A Catalan Challenge

Hard as it was to leave his beloved Boca Juniors the lure of Barcelona, their famous Camp Nou stadium and La Liga was too strong to ignore and Maradona moved continents to play in Spain after the 1982 World Cup for a world record transfer fee of £5 million ($7.6 million).

Barcelona were – and still are – one of the biggest football clubs in the world and it gave the chance for Maradona to show off his God-given talents on a much bigger stage.

At first it all went as planned for the Argentinian superstar. He scored on his debut against Valencia and six more times in his first 13 games. However, his relationship with Barca’s pragmatic German coach, Udo Lattek, was strained as the two contrasting personalities clashed. Lattek’s dilemma was cutting his erratic genius some slack without being seen to lose authority. Lattek was eventually replaced by the man who coached Argentina to World Cup glory in 1978, César Menotti.

At the end of the first season, despite suffering from hepatitis midway through, he had helped Barca win both the Copa del Rey (the Spanish domestic cup competition), beating their arch rivals Real Madrid in the final, as well as the Spanish Super Cup at the expense of Athletic Bilbao.

Moreover, Maradona had helped his team win the ‘El Clasico’ away at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, dribbling past the Real Madrid goalkeeper, Agustin, and then stopping the ball dead as the defender, Juan José, slid past in an attempt to block the expected shot. Maradona watched him slide by into a post before coolly slotting the ball into the empty net.

For all their fierce rivalry the Spanish fans recognised brilliance when they saw it and the home support of Real fans stood and applauded the little magician after witnessing such impudence.

In September, 1983, Maradona was stretchered off the field with a broken ankle after a shocking tackle from Bilbao hard man Andoni Goikoetxea. Such was his reputation that his nickname in Spanish football was the ‘Butcher of Bilbao’.

It could and perhaps should have been a season-ending injury but a combination of good medical service and Maradona’s sheer will to rehabilitate saw him return to action after three months. But still the memory lingered. It would all come to an unsavoury head in the Copa del Rey Final against the same opponents at the Bernabeu.

He survived another atrocious tackle by Goikoetxea during the game and was subjected to constant racist chants from the Bilbao fans aimed at his father’s indigenous ancestry. As the final whistle blew – a game Barca lost 1-0 – Maradona was provoked by Bilbao’s Miguel Sola, who used a xenophobic term to his face.

This was a brutal indication of the pressure and challenges Maradona faced, now far from his native Buenos Aires. He headbutted Sola and then elbowed a second player and kneed a third as they all rushed forward. A clash between both sets of players ensued playing out in front of 100,000 fans in the stadium, millions of TV viewers and King Juan Carlos, seated in the stands.

Maradona had been clearly wronged throughout the game – physically and mentally – but his reactions and the resulting fights on the pitch sealed his fate at Barcelona. The Spanish FA dealt out a three month ban but this would never be served. Disillusioned with life in Spain and at loggerheads with the Barca board Maradona would leave for Italy that summer.

His time at Barcelona thus ended on a dark note but after two illness and injury-ridden years, he still scored 38 goals in 58 games and helped his team to two trophies. His next chapter would be all the more remarkable in the south of Italy.

A CatalanChallenge

A Catalan
Challenge