Diego Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona was born in Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, the fifth of eight children. He grew up in Villa Fiorito, one of Buenos Aires's most deprived shantytowns, where football was the only escape. By eight, he was performing ball-juggling tricks on television. By 15, he was a professional. His talent was so extreme, so instinctively divine, that it seemed to defy physical explanation.

Maradona's genius was never more perfectly displayed than on June 22, 1986, in Mexico City. Against England in the World Cup quarterfinal, he scored two goals that represent the spectrum of human possibility in football. The first — punching the ball into the net with his left hand and claiming it was the "Hand of God" — demonstrated his cheating guile. The second, scored after dribbling 60 yards past six English players in 11 touches, was later voted the Goal of the Century.

At Napoli, Maradona achieved something that should have been impossible: he turned a southern Italian club with no history of success into the dominant force in Italian and European football. Between 1984 and 1991, Napoli won two Serie A titles, a Coppa Italia, and a UEFA Cup. The people of Naples still worship him.

His life was often tragic — addiction, controversy, and excess plagued his years away from the pitch. Yet when he died on November 25, 2020, three days after his 60th birthday, millions mourned. In Argentina, three days of national mourning were declared. His was a life of impossible highs and devastating lows — entirely human, entirely extraordinary.