Death Notices

[RedHand88]

https://mobile.twitter.com/HLNinEngeland/status/1331733925153091585

I see the English are over 1986 anyway.

[sid waddell]

Diego existed far and away above anything so trivial as football

He is best looked at as an other worldly liberator of whole peoples

Their entire existence, their entire sense of themselves was validated by him

This is not an exaggeration in any sense - this is genuinely how he made the peoples of Argentina and of Naples feel

In a world sense and in a non football sense, only the likes of Mandela, Martin Luther King and Gandhi had this sort of effect

In history and legend, what he did for Argentina in those four minutes in 1986 was like what Moses did for the Israelites

He was the chosen one

Senna was the Brazilian equivalent.

Sorry but Maradona not GOAT. Messi for me.

Other than them being from South America, at their respective peaks in the late 1980s and having rivetting documentaries about them made by Asif Kapadia, they aren't really comparable

Senna was a big star and I can still vividly remember the day he died - I saw the crash on telly, then I was on the Canal End at Croke Park for Meath v Armagh and afterwards heard he had died from the radio in my granny's house near Croke Park

It was a massive shock and I've still never been as shocked by any death

But in a way the legend of Senna was made by his early and shocking death

Motor racing and football are different worlds, motor racing is a rich man's game, football is the game of the people, at least it still was in the 1980s

Maradona came from a shanty town, the poorest of the poor

He produced moments which stand out as other worldly, moments of pure human perfection, in a context which made them even more perfect

Nobody can compare

Messi is a true great, but what he lacks is the personality of Maradona

Luis Suarez has a similar personality to Maradona

If Messi had the personality of Luis Suarez, you would have something approaching Maradona, the total package

If Messi had the personality of Luis Suarez, Argentina would have won the 2014 World Cup

Maradona elevated those around him - they believed they were going into battle with an unbeatable general who was also in the trenches with them, doing the most fighting

Messi, great as he is, doesn't have that

[BennyCake]

https://mobile.twitter.com/HLNinEngeland/status/1331733925153091585

I see the English are over 1986 anyway.

That is mental. Rats the size of cats?!

Why does anyone buy those filthy rags?

[sid waddell]

https://mobile.twitter.com/HLNinEngeland/status/1331733925153091585

I see the English are over 1986 anyway.

That is mental. Rats the size of cats?!

Why does anyone buy those filthy rags?

They're got rats big as cats, they've got diggers for gold
When the red tops go through ya, 'tis no place to be bold
You scored with your hand, now you've taken your leave
But the horrible tabloids are howling with glee

[passedit]

Maradona elevated those around him - they believed they were going into battle with an unbeatable general who was also in the trenches with them, doing the most fighting

Messi, great as he is, doesn't have that

This

Imagine Messi playing in the 70s & 80s. No me neither. Now imagine Maradonna playing with today's protections.

Way better than Pele as well btw.

[Mike Tyson]

Too young to have seen him so can only judge from the footage on youtube etc. Anyone can look good in a highlights reel however the kickings he got and how he still continued to make absolute fools out of defenders is mental. Footage of the beating he took in the Bilbao game for Barca prior to the riot was insane. Can't imagine Messi or Ronaldo taking it and continuing to bamboozle opponents.

Had heard when he was a teenager the mafia threatened to kill him if he scored in a game and he went out and scored 4 or something, probably an urban myth tbf but adds to his legendary status!

[Angelo]

A larger than life presence on and off the pitch.

Football will never have another personality like him again, a genius.

RIP

[sid waddell]

He was the most famous person in the world, he was the most important person in the world and he was the most talented person in the world

He was bigger than Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, Guns 'N' Roses, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev put together

[Armamike]

By far the greatest player I've seen in my lifetime (watching football from the late 70s).  Remember watching the 86 quarter final and the 2nd goal, and thinking at the time, this is the greatest goal that has been, or ever will be, scored. To do that, at that level, was/is unheard of.  And for good measure he repeated it against Belgium! From the clips I've seen of Pele I would strongly argue Maradona had a bit more.  I wouldn't put Messi at his level.  As others have said, the context needs to be taken into account when comparing Messi and other modern day players with Diego. He played on bad pitches.  He got kicked around the pitch, particularly by the Italians, and had to get on with it.  He got rough treatment at the 82 World Cup and ended up retaliating and getting a red card. By 86 and at his peak, he was so good and strong nobody could get close enough to whack him!  Gary Lineker gave him a great tribute on BT last night, and a great insight into his natural ability which defied the laws of physics.

He was treated like a god in Argentina and Naples (until the 1990 World Cup when he asked Naples fans to support Argentina over Italy!). What he managed to achieve single handedly for both was hard to imagine. Especially Napoli, taking them from mediocrity to two titles in the space of a few years.

