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Thread: Maradona RIP

  1. #11
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    Im sorry anyone loses their life and he was a genius with the ball at his feet,.and like a lot of genius they have a lot of flaws.But i think its more sad when footballers get motor neurone disease and other things like that.Its not self inflicted.

    RIP
    Cleaning up the Scots since the 13th century

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by skyebo View Post
    R I P Great player. A lot of posts on Facebook are getting removed because of some sick people and their comments about him.
    Yeah the kind of dickheads who think England won the war.

  3. #13
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    R.I.P to a Great Legend taken too soon........One of the best the World has seen.

  4. #14
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    RIP to the great man. One of his many highlights was his cameos during the last World cup in Russia. The man new how to party. Mad that he died on the same date as another maverick genius, George Best.

  5. #15
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    From The Guardian

    When I was 10, I went on a summer football camp. One afternoon, it chucked it down with rain, so they took us inside to watch a video. Hero: the official film of the 1986 World Cup. Still maybe the greatest football film ever made.

    Rick Wakeman's soundtrack was extraordinarily vivid and sits in my mind to this very day. Michael Caine's narration was, um, linguistically questionable, but still somehow fit perfectly. And then there was the main subject. Diego Armando Maradona, captain of Argentina.

    Every time he was featured on screen, every boy around me yelled "CHEAT! CHEAT! CHEAT!" I just sat transfixed, in awe. Because he was a genius, who towered astronomically above his contemporaries.

    Football is the greatest sport in the world because it is the game of the people. It still retains the capacity to move entire nations from triumph to despair. And Maradona, arguably its greatest exponent ever? The point is: he was, truly, a man of the people.

    His poor background meant he was totally ill-prepared for global superstardom, its distractions and temptations. Yet the pressure was unimaginable. How does someone handle the hopes, dreams, expectations, demands of all their compatriots and the success-starved, so often downtrodden people of Naples?

    Answer: by playing like this. Taking Napoli to undreamt of heights in by far the highest quality domestic league there's ever been. And despite receiving no protection from referees either. This was a completely different world to now. Red cards were vanishingly rare; bookings were handed out far, far less. So defenders spent their time trying to cut him in half... and in Spain, the hideous Andoni Goikoetxea did just that.


    That Maradona came back and rose to such exalted heights in the years that followed was such a tribute to him. Not just his genius, but his courage. Meanwhile, his national team was just 9 minutes from not even qualifying for the World Cup. It featured two very good players, Valdano and Burruchaga, and not a great deal else. But superman that he was, Maradona dragged that entire side up multiple levels through sheer force of personality.

    Every opponent Argentina faced was terrified. They could all feel Diego's personality, his charisma, all over the pitch. Despite Argentina's central defence being fragile, vulnerable, there for the taking even. Yet none of Uruguay, England or West Germany got at them until it was too late. All three (and Belgium too) were beaten mentally; beaten before the games even began in many ways. Again, that was Maradona's impact. Germany even sacrificed their best player, Lothar Matthaus, in the final, for a man-marking job on Diego.

    Maradona, like only Ali before him, transcended his whole sport and impacted massively on the world. The Hand of God was, as much as anything else, about revenge for the Malvinas; and his first and second goals that day summed up the paradox of Argentinian football like nothing else ever has.

    Goal 1: the malign. Viveza criolla. Craftiness and cunning. You're a fool if you get caught. You're immortal if you get away with it. Goal 2: the sublime. Maybe the most beautiful goal ever scored by anyone... on a pitch so bad, so bumpy, it should've been impossible.

    He scored another jawdropping goal in the semis. He laid on the decisive through ball in the final. Then, for good measure, well past his best and barely 50% fit, he dragged a bunch of streetfighters all the way back to the final 4 years later. His through ball to Caniggia against Brazil defied gravity itself. Many Argentinians still celebrate the 1990 team even more than the 1986 one. What it did was impossible. Ludicrous. It should've gone out in the first round; it ended up beaten in the final by a non-penalty (albeit, such a violently cynical side certainly had it coming).

    Yes, the years that followed were sad, awful. But this was always a man of the most profound contradictions. He could be a horrible arsehole; but also a kind, massive-hearted man who adored his people and his country... and stood up against corporate and political greed and corruption. He never forgot where he was from. That's why he was, and will always be, so revered at Boca and Napoli. And by football lovers around the world.

    60 is no age at all. But like many other geniuses, he always found life far more challenging than his chosen sport. George Best, Alex Higgins, Paul Gascoigne or Garrincha, among others, would've sympathised.

    There will never be another footballer to compare with Diego Maradona. I would say "rest in peace", but that'd be to entirely miss the point. Rest in Power, Sir - and keep raising merry hell while you're at it. He was a rebel. He broke all the rules. He did it his way. And he moved billions along the way.
    Last edited by Steveo; 26th November 2020 at 10:58 AM.

  6. #16
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    Great epitaph Steveo.
    A bonafide rockstar footballer who lived an incredible life. My best pal went to Argentina around 20 years ago and he brought me a gift, it was little flick book of his 2nd goal against England. I recently showed my kids it and they love it, it's on display in my front room.
    A true icon of life not just football due to huge positive impact he had on people.

  7. #17
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    The 2nd goal against England has been shown loads of times over the past couple of days ,and it's one of those goals you could never tire of watching. It's up there with Stevie's goal in Istanbul.

  8. #18
    Yes I can watch that second goal again and again.

    They've shown the first goal way too much, as usual. England aren't the only team whose World Cup hopes were dashed by a handball get over it already.

  9. #19
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    Apparently a worker at the morgue were his body was took a selfie and posted it on social media. Yesterday he was sacked from his job and today his body was found in a bin !!

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by ianlfc View Post
    Apparently a worker at the morgue were his body was took a selfie and posted it on social media. Yesterday he was sacked from his job and today his body was found in a bin !!
    really not seen anything on the news here apart from him asking for forgiveness

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