Diego Armando Maradona Franco (
Spanish
pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo maɾaˈðona],
born 30 October 1960) is an
Argentine football
coach as well as a manager and former player. Many experts, football critics,
former players, current players and football fans consider Maradona as the best
football player of all time.
He was joint
FIFA Player
of the 20th Century with
Pelé.
He is the only footballer to set world-record contract fees twice, firstly
when transferring to
Barcelona for a
then world record £5m, and secondly, when transferred to
Napoli for another record fee £6.9m. During
his professional club career Maradona played for
Argentinos Juniors,
Boca Juniors,
Barcelona,
Napoli,
Sevilla and
Newell's Old Boys.
At club level, he is most famous for his career in
Napoli where he won numerous accolades. In
his international career, playing for
Argentina,
he earned 91
caps and scored
34 goals.
He played in four
FIFA World Cup
tournaments, including the
1986 tournament,
where he captained Argentina and led them to their
victory over
West Germany in the final, winning the
Golden Ball
award as the tournament's best player. In that same tournament's quarterfinal
round, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over
England
that entered football history, though for two different reasons. The first goal
was via an unpenalized handball known as the "
Hand of God", while the second goal
followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted
"
The Goal of the
Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.
Maradona is considered one of the sport's most controversial and newsworthy
figures. He was suspended from football for 15 months in 1991 after failing a
drug test, for
cocaine, in Italy, and he was sent home
from the 1994 World Cup in the USA after testing positive for
ephedrine. In 2005, he lost a considerable
amount of extra weight and overcame his cocaine addiction. His outspoken
manners have sometimes put him at odds with journalists and sport executives.
Although he had little managerial experience, he became head coach of the
Argentina
national team in November 2008, and held the job for eighteen
months, until his contract expired after the
2010 World Cup.
In August 2013, Maradona joined Argentine Primera D
club Deportivo Riestra's
staff as "spiritual coach",[ debuting in
his new role on Monday 19th v San Miguel.