Champion of the World

Diego Armando Maradona would win trophies for various teams during a career that many argue is the greatest of all time. Yet, for all his triumphs in club and international football, nothing could possibly emulate what he achieved in the month of June in 1986.

He arrived in Mexico for the football World Cup as captain of his country, but a leader of a team managed by Carlos Bilardo surrounded by doubts by Argentinian fans and media alike.

By the end of the month he would be hailed as a player who almost single-handedly won the World Cup after a consistently spellbinding series of performances that left all opposing teams with no answers.

To put this in perspective he played every single minute of all seven games from the first encounter in Pool A against South Korea to the victorious and dramatic final against West Germany. In seven games he scored five crucial goals and added five equally important assists to his tally. It was an astonishing starring role in a tournament that had never seen an individual dominate quite so much before or, indeed, since.

By the time of this World Cup Maradona, still only 25 years of age, was already celebrated globally after shining for his country and, in particular, starting a small footballing revolution in the Southern Peninsula of Italy where he was leading from the front at Napoli.

The world was inquisitive about whether the diminutive magician could match his reputation on the greatest stage of all. It would not take long for Maradona to provide his answer, producing assists for all three of Argentina’s goals in their opening game defeat of South Korea, 3-1, played out at the Olimpico Universitario Stadium in Mexico City. Jorge Valdano, twice, would score on the end of Maradona’s passes, and Oscar Ruggeri would chip in with a goal as well, again courtesy of his captain.

In the next Group A game Maradona would score his first goal of the tournament, a vital equaliser against a strong Italy in a 1-1 draw played out in Puebla. Valdano would provide the assist this time, chipping the ball forward, but Maradona had much work

to do before brushing off his marker and volleying the ball past the legendary Dino Zoff in the Italian goal with his left foot, using placement over power.

In the final group game, back at the Olimpico Universitario, Argentina brushed past Bulgaria, 2-0. Maradona was a few inches away from scoring a breathtaking goal after skipping past four defensive challenges but he did provide the second goal’s assist, collecting the ball on the left wing before whipping a pinpoint left foot cross into the penalty box for Jorge Burruchaga to thump home with his head.

After beating Uruguay, 1-0, in the last 16 round in Puebla, Argentina would face England in the quarter-final in front of an astonishing crowd of nearly 115,000 fans inside the famous, old Aztec Stadium. The match would provide two of the most famous and talked-about goals in World Cup history and, of course, both revolved around the little number ten playing in a changed blue strip.

The two teams had always enjoyed a rivalry going back to acrimony during the 1966 World Cup but this had intensified greatly due to the Falklands War between the two countries that took place four years ago over the disputed Falklands Islands, or the Islas Malvinas. England swept aside the Argentinian armed forces during this short but tragic military clash but, four years later, it would be England on the receiving end on a football pitch. One man would take centre stage.

In the 51st minute Maradona struck. Up to this point Argentina had been the better team but had failed to nail down this advantage. England midfielder Steve Hodge tried to clear a Maradona pass but only managed to miscue the ball upwards and behind him.

Maradona had continued his run into the penalty box looking for an exchange of passes. Out advanced the revered England goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, to punch the ball clear but, despite being eight inches shorter than his opponent, Maradona got there first and guided the ball into the net using the outside of his left hand which was just above his head. Referee Ali Bin Nasser from Tunisia failed to see the infringement and blew his whistle to denote the goal despite furious protests from many of England’s players. Afterwards Maradona would say that the goal was scored “with a little of the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.” The goal would subsequently become known as the ‘Hand of God’ goal.

If this first goal was controversial, the second goal, just four minutes later, would be voted by FIFA as the ‘Goal of the Century’ in 2002. Collecting the ball just inside his own half Maradona spun round and began a 60-yard sprint that saw him bamboozle and beat four English outfield players. Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher – twice – and Terry Fenwick all attempted in vain to stop the little maestro and when his subtle feint provoked Shilton to end up sitting on the grass, Maradona stroked the ball into the empty net. Cue pandemonium from Argentinian fans, commentators and, of course, teammates.

England would eventually score but it was too little and too late and Argentina were through to the semi-finals after an individual performance that many commentators felt encapsulated Maradona’s whole career – major controversy in tandem with unprecedented brilliance.

He was far from done. In the semi-final against the Belgians at the same Aztec Stadium Maradona was at it again. Sprinting on to a Burrachaga pass he poked the ball past the advancing Jean-Marie Pfaff in goal with his left foot for Argentina’s opening goal in the 51st minute. Twelve minutes later he would score a second goal that was later ranked the fourth greatest in the history of the World Cup in the same FIFA poll that voted his second against England in the game before as the best of all time. Receiving the ball 40 yards out from the Belgian goal on the right, he cut inside one defender and then ran past the outside of a second diagonally across the pitch before firing a left foot shot back past the outstretched left hand of Pfaff into the right hand corner of the net.

And so to the dramatic finale against West Germany at the Aztec, and a game that has gone down as one of the best ever World Cup Finals. When Valdano scored Argentina’s second goal in the 55th minute, to add to Brown’s 23rd minute opener, it appeared as if Maradona’s team were cruising to a second World Cup in three tournaments. The Germans, however, begged to differ and hit back with two goals in the 74th and 83rd minutes. To many teams that would have been a shattering, psychological blow. Not to Argentina, however, and not to Maradona. He had been well-marshalled by the German star, Lothar Matthäus, who had virtually man-marked the dangerous number ten out of the game. But Maradona needed just one chance to stamp his mark on the final and it came with just four minutes remaining when his defence-splitting through pass sent Burrachaga on his way to slip the ball past German goalkeeper Schumacher and into the corner of the net.

Argentina had done it. Maradona, with his fifth assist of the tournament, had done it. And as he raised the FIFA World Cup trophy above his head in front of an Aztec Stadium bursting at its seams, Diego Maradona had crowned his greatest achievement after the greatest World Cup tournament by a single player.

Incredible goals, assists that few if any other players could produce, momentous controversy and ultimate national glory. The 1986 World Cup was Maradona’s World Cup. And it is doubtful if one individual will ever again dominate the tournament to the extent the little genius from Buenos Aires did in Mexico.

Championof the World

Champion
of the World