By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – The football world is in shock after it was announced that Diego Maradona, one of the greatest players of all time, has died at the age of 60 after a cardiac arrest.
Reports said emergency paramedics were called to his home where he received treatment, but he was unable to be resuscitated and confirmation of his death was issued soon after.
The tragic news came as Maradona was recovering from successful brain surgery in a private clinic earlier this month for a blood clot. Reports say it was announced at the time he was to be treated for alcohol dependency.
Maradona had suffered frequent periods of ill-health over the years, often put down to his extravagant lifestyle. In January 2019 he suffered internal bleeding in the stomach and the previous year fell ill during the World Cup in Russia.
Several years earlier he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States after failing a drugs test but he will always be remembered for his sublime individual skills that made him a world superstar, climaxed by captaining Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, the same tournament that saw his infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in the quarter-finals.
Football experts and pundits have long debated the order in which of the threesome of Pele, Maradona and Lionel Messi should be judged.
But Maradona was undoubtedly the most charismatic of the three during a career in which, before he went into management including as head coach of his national team, he scored 34 goals in 91 appearances for Argentina, representing them in four World Cups, and starred for both Barcelona and Napoli.
By an almost spooky co-incidence, his death came on the very same date another footballing genius, George Best, passed away in 2005.
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