El Diego - Diego Maradona

I have read it twice before and reading it for the 3rd time. Every time I enjoy reading the straight from the heart autobiography of the footballer of the century Diego Maradona. If Pele was FIFA player of the century Maradona was people's choice.

Story of struggle , hard work , dedication , belief in oneself, motivation. Diego's life is full of it and it inspires me a lot.
There are not many players who have lifted world cup on their own, Zizu came close in the last world cup but Maradona did it in 1986.

Book covers every detail of Maradona's life. How young Pelu was born in a poor family and since his childhood he enjoyed playing futball day and night. He was the start player since his childhood and this was proven when in just 2 years he jumped from divison 9 of Argentina to a national player at the age of 16 and Argentinos Juniors star player. He was also famous for showing his football skills at the half time when he was not a divison one player for Argentinos Junior.

Five years at Argentinos and how he managed to ditch River Plate who were gunning for him and join where his heart wanted to go i.e Boca Juniors. He went there even he was getting very less and Boca were not financially rich also. Pelu followed his heart always.

Pelu was not selected for 1978 FIFA world cup and he took his revenge by winning the youth world cup for Argentina.
Journey to Barcelona where he had a bad time due to fights with the president and also because he caught Hepatitis B. Finally he got transferred to Napoli Italy which was not one of the top club at that time.
Maradona gave the Nepolities the hope and worker class who were treated not at par with other italians the faith and belief in themselves. Napoli went on to win the Italian league twice , UEFA cup and many more events.

I came to know how he fought with Fifa Boss ' João Havelange ' at that time for the player rights and their sufferings when they had to play matches @12 noon during the Mexico world cup just because Europeans can watch the match during their day time. He also raised his voice against referring decisions.

1986 world cup legendary show by Maradona, Match against England , Hand of God and Goal of the century winning the final emotions . I loved this chapter in the book it was the best one.

1990 world cup , Argentina not the favorites, underdogs ,out of form loosing to Morocco in the first match. Beating Brazil and qualify to the next round , slowly moving to next rounds little bit through luck and more through team gelling at the right time. Italians hooting against the team and Maradona giving them some sermons at press conference. Napoli was like home to Argentina, kicking the italians out in the world cup ... you have to read it to enjoy it fully

Closing with a quote from the French great, Michel Platini, comparing Diego and Zizou

"Zidane does some extraordinary things, it’s true. But you have to put everything in context. What Zidane does with a ball, Maradona could do with an orange".

Read the book to know more about the Legend

Hand Of Fraud...err...Hand of GOD !!

Not long ago Barcelona's Lionel Messi scored a solo goal picking the ball up from inside his own half on the right flank in a King’s Cup tie against Getafe, he dribbled past two defenders, swerved past two more and rounded the goal keeper to score from a very tight angle. It was said to be exact replica of the goal scored by another great footballer former Argentinian striker Diego Maradona.



And yet again on Saturday Messi scored the famous (or infamous ?) HAND OF GOD goal against Espanyol which incidentally was also a replica of Maradona's 'Hand of GOD' goal against England in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.



Here is another close look



Cunning effort isn't it ?

But according to Messi, “We can talk a lot about that goal but these things happen in football. It only won us a point. There’s no point comparing me to Diego because he was unique. I’m not trying to score the same goals as him, they are simply things that happen during a match.”
Two great footballers, playing for the same country, first the solo wonder and then the HAND OF GOD replica. I wonder whats next :)