Courtesy-The New York Times
On October 30, 1960, Diego Maradona, considered as one of the best football players in history, was born. Maradona has managed and coached a number of clubs as well as Argentina’s national team. He has also continued to serve as a spiritual advisor to the Argentine Primera D club.
The Golden Boy was one-of-a-kind, and he will continue to inspire many people from all backgrounds of life. Here, we pay tribute to the hero by looking at a few of Diego Maradona’s unrecognized details.
He is Argentina’s fifth-highest scorer. Maradona is Argentina’s fifth highest goal scorer of all time, with 34 goals in 90 matches for the national team, behind only Messi, Batistuta, Sergio Aguero, and Crespo.
He seems to be the only player to have twice broken the transfer fee mark. Maradona approached Barcelona for £5 million from Boca Juniors, a then-world record release clause. He entered Napoli for £6.9 million two years later, shattering the transfer record once more. Four minutes later, he achieved his two best goals of his career. Among the most prominent goals in football history is Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal toward England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, which Argentina went on to win.
His next thrilling performance, a 60-meter sprint from his own quarter that was later dubbed the “shot of the century,” occurred four minutes later in the same game.
The Stadio San Paolo in Napoli is not the first stadium to bear Maradona’s mark.
The title belongs to Argentinos Juniors, the club where he began his playing career. The Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, their home ground, is a tribute to their best prospect of all time.
The League Title was never won by Maradona. Only league winners from each nation were qualified to play in the European Cup, as it was known at the time. Maradona led Napoli to their first two Scudetto titles and only appeared in the tournament twice during his time there.
Both Maradona and Messi have a stellar track record.
The two Argentinians are the first players in football history to win the Golden Ball in both the FIFA Under-20 World Cup and the FIFA World Cup itself. He has a church that bears his name.
He has Che Guevara and Fidel Castro tattooed on his body.
Castro was a close associate of the Argentinian, and he has a tattoo of him on his left shoulder. Che Guevara is an influence for Maradona, who says, “I hold him on my arm and in my heart. I heard his storey and fell in love with him. I believe I have discovered the truth about him.”
Maradona has a talk show of his own. Pele, Maradona’s Brazilian competitor, was the first visitor on La Noche del 10 (The Night of the No. 10) in 2005. During their period on the program, the two even managed to play the game of head tennis.