Anyone who genuinely loves football has to love Diego Maradona. He was a genius on the pitch as explained here by Gary Lineker:
‘But as Guillem Balague explains Diego was also a rebel. He was a rebel who had power – and not only knew it but was also prepared to use it frequently for any number of good causes or friends who needed his help.
When he was a young superstar with Argentinos, the club would play friendlies in Argentina and abroad and use Diego as the star of the show to get payment. It was the era of the first colour televisions and all the players were desperate to receive their, until then, unpaid win bonuses so they could buy one. They only received their money, though, when the 18-year-old Diego told the Argentinos president that if they weren’t paid then he wouldn’t play.
He was a pioneer for so many people in this sport and for so many aspects of the game that are now accepted as perfectly normal.
He was the first player to have a full-time agent, the first to have a physical trainer, one of the first players who would stand up and be counted and fight for the rights of the players to get a fair deal.
He was one of the first to fight for the safety of those forced to play in dangerous sweltering weather – of the sort experienced at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He was the first player to be prepared to shout from the rooftops his belief that Fifa was rotten to the core.
And he did it well before FBI investigators began uncovering corruption within football’s world governing body. He did it at a time when no-one wanted to rock the boat.
He rebelled because he believed in a sense of natural justice. He believed it was the footballers who should be the stars of the show and not the governing bodies. Throughout his career, he fought for a fairer deal, for more respect for talented players, including himself.’ (Guillem Balague)
Diego Maradona stood up against corruption and against those who believed that humanity can be sacrificed for profit.
Here he is with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez who represented empowering people and creating much more egalitarian societies.
What we had was a flawed human being, just like every other human being, who also happened to be a master of his sport and who had great empathy with his fellow species.
How many can genuinely in the history of humankind, say that?
Jason Cridland
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