As one of the greatest footballers in the history of football, for more than two decades, the light of Diego Maradona in Argentina has illuminated the entire football world.
In the minds of fans, this midfielder is legendary. People who love football can't imagine a game without him running around in the No. 10 jersey. Maradona is seen as a young man who has gone with the rise of the Argentine Boca youth team, running all over the football field, leaving the more experienced veteran players far behind. In 1981, his goal helped his Boca youth team win the league title.
In 1986, he again became a young victor, lifting the World Cup aloft. His rolling black eyes were filled with triumphal pride, and with his unusual wisdom he brought supreme honor to the Argentine national team.
At the 1994 World Cup, people saw a stronger and more experienced football star. He conceded with Nigeria's Michel Emarnato in order to gain control of the ball on the pitch. Maradona has brought many exciting moments to football. The stocky, 5.5-foot-tall midfielder, with his magical feet, scored countless stunning and unforgettable goals.
Maradona has inspired a new generation of footballers to work hard like their predecessors, he has set an example of how professional players can control their own football destiny, and he has shown other professional players how to deal with commercial and financial problems.
Maradona's story is magical. As early as less than 10 years old, he became a magical figure in Argentina. At the age of 16, he became the youngest player in football history to play in the first division of football. He has set a record for the highest transfer fee ever made and has played for clubs in three different countries, including Argentina, Spain and Italy. He has competed in four World Cups and is at the top of the charts with the most World Cup appearances.
He has scored fantastic goals and made fantastic passes to create chances for his teammates to score goals. Maradona's starlight began to shine in the slums of Argentina as a child, and he went down with extraordinary courage and determination until the whole world saw his radiant starlight.
His rising reputation has also led to the widespread circulation of many of his habits. In fact, some of his habits were dangerous and harmful. While he was full of wisdom on the football pitch, off the pitch, Maradona made some of the choices of his football career. Three drug-related bans may have led to his decision to leave the stadium.
By the time he retired in 1997, the star Diego Maradona was like a pedigree, leaving behind him a glittering football feat.
On October 30, 1960, at the Avejaneda Eva-Perón Hospital in Argentina, a little boy was born. Maybe one day, he will become the world's greatest footballer, admired by millions of people. But when he lay in his mother's arms, no one thought that there would be any magic in the little feet of this child. The little boy's mother and father named him Diego Armando Maradona, a name that millions of people often chant on their lips one day.
Happy parents thank God for allowing their first son to come to earth safely. Children are very important to his father, Zitoro, and to his mother, Donna Dalmo Salvadorla Franco, who loves to call him Tota.
Chitoro and Tota are not rich people. They all came from poor families and had roots in indigenous Indians and Italian immigrants. They were maradona's parents, who grew up in a thatched hut full of dirt and excrement in a village called Esquinas, doing what most rural people in Argentina were doing at the time. In search of better living conditions, they moved to the capital, Buenos Aires.
Almost half of Argentina's population lives in Buenos Aires. Like Maradona's father, they worked in the docks or factories. Chittoro got a job at a factory where workers crushed bones into powder and used them as fertilizer. Tota works as a maid in a wealthy family. With these jobs, his parents intend to earn enough money to support several of their children.
They live in a slum on the outskirts of the town of Fiorito. Zittoro built a shack out of everything he could find—a few pieces of iron, cardboard, and some bricks. This small shack became where Maradona's family lived. When Maradona was born, he already had 3 older sisters. In the end, the family had a total of 8 children, 3 of whom were boys, all of whom grew up in small shacks. Their grandmother also lived with the family, while their uncle lived nearby.
When the Maradona family came to Buenos Aires, they didn't see the light. Life in the town of Fiorito is very difficult, with the whole family clinging to each other and helping each other to survive. From the first day maradona was born, his entire family educated and guided him. His mother was his enlightenment teacher, and his father and uncle were his enlightenment football coaches.
Football has existed all over the world for a long time. A round object was kicked around. Football may have existed since the dawn of humans, and one of the earliest records of the game was a 14th-century British law prohibiting playing on the streets of London.
