Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona (, 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 in general consider Maradona to be the greatest 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 the weight and he overcame his cocaine addiction. His outspoken manners have sometimes put him at odds with journalists and sport executives but his honesty is admirable. 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.