Adios Diego!
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Perhaps no match sums up Diego Armando Maradona better than the quarterfinal of the 1986 World Cup, against England. People remember two different Maradonas from that game. The cynics and critics will no doubt remember him leaping high and punching the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton with his hands, then arrogantly dubbing an act of cheating as 'la mano de dios' — the hand of God.
Cadaverexquisito, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Others will remember another goal from that match, where he took on the entire English defence single-handedly and scored. If the first one was the hand of God, this could only have been born of divine feet.
They will remember how he twisted and turned, leaving behind defender after defender as time leaves behind mortals.
They will remember how he was nearly dragged down to the ground but still managed to poke the ball past Shilton, simply because fate couldn't let that one not go in.
Those who saw that goal on Argentine television will remember him dancing to the corner-flag, serenaded by commentator Victor Morales shouting his lungs out in almost spiritual ecstasy. "De que planeta viniste?" he shouted at one point.
What planet did you come from?
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
No other match sums up Maradona better for he was both Jekyll and Hyde in equal measure, an angel and a devil wrapped in a short, stocky mortal frame.
On his day, he was capable of some of the most surreal things anyone had ever done with a football. He almost single-handedly carried Argentina to a World Cup victory in 1986.
His time at Napoli also saw the underdogs lift two Serie A titles.
There were also the downs that made it painfully clear that Maradona was mortal, perhaps more so than others. There was the cocaine abuse and exiting the 1994 World Cup after failing a drug test.
In his last match for Barcelona, he brawled with the entire Athletic Bilbao team.
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Yet, as the world comes to terms with the passing of one of the greatest footballers ever, it is the good memories that are being handed out as consolation.
As fans mourned Maradona's departure, the devil was forgotten, and the angel embraced. Perhaps there is no greater proof of what he means to the people who once saw him dance around with a ball, spellbound. For them, he was proof that magic could exist in this mundane world.
"In the frigid soccer of today's world, which detests defeat and forbids all fun, that man was one of the few who proved that fantasy too can be effective," the legendary Uruguayan football writer Eduardo Galeano once wrote about Maradona.
It is difficult to find a better epitaph for the man they called El Pibe de Oro. The golden boy!
RIP Diego - We miss you.
Share our story below!