| Maradona has often vied to be considered the best | | | | drugs, casting a shadow over his career for many |
| footballer in history with Pele. However most people | | | | years after he left the club and the city. |
| agree that while Maradona had prodigious talents his | | | | Both Barcelona and Maradona were relieved when |
| behaviour off the field often left a lot to be desired,and | | | | the club agreed to his transfer 1984 to Napoli in Italy's |
| his constant battle against drug addiction made him far | | | | Serie A. At Napoli everything fell into place for Diego |
| from the comparatively "squeaky clean" character that | | | | and it was there that he finally realised his potential. For |
| Pele was during and after his twenty plus years at the | | | | about six seasons, everything that Maradona touched |
| top of the game during the fifties, sixties and seventies. | | | | turned to Gold. |
| Like Pele, Maradona came from a very humble | | | | Napoli won their first Serie an Italian Championships in |
| background in the slums of Buenos Aires. Yet despite | | | | 1986/87 and again in 1989/1990, and was also runners |
| that his prodigious talent as a footballer was there for | | | | up twice. In addition they won the UEFA Cup in 1989. |
| all to see, and by the age of sixteen he was banging | | | | Maradona was unstoppable at the World Cup in |
| goals in from every angle for his local club, Argentinos | | | | Mexico in 1986, and he certainly used everything in his |
| Juniors. Such was his dramatic impact that there was | | | | repertoire to make sure that he would get to hold up |
| even mention that he should be "shoed in" to the 1978 | | | | the World Cup. Maradona also made it to the final with |
| World Cup Squad even before his 18th birthday. | | | | Argentina in Italy four years later, where they lost by |
| That was not to be, but he did make his full | | | | the only goal to a typically stodgy West Germany. |
| international debut not long after, and achieved his | | | | USA 1994 saw Diego and his career in decline and |
| childhood dream of pulling on the famous dark blue and | | | | after failing a drug test for ephedrine doping; FIFA |
| yellow soccer uniform of Boca Juniors in 1981, when he | | | | expelled him from the tournament. |
| had just turned 21. | | | | After serving a 15-month ban for failing a drug test, |
| However news of Maradona's prodigious talents has | | | | Maradona had already left Napoli in disgrace by 1992, |
| reached Europe. After just a season at Boca, there is | | | | after that he did the rounds of a few secondary clubs |
| a lot of irony involved as he was snapped up by | | | | and by 1995 at the age of 35 his career was officially |
| Basque giants Barcelona, just as Messi was more | | | | over, although he had lost his magic around five |
| than twenty years later. Yet his career and his stay at | | | | seasons earlier. |
| Barcelona were less than successful. Maradona was | | | | A football talent that could not be denied, Maradona |
| the victim of very tight marking and crude tackles, with | | | | allowed his personal problems to take a lot of the |
| one of them ending with Diego with his leg in plaster | | | | edge of his career. When the final judgement comes |
| for several months. Rumour has it that it was In | | | | down to who was the best footballer ever to grace |
| Barcelona that Maradona began to experiment with | | | | the World Cup, there is no escaping that fact. |