For anyone who's been following this thread the last couple of days, it should come as no surprise who I'm about to pick. Next to Pele this guy is probably the second most renowned soccer player on an international stage. He has scored two of the most famous goals in soccer history - the
Hand of God Goal &
The Goal of the Century http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal_of_the_Century - in the same game. Yes, he was a coke head, but this only makes him human and does not take away from what he did on the field, and besides it's likely he was getting his yayo from my Villain, which is pretty cool. On an internet poll, he was voted the
FIFA Player of the Century.... yes, ahead of Pele.
Diego Maradona - Athlete
Diego Armando Maradona (born 30 October 1960 in Lanús, Buenos Aires) is a former Argentine football player, and current coach of the Argentine national side. He came top in an internet vote for the FIFA Player of the Century award, and shared the award with Pelé.
Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona, and, most distinguishedly, Napoli. In his international career, playing for Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. He played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments, including the 1986 World Cup where he captained Argentina and led them to their victory over West Germany in the final, winning the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. In that same tournament's quarter-final round he scored two remarkable goals in a 2-1 victory over England which instantly cemented his fame. The first goal was an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal was a spectacular 60-metre weave through six England players, commonly referred to as "The Goal of the Century".
For various reasons, Maradona is considered one of the sport's most controversial and newsworthy figures. He was suspended from football for 15 months in 1991 after failing a doping test for cocaine in Italy, and he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the USA for using ephedrine.
After retiring from playing on his 37th birthday in 1997, he increasingly suffered ill health and weight gain, hardly helped by ongoing cocaine abuse. In 2005 a stomach stapling operation helped control his weight gain. After overcoming his cocaine addiction, he became a popular TV host in Argentina.
Although he had little previous managerial experience, he became head coach of the Argentina national football team in November 2008.
Diego Armando Maradona won the 1986 World Cup almost single-handedly and took Argentina to the final four years later. He also took unfancied Napoli to its only two Italian titles.
Maradona was controversially voted best player of all time in an internet poll held by FIFA, much to the chagrin of Pelé and his fans, who contended that an internet poll was bound to attract relatively young voters. People that would have seen Maradona play, but not Pelé.
Truth be told, the title of greatest ever player was probably a bit too much credit.
However, no one would surely deny Maradona was the best ever dribbler of the bal. He proved as much, when he scored what was arguably the greatest ever World Cup goal in 1986. Maradona picked up the ball on the halfway line and promptly proceeded to leave half the England team for dead before slotting the ball into the net.