Diego Maradona

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I'm gonna search for a few 90 minute videos of his. Any that stand out (bar England)?

In the days of George Best you practically had to commit on-pitch murder to get sent off. From age 10 to twenty-something I must have watched well over 500 games before I saw anyone get their marching orders - Wolves v. Birmingham night match - Blues player with a South African name (Vorwaerts?) - if he'd have done what he did on the pitch outside in Molineux Alley he'd have got minimum 6 months for GBH.

In those days quite a few players could boast they'd never been booked - believe me, that didn't make them angels in boots.

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Ron 'Chopper' Harris (Chelsea hitman) on George Best:

'He was the best player I attempted to kick in twenty one years of playing football'

I had a Panini sticker of him in my Mexico 86 sticker book

In 78' or 79' my dad took me to Wembley to see England v Argentina after they'd won the world cup, they were doing a tour with the trophy, and we had a seat (bench) quite close to one of the corner flags, behind the metal fencing in those days. And I vividly remember Maradona as a youngster standing by the corner flag with his back to goal and two England defenders behind him kicking him whilst he played keepy uppy then flicked the ball over his head, turned and squeezed past Viv Anderson and co. And hit the ball on the volley with the outside of his right boot and I watched as it curled and hit the post/bar. It was fantastic, nothing I'd ever seen before. I dobt think he was picked by Menotti in the 78' world cup, so he must have been quite young and hadn't made a name for himself yet. We won 3-1 funily enough with goals from Liverpool's David Johnson, you know, back when Liverpool were relevant

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comment by #4zA (U19575)
posted 21 seconds ago
he wuddabeen about 17 then
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I think I only ever seen Maradona play about a dozen times. Probably all World Cup matches. By the time channel 4 started showing the italian league in the UK he'd already left Napoli. Saw more of David Platt playing in Italy that Maradona

Whitewall, you're right, he didn't play in '78, but not without controversy.

He made his full pro debut when he was still 15 and full Argentina debut at 16, over a year before the tournament. The whole country wanted him to make the squad, but Menotti thought that at 17 Diego was still too green.

A year later he led the U20s to the world title.

It's fair to say he was already a world superstar before he'd even kicked a ball in Europe. Still remember the pre-tournament buzz and the gasps he drew from the crowd in their opening defeat to Belgium.

He really was something else. And so was the sense of discovery you got from int'l football tournaments back then.