Although football has been with us since ancient times, the rules of the game vary from place to place. The game of football as we know it today did not take shape until the 19th century. In 1846, a set of official rules for the game of football was introduced at the University of Cambridge in England. With a set of rules that everyone agrees on, it becomes easier to compete between groups, cities and countries that make football an entertaining sport that is both ornamental and playful.
One of the biggest advantages of football is that it hardly requires any equipment. To play a game, all you need is a football. This also makes football easy to circulate. When people travel, they just have to bring football, they go to new places, and people there quickly learn to play football. In this way, the official game of football is transmitted from one continent to another continent. Today, football is the hottest sport in the world.
In the early 19th century, British seafarers brought football to South America. Since then, football has become popular in Argentina and soon became the number one sport. Many Argentine teams play official matches, while others enjoy playing with football. If possible, Argentines like to watch football games on TV. In fact, Argentines are obsessed with football.
Living in a country so football-obsessed, it was only natural that Chitoro and Maradona's uncle fell in love with football. They both played for the team they grew up in in Esquinas Town. In 1952, Maradona's uncle helped his team, San Martin, win the local championship. Maradona's uncle can be called a local star.
Although the two brothers were past the age of playing football, they still loved football very much, and their greatest hope was that one day Maradona would become a great star.
Maradona's father and uncle helped him develop his interest in football, and it was his uncle who gave Maradona Jr. the first football. Maradona grew up remembering that he never had as many toys as many children do now, and that a football was the "most beautiful gift" of his life. On his 3rd birthday, his uncle gave him a football as a birthday present, and maradona slept with the football in his arms, dreaming that he was about to start an extraordinary experience.
Soon, maradona Jr. began to play football happily on the flying football field. When he controls the ball, he will feel that he has power. Running on the football field will arouse the feeling of freedom, as if flying into the sky. You don't need any facilities, you don't need to have money, all you need is a football and a group of friends.
Most of the boys in the town of Fiorito play football, but most of the boys can't play as well as little Maradona. He began to invent some amazing kicking motions that no one else could imitate. Neighbors thought the kid was really different. Maradona has been famous ever since.
News from the town of Fiorito quickly reached the ears of some important sports figures, and at the age of 7, Maradona Jr. was given the opportunity to join a football team called Los Bollitas. The young slum kid's meeting with Los Bollitas coach Francisco Cornejo was arranged by a neighbor.
Cornejo was impressed by the little boy's display of the ability to dribble and control the ball, and seeing the rare talent possessed by the little boy, Cornejo immediately recruited Maradona Jr. to join the Los Sebolitas team.
Los Bollitas means "little onion" in Spanish. This team focuses on cultivating potential teenagers, but also focuses on children's learning. Little Maradona and his family knew they had an exciting and crucial opportunity. They also know that while he is different from most other kids who play football, talent alone is not enough. If he wants to take it a step further, there's still a lot to do, let alone become a soccer star.
Maradona Jr. dreams of being a great player, like his hero, Argentina's Bozzini, or Brazil's Pele. When he put on the Number 10 shirt he was wearing with Pele at the time, he was overwhelmed with excitement. Choosing Maradona Jr. to wear the no. 10 shirt is also a challenge for the Los Cerbolitas coach to Maradona Jr. The no. 10 shirt is generally for the best players. Now, Maradona Jr. has to fight for his reputation for the numbers on his jersey.
Year after year of hard work began, everything in Maradona's life revolved around football. Every night, when maradona sr. comes home from work, he takes maradona jr. to Los Cebolitas to practice. On the football pitch, the new No. 10 player Maradona struggled to impress his coach. As the first to discover Maradona Jr., Cornejo played an important role in cultivating Maradona's talents and discipline. Cornejo loves maradona, a young maradona who knows how to work hard.
Cornejo's job was to help Maradona become the best player, but what worried him all the time was that Maradona was too thin. The prevailing view in sports at the time was that special medications and vitamins were the best way to help a body reach its maximum potential. I don't know if it was the medicine that worked, or just to improve nutrition, little Maradona's body did become stronger.
