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Diego Maradona has died

theguardian.com

41–50 of 338 posts

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#41
post #36

Unpopular opinion: He was a gifted footballer but was a total piece of shit in nearly all other aspects of life including abusing women and minors, to say nothing of his complete lack of sportsmanship on the pitch. I hate that this guy gets lionized. To me it just underlines everything wrong with football.

I don’t think many people will claim that he was a good person. He’s lionized for his football playing, like Messi.

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#44
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Pelé?

He played in a time where Soccer was almost amateur. See the criminal fouls to Maradona in the 80's. In comparison Pele was treated like a sweet flower.

FYI, all your comments are dead. They are hidden

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#46
A love/hate relationship with the English who I seem to remember voted the infamous Hand of God goal the worst, and the same match's blistering run and finish against them the best ever.

Incredible talent, flawed man.

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#47
post #36

Unpopular opinion: He was a gifted footballer but was a total piece of shit in nearly all other aspects of life including abusing women and minors, to say nothing of his complete lack of sportsmanship on the pitch. I hate that this guy gets lionized. To me it just underlines everything wrong with football.

I fail to see how "lionizing" someone for their performance or their actions in a specific domain undermines all the wrongs one has done in their life. Sure, perhaps most people will only remember him as a great footballer without talking about the wrong actions he has done during his life, but a) most of them wouldn't have cared anyway and b) one can still see both sides of the coin and admit one's wrongdoing despite one's good performance or results.

I'm far from being a connoisseur about football and sports in general though, so I don't exactly know what this guy has done, but this can be applied to any man on this Earth.

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#49
post #42

Not sure why this is here (don't follow soccer and never heard of Maradona), but the "Hand of God" incident is an entertaining read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_hand_of_God and watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccNkksrfls On second thought, this was probably a hack of sorts.

It's presumably here because HN is not parochial and Maradona was a Michael Jordan level global superstar, with some claiming him as the greatest ever at his sport.

Re: Diego Maradona has died

#50
post #35
post #30

to see how legendary this man was, you just have to watch Maradona, the HBO documentary. which is also arguably one of the best sports documentaries. He was a polarizing figure no doubt, but this man won Argentina the world cup single-handed. ahh see the pun. he also made napoli a backwater team into the powerhouse it is today. n remember most of the matches he won, he was high on coke i.e not playing at his full pot…

> n remember most of the matches he won, he was high on coke i.e not playing at his full potential. That's a big assumption. I bet without coke he wouldn't have dared to do his hand of god act.

You clearly lack the political context of England/UK and Argentina, and what that goal represented to Argentinians. With or without coke, that was a moment of liberation, and he alone carried the Argentinean team on his shoulders in 1986 when they won the World Cup.

One needs more than coke to do what he did in 1986. One needs to be extraordinarily gifted, only for the likes of Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Garrincha, Messi, Zico, Cruyff, and Maradona could ever do.

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