I find it mildly amusing when people (esp the English) throw back the cheating and the drug addiction to somehow try to take away from his abilities as a footballer.  It's worth remembering that in 1986 the Falklands was still quite fresh and a very sore point for the Argies and Diego wasn't going to lose much sleep in getting one over the English.  He had an addictive personality, a condition and illness which on one hand drove him to be the player he was, but the downside was the drug abuse.  That he was able to perform at the level he did, while suffering a drug addiction, was remarkable. 

[BennyCake]

Maradona elevated those around him - they believed they were going into battle with an unbeatable general who was also in the trenches with them, doing the most fighting

Messi, great as he is, doesn't have that

This

Imagine Messi playing in the 70s & 80s. No me neither. Now imagine Maradonna playing with today's protections.

Way better than Pele as well btw.

True.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fzeK3SQa4

[Jeepers Creepers]

Maybe abit unfair on Messi as his club football is up there, however he certainly doesn't have the aurora of Diego Maradona. Then again who does!? The greatest gone but definitely not or never to be forgotten.

[sid waddell]

Maybe abit unfair on Messi as his club football is up there, however he certainly doesn't have the aurora of Diego Maradona. Then again who does!? The greatest gone but definitely not or never to be forgotten.

For Messi's whole career, the world has demanded he be Maradona

This is because the memory of Maradona and everything about him, whether you lived through it or not, is so intoxicating that people are desperate to experience it again or for the first time - through somebody else

But that's impossible

Messi can only be who he is

He can't be somebody else, nobody can be

During the 2014 World Cup, a lot of people, myself included, tried to fool themselves into believing the fantasy that we were living out a re-creation of the 1986 World Cup and Maradona, through Messi

The 2010 World Cup when Maradona was manager was also an exercise in the fantasy of the re-creation of 1986, it was pure nostalgia on the part of Argentina, on the part of everybody

But we weren't living out a re-creation of 1986, the world doesn't work like that

[Geoff Tipps]

The greatest. No argument IMO. I can still remember watching him in the '86 world cup. He was simply breathtaking. You have to remember back then
we had very little live football on TV and certainly nothing from Serie A or La Liga. You'd get the odd English league and FA cup games. It was fairly turgid stuff.
He was something we hadn't seen since Best/Cruyff (before my time). The ball control, the way he glided through challenges, the vision. He was just amazing.

[TabClear]

By far the greatest player I've seen in my lifetime (watching football from the late 70s).  Remember watching the 86 quarter final and the 2nd goal, and thinking at the time, this is the greatest goal that has been, or ever will be, scored. To do that, at that level, was/is unheard of.  And for good measure he repeated it against Belgium! From the clips I've seen of Pele I would strongly argue Maradona had a bit more.  I wouldn't put Messi at his level.  As others have said, the context needs to be taken into account when comparing Messi and other modern day players with Diego. He played on bad pitches.  He got kicked around the pitch, particularly by the Italians, and had to get on with it.  He got rough treatment at the 82 World Cup and ended up retaliating and getting a red card. By 86 and at his peak, he was so good and strong nobody could get close enough to whack him!  Gary Lineker gave him a great tribute on BT last night, and a great insight into his natural ability which defied the laws of physics.

He was treated like a god in Argentina and Naples (until the 1990 World Cup when he asked Naples fans to support Argentina over Italy!). What he managed to achieve single handedly for both was hard to imagine. Especially Napoli, taking them from mediocrity to two titles in the space of a few years.

I find it mildly amusing when people (esp the English) throw back the cheating and the drug addiction to somehow try to take away from his abilities as a footballer.  It's worth remembering that in 1986 the Falklands was still quite fresh and a very sore point for the Argies and Diego wasn't going to lose much sleep in getting one over the English.  He had an addictive personality, a condition and illness which on one hand drove him to be the player he was, but the downside was the drug abuse.  That he was able to perform at the level he did, while suffering a drug addiction, was remarkable.

I think this banner loosely translated means "Maradona Naples loves you but Italy is our Country" which summed up the Italia 90 Diego show.

He was without doubt the most talented player I have ever seen (too young for Pele). Messi comes close but as people have already commented the era in which Maradona played was brutal and he still delivered. Messi, through no fault of his own would have been finished by the time he was 21 because of the assaults he would have endured. The footage of the Barca Bilbao final brawl is unreal and Maradona was right in the middle of it!

[Main Street]

Liam Brady penned a nice personel tribute in the Examiner today.

"there are all those chances he created for others, most of them missed. But you know what you don't see after any of those misses? Maradona throwing his hands up in the air, having a go at his teammates. I see it all the time now, prima donnas who couldn't lace Maradona's boots, making it clear their teammates aren't up to their standards. Never from him. His teammates loved him dearly".