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SteemSports Presenter:@metalcrypto86

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SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets

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Where did he come from?

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One of the most iconic players in football history, Maradona, has been one of the best players that have ever touched a football.

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Maradona was born on October 30, 1960, in Lanus, Argentina. The fifth son of a working-class family.

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He joined his first team at the age of 9, Las cebollitas, a junior division team of Argentinos Juniors that gathered a small group of players that made history.

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By the age of 13, he made history in the 1973-1974 season, where they managed to win 136 games in a row.

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Some people said they witnessed at this young age the great raw talent that would make him one of the best ever, because he was able to take on players even 5-6 years older than him to even score remarkable goals extremely similar to the famous goal against England, where he would dribble 5-6 players to score for his team.

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The beggining of his professional career

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The Argentinian Football Association had strict rules about the legal age at which the players could start to play professionally, even tho many teams approached Diego´s family to sign him against this rules before turned 14, their parents always said he was an Argentinos Junior´s player.

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Maintaining his word, Maradona played his first professional game on October 20 of 1976 with Argentinos Junior, The game was against Talleres, even tho they lost 1:0 he literally said that he touched the sky with his hands as he managed to fulfill one of his childhood dreams by playing professional football.

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He continued to play on this team for 4 years where he couldn´t win a title but he managed to be the top scorer 3 years in a row.

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That led him to be on the Argentina national team 1978, and even tho he played several games for the team and was in the first cut of players that were training for the World Cup of that year, the manager told him that he wasn´t going to make it to the final team as he considered him too young to play this prestigious competition at the young age of 17.

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But this wasn't so bad after all because instead, he joined the Youth National team to play the FIFA Youth World Cup 1979, where he lead the team to an outstanding win in the finals against the former soviet union by a score of 3:1.

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He scored 6 goals in this competition, just behind his compatriot Ramon Diaz who score 8 goals. His outstanding performance as Argentina´s Captain made him win the "Golden Ball" award of this competition.

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This Youth World Cup was the first international award that Diego won, this competition served as a showcase for the world to witness the great skills of Maradona. And this didn't go unnoticed, right after this Maradona was the prime objective of the biggest clubs of Argentina to be signed, both Riverplate and Boca Juniors tried to sign him.

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He chooses Boca Juniors over Riverplate because he was a big fan of the Xeneizes since he was a little boy. Thanks to his contribution to the team Boca Juniors managed to win again the Argentinian League after 5 years at the shadow of River Plate.

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Shortly after this, he was officially part of the Argentina National team for the 1982 World Cup and prior this important competition, he was also signed by Barcelona.

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There were high expectations for Argentina for this world cup as they had a great team filled with stars ad one of the best players in the world, but it didn't end well for the southamericans, as they were eliminated at the quarterfinals by losing to Italy by 2:1 and to Brazil by 3:1, the World Champions weren't able to defend their title.

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His first steps on Europe

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After this Maradona started his european career at Barcelona, this was a controversial and filled with difficulties time for Maradona, he had many disagreements with Barcelona´s president as the result of the constant controversies due to the excesess he had by having a constant night life in Barcelona, as himself stated years later in his autobiography by recognizing this time where his drug adictions started, also he missed 3 months of the 1982-1983 season due to a severe case of hepatitis and at the start of the 1983-1984 season he suffered an important injury, he broke his ankle after a harsh tackle from Andoni Goikoetxea, wichmade him loose 3 more month of playtime in that season .

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Even with all this Maradona helped Barcelona to win many titles: in 1983 the Copa del Rey (King´s Cup) and the Copa de la Liga (League Cup) and in 1984 la Supercopa de España (Spain Supercup) and scored 38 goals in 58 games.

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All the problems he had in Spain eventually led him to be transferred to the Italian League to play with S.S.C NAPOLI, he was presented to the fans on July 1984 but his first game with the team was on September 1985 against Verona where they lot 3:1.

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Even tho the team didn't have an exceptional season, the great performance in the second row of the season convinced the owners of Napoli to sign more good players like Bruno Giordano and Claudio Garella for the 1985/1986 season, where they managed to end in the 3rd position.

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Mexico 1986 World CUp

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Many consider this competition as the pinnacle of Maradona's career, with Menotti as the new manager of the team and with all the experience that Maradona acquired since the last World Cup the stage was set for Argentina's second world cup.

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They managed to pass the first group stage against Italy, South Korea, and Bulgary, to then play against Uruguay, and finally face in the quarterfinals England in one of the most memorable matches in football history.

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The game was already packed with tension before it started due to the recent Malvinas War between Argentina and England 4 years ago, the game was played in the most iconic stadium of Mexico: "El Estadio Azteca", that held 100 thousand viewers for this match.

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The first half ended with no goals thanks to the impressive labor of England's goalkeeper, but in the second half, Maradona scored the legendary "God's Hand goal" where he used his hand to punch the ball over the goalkeeper to open the score finally.

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Just minutes after he did what was considered as the Goal of the century, receiving the ball on Argentina´s side of the pitch, he passed thru 5 opponents to finally score by defeating the goalkeeper in the last dribble to put the score to its final number 2:0.

