gets.

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13 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

It's why stats bores will never win

But what if Kaneisatory breaks Shearers record, will they matter then?

Speaking of stats, this one is a doozy and for me is part of the reason why El Diego is the best. Closest Floppycock ever got was being elbowed by the nazis a lot. 

 Years ago, I was watching some El Diego on YouTube. There was a long comment regarding who was better, him or Pele. The commentator made loads of points and comparisons, took the eras into consideration and gave a cracking breakdown of historical moments. He ended his analysis with the following line which has stuck with me over the years. 
“So it’s tough to choose between the two but I have to give it to Maradona because Pele was a black”

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3 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Years ago, I was watching some El Diego on YouTube. There was a long comment regarding who was better, him or Pele. The commentator made loads of points and comparisons, took the eras into consideration and gave a cracking breakdown of historical moments. He ended his analysis with the following line which has stuck with me over the years. 
“So it’s tough to choose between the two but I have to give it to Maradona because Pele was a black”

I'm sure there were more than a few pundits back in the day who had the same line of thought! 

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