Within a few years, Maradona Jr. had developed his dribbling skills to the point where adult players could take the lead. At the age of 10, Maradona began to be invited to perform in the middle of the field during the intermission of major football matches. He ran alone to the middle of the field to show his kicking skills to tens of thousands of fans. As if his feet could do a feat that no one else could do, the movements of this little boy with small mane, dark brown eyes and a pair of magical feet fascinated the fans. Whenever he came on at halftime, played with the ball in a dizzying variety of moves, or kicked the ball up on his heels and landed lightly on his head, and then let the ball fall to his chest, the whole stadium was always boiling, and the fans almost didn't let him go.
The little prodigy even went on Argentina's national television, performing in front of a video camera for long periods of time placing an orange or bottle on a raised foot to keep his body balanced. Maradona Jr. soon became famous in Buenos Aires and other parts of Argentina. The appearance of the stadium and television must have thrilled Maradona, and reputation seemed to be just around the corner.
But the cheers and applause of the fans were soon engulfed in the darkness of the slums, and the Maradona family still lived in a real life that lacked illusions, with no running water, and the three huts were separated not by doors but by curtains. To make their lives better, Maradona's father worked 10 hours a day in the harsh conditions of the meat processing plant.
As the eldest of the boys, young Maradona felt strongly that he needed money to help his family. He tried to do a few things, but only earned a few coins. He also ran into town, walked around the train station, opened the door for the taxi, and hoped that the people who got off the bus would tip a little. Another thing he had done was to pick up cigarette cases, and he carefully tore off the tin foil on the cigarette packing paper, but it took a long time to save enough tin foil to sell. Every penny is very important for a child growing up in a slum.
Little Maradona dreams of one day helping his family get rich, and he realizes that if he becomes a star, he will be able to reach that goal. He had his goals big in mind and he decided not only to achieve for himself, but also to lead his team to championships and even the World Cup.
Maradona's desire to escape poverty has become even stronger. In 1973, Maradona's team came to a luxurious five-star hotel. The ecstatic Maradona enjoyed the special hospitality and even had a waiter help him make the bed. The treatment was in stark contrast to his life in the slums, and this satisfaction seemed to have had a good effect on him. Later that day, he scored 4 goals for his team.
Maradona is constantly trying, he is preoccupied with football. LoteBolitas became a successful team thanks in large part to the young No. 10. In 1973, Los Bollitas finished runners-up at the Argentine Youth Championship. The following year, they won the championship again. Maradona, 13, made his first team a strong team, just as he later made several teams strong.
As his body grew stronger and stronger, Maradona's reputation as a master of dribbling and scoring goals grew, and his football career seemed to be following the trajectory he expected. But as a teenager, Maradona often showed a personality that was easily agitated, and this personality did not seem to change as he grew up. Sometimes he played cards on the football field, and once the referee sent him off the field. People around him hoped that the extremely talented player would learn to control his temper as he matured.
As Maradona got older, the time came for him to leave his first team. Argentina's famous first-class club River Plate expressed a desire to work with Maradona as early as the age of 12. Now, at the age of 15, he receives a special gift from another first-class team, the Argentine Youth Team. They gave him a key and a key to his own apartment. The apartment not only had a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, but his whole family moved in, and the place was big enough. The apartment is located in a quiet area called Garden Town.
This key is very important for Maradona, who has been living in a small shack, only three huts and no running water. It didn't take long for Maradona to officially join the Argentine youth team. He played for the team for 5 years from 1976 to 1981.
With the keys to the apartment in hand and the contract signed, Maradona is about to become a professional footballer. He knew he was on a path to a better life than his parents. There are only a few good fortunes in the world, and if he works hard, maybe one day he will live in a big house. If all goes well for him, he will never again live in a small shack, working in a harsh environment for the meagre amount of money. The take-off of Maradona's football career began to pull him out of the slums of Fiorito. Maradona will never forget the years he lived in poverty, and the survival skills he grew up in the slums and learned. And now, he and his family have begun a more hopeful life. As a bright-eyed teenager, Maradona knew he had talent, and he didn't doubt that he had the discipline and courage to make himself a great star. He was confidently ready to play for the new team he played for.
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This article is compiled from Jimmy Burns's book Hand of God: The Life of Maradona, which was published in 2010 and first published in 2018 as a game for fans to exchange and learn.