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After this incredible game Argentina faced Belgium to obtain victory thanks to 2 goals from Maradona, which led the team to the finals against Germany, a tough match where Argentina finally came out as the World CHampion thanks to another outstanding play by Maradona where he assisted Jorge Burruchaga to score the goal to untie the match in favour of the Argentinians for a final score of 3:2.

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Back to Napoli

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During 1986 to 1990 Maradona won practically every tournament he could with Napoli, in the season 1986-1987 he helped the southern team to win for the first time the league and the Italian Cup.

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In the season 1988-1989 he helped Napoli to win the Uefa Europe Cup for the first time in a tough final against VfB Stuttgart, to finally win his last 2 trophies with Napoli by ending as the champions of the Italian tournament for the second time at the season 1989-1990 and by winning the 1990 Italian Supercup against Juventus by an outrageous 5:1 final score.

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Italy 1990 World CUp

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Maradona was at the pinnacle of his career at the beginning of this World Cup, but some will say that this was the beginning of his decline as a professional footballer.

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He managed to Argentina to get to the finals against Germany like in the previous World Cup by overcoming a very difficult group stage where they qualified as best thirds and if that wasn't enough he had to play most of the tournament after the group stage with his left ankle in horrible shape due to an injury in the game against Bulgary.

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Somehow Argentina could withstand this and managed to beat Brasil, Yugoslavia, and Italy in order to reach the finals against Germany like in the previous World Cup, but this time to lose to final by a 1:0 score.

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The Beggining of the end

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Just after the World Cup Maradona went back to Italy in order to play the 1990-1991 Italian championship, and after the 25th match date against Bari, he was selected to an anti-doping test that turned out positive for cocaine, which led him to a 15 month Ban from the Italian Football, that would eventually lead him to be transferred to the Spain football league, as he didn't want to return anymore to Italy and wanted a less demanding league to end his career.

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Finally a transfer was set for Sevilla that had the money to pay the 7.5 million dollars release clausule, finally he joined the Spain side for the season 1992-1993, a season that would end trophyless and with Maradona having many incidents with his manager, the Argentinian Carlos Bilardo, which would result in his transfer at the end of the season to the Argentinian football where he would play with Newell´s Old Boys.

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This proved again to be a bad move by Maradona as he had many issues during the 1993-1994 season as he would suffer a Knee injury in December 1993 and the bad results of Solari as the manager of the team led to his dismissal and the new one, Jorge Castelli, didn't want to give any concessions to Maradona regarding his bad behaviour out of the pitch and that led him to only play 5 official matches at the end of the season.

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Finally Argentina got to the USA World Cup 1994, after having a lot of troubles to qualify, and were willing to win it, and Maradona dropped 30 kilos, from 104 to 74 3 months prior the competition, but after the scond game of the group stage against Nigeria where Argentina won by 2:1, Maradona was selected to do the antidoping test, giving out a positive result for 5 banned substances wich led him to suffer a 15 month ban issued by FIFA that wouldnt let him play at any club or international football competition.

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The abrupt exit of Maradona from the national team led Argentina to the elimination at the round of sixteen against Rumania

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After this situation, Maradona started thinking very seriously about his retirement as a Football player, but as he couldn't be away from the world of football he tried the role of the manager in the 1994-1995 in two teams: Deportivo Mandiyu and Deportivo Avellaneda.

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Both teams underperformed under his direction and that led to his dismissal after 11 games in Mandiyu and 12 Games in Avellaneda, obtaining only 3 victories in 23 games.

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After his first experiences as a manager, Maradona was ready to return playing at the team he always loved the most, Boca Juniors. He played there from September 1995 until his definitive retirement the day he turned 37 years old, October 30 of 1997.

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Years after this he resumed his activity on football as manager of the national team from 2008 until 2010, leading Argentina to the 2010 Southafrican World Cup round of sixteen, where they lost 4:0 against Germany.

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After this bittersweet experience with his national team, on 2011 he went to Dubai to manage AL Wasl until 2012.

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Finally he retired from the world of football for 5 years when he returned on 2017to the middle east to manage Al Fujairah, a second division team of the United Emirates League, that is still under his charge and doing well on the championship, where they are right now at the top of table of their championship.

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We wanted to make this article focused on the good aspects of Maradona's life because as most of the people that love football is aware of the difficulties he had in his personal life, but no one can deny the great player he was and how important he is to the history of football.

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Without a doubt one of the best players in the history and for many simply the best.

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We want to share one of his most important quotes at his farewall match with Boca Juniors:

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“El fútbol es el deporte más lindo y más sano del mundo. De eso que no le quepa la menor duda a nadie. Porque que se equivoque uno... eso no tiene por qué pagarlo el fútbol. Yo me equivoqué y pagué. Pero, la pelota... la pelota no se mancha..."

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Wich translates to this:

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“Football is the most beautiful and purest sport in the world. there shouldn´t be a doubt about it. If one makes a mistake... it doesn´t have to be paid by football. I did wrong and paid for it. But, the ball... the ball never will be stained..."

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