Football legend Diego Maradona passed away on Wednesday due to a heart attack, according to media reports.
The 60-year-old had earlier had an emergency operation for a subdural hematoma, which us an accumulation of blood between a membrane and his brain.
“We are in mourning,” said club spokesman Nicola Lombardo. “We feel like a boxer who has been knocked out. We are in shock.”
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career.
He played club football for Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others and was adored by millions for his brilliant skills.
Maradona was responsible for the infamous ‘Hand of God’ that eliminated England from the 1986 tournament.
Replays showed that Maradona fisted, rather than headed, the ball into the net, a foul the referee missed. The Argentine No. 10 dedicated the goal to the hand of God.
Retired Brazilian soccer star Pele said it is sad to “lose friends this way.”
The Argentina’s “golden boy’s“ scoring prowess and flair in slaloming past opponents vaulted him into the hall of soccer fame, but he struggled to cope with the adulation and his battles with addiction became regular global news.
“The best of the lot, no question,” Brazil’s Zico, a titan of the sport in his own right, said in 2005. “I saw Maradona do things that God himself would doubt were possible.”
After retiring Maradona developed heart problems caused by cocaine addiction, and he endured wild weight and fitness swings that seemed to reflect his do-or-die attitudes to both soccer and life.
“I am black or white,” Maradona said in 2009. “I’ll never be gray.”
Maradona is best remembered for the two goals that dumped England out of the 1986 World Cup. The quarterfinal in Mexico City was eagerly anticipated, coming just four years after the Falklands War between the U.K. and Argentina. Maradona made sure it was a game few would forget.
Goal of the Century
While that goal has become one of the most infamous in soccer history, Maradona’s second in the game was voted the best of the 20th century in a 2002 vote held by FIFA, the sport’s ruling body.
After collecting a pass inside his own half, Maradona dribbled at full speed past four England players, shimmied around Shilton and rolled the ball into the net from a tight angle just as defender Terry Fenwick slid in to tackle him.
Maradona’s lifelong tendency to interweave brilliance with controversy was encapsulated by the goals, scored just five minutes apart.
The emotion with which local announcer Victor Hugo Morales called the second goal is etched into national memory. “What planet did you come from?” he shouted. Then, as he ran out of breath: “Thank you God, for soccer, for Maradona.”
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