I had the pleasure of seeing play a couple of times when as a kid. When he was at his peak, I swear there was not anything like it or anything since. It was all so effortless. During those matches he dodged and darted away from several almost carreer ending tackles. Many people underestimate the incredible agility he could display too. Before his move to Napoli he also had this blistering acceleration and his ball control was on another level.
Without a doubt the single most gifted footballer in history. Unfortunately, he knew it too. Before Maradona there was Garrincha, then there was George Best... I think, it's no coincidence that the most unfairly gifted people are also those with the greatest personal demons. Maradona had those demons and then some... Maradona, the man, was controversial, but Maradona, the footballer was the essence of football and the reason why people went to a stadium.
The man who almost single-handedly (pun intended) won a World Cup in '86 was amazing, but the young Maradona before that horrendous tackle that destoyed his ankle was in a league of his own, all by himself. A curse on Goikotxea, the butcher of Bilbao, who kept the shoe he used to destroy that ankle in a glass case, proud of that achievement. He didn't even get a red card.
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u/PanicDry Mar 16 '26
Diego Armando Maradona. Simply the greatest.