Remembering Diego Maradona’s best goals, skills and warm-ups…

Ian Watson

Diego Maradona died yesterday, leaving those of us not named Peter Shilton to mourn perhaps the world’s greatest-ever talent. 

Here are just a few of the highlights he has left us with. Join us as we go down a Diego-themed rabbit hole…

 

Let’s start with a modern classic. Here’s Diego getting loose like only Diego could for a UEFA Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich in 1989.

Napoli were 2-0 up from the first leg and they finished the job with a 2-2 draw at the Olympiastadion. They then went on to beat Stuttgart 5-4 on aggregate in the final.

We’ve had ‘Live is Life’ in our heads since around 4:45pm on Wednesday, and now you have too.

 

Andrea Pirlo described modern warm-ups as ‘nothing but masturbation for conditioning coaches’. Thank Christ they weren’t around much in Diego’s day…

 

Some of this is just plain sorcery…

 

Yeah, but could he do it in a game? Well…

 

Most players struggle to get a free-kick up and over a wall when it is any closer than 25 yards from goal. Maradona fettled this one from 15 yards, despite the wall’s attempt to nick a yard or six.

 

This would be a quite incredible career compilation. But for Maradona, this is just one month in the summer of 1986…

 

We know what you’re thinking. This is just like that time all those Geordies pulled a sickie to go and see Jim White unveil Michael Owen…

 

Just before that unveiling, here’s Maradona in his civvies casually bending one into the top corner…

 

Here’s Maradona slowly crushing a goalkeeper’s spirit on a Naples paddy field…

 

Ten of his best goals at Napoli, featuring a 25-yard header against AC Milan, and a chip which leaves a keeper slumped in his own net questioning his life choices…

 

Before Napoli, Maradona spent two years at Barcelona being assaulted. The ‘tackle’ here at 0:53 is perhaps NSFW. But the mere presence of Diego at 2:10 is enough to put one defender on his arse…

 

When you see the treatment he received in Spain, notably here at the hand of the Butcher of Bilbao, it’s no wonder that Maradona snapped. In a big way…

 

As a Barcelona player, you’ve got to do something special to earn a standing ovation at the Bernabeu. Maradona earned his by performing a hysterectomy on Juan Jose using only a goalpost and a drop of the shoulder…

 

Thanks for memories, Diego. You brilliant, mad, b*stard.