Diego Maradona was, for many, the greatest footballer who ever lived, a stocky Argentine genius whose left foot could conjure the impossible. Emerging at Boca Juniors, he became a phenomenon, moving to Barcelona and then to Napoli, where he dragged an unfashionable club to unprecedented heights and league titles that made him a deity in the city.
His crowning achievement came at the 1986 World Cup, which he won almost single-handedly for Argentina, producing in a single quarter-final both the notorious Hand of God and a slaloming solo goal often called the greatest ever scored. His dribbling, balance and vision were beyond compare.
Flawed, tempestuous and endlessly compelling, Maradona lived a life of extremes off the pitch as well as on it, but his footballing gifts were pure and unmatched, and his legend endures as few others in the sport’s history.