Diego Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona was born in Lanús in 1960 and raised in Villa Fiorito, a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Buenos Aires. A prodigy from childhood, he debuted for Argentinos Juniors just before his sixteenth birthday, and his low centre of gravity, vision and left foot soon made him the most coveted player in world football.

After starring for Boca Juniors and Barcelona, he moved to Napoli in 1984 and led the unfashionable southern club to its first two Italian league titles. At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico he captained Argentina to victory, scoring twice against England in a quarter-final that produced both the 'Hand of God' and a solo goal often called the greatest ever seen.

His later years were marked by struggles with addiction and health, faced publicly and with candour, yet his bond with supporters never broke. He managed Argentina at the 2010 World Cup and remained a beloved, complicated figure until his death from heart failure in 2020. His legacy is devotion itself: in Buenos Aires and Naples he is remembered less as a player than as a saint of the game.

Argentine playmaker who captained his country to the 1986 World Cup and lifted Napoli to unprecedented heights, celebrated as one of football's greatest and most human talents.