If you define a tournament in terms of individuals, the 1986 World Cup in Mexico can be called the Maradona World Cup, not only single-handedly bringing Argentina to the top of the world! It is also to directly establish their own status as the world ball king! To this day, no player has been able to write such a legend. After leading the team to win the championship, Maradona's personal prestige and honor reached the peak, although he played in the relatively weak Serie A Napoli, he still could not stop Maradona from becoming the well-deserved first superstar in world football!
Although the network at that time was not as developed as it is now, there was also a number one fan of Maradona in china at that time, who was Deng Gong Deng Xiaoping, one of the greatest giants in Chinese history. Deng Gong did not hide his love for Maradona, even at the age of 83, he still asked others to bring words to Maradona, hoping that Maradona could come to China to play football. And Deng Gong made it clear that if he could come to China to play the game, there would be more than 600 million people watching the game.
But for Maradona, who was invincible at the time, he did not care at all about such an invitation, and even priced himself at about $230,000, otherwise he would not consider it at all. From this point, it can be seen that Maradona at that time was not only proud, but also very short-sighted. Although it cannot be commented on simply as "hindsight", if Maradona could take the opportunity to open the Chinese market at that time, the huge commercial value and economic benefits would be immeasurable.
But at the time, maradona's blindness and desire for money completely ruined the offer. And if you come to China for two friendly matches at that time, Maradona's expenses and other costs of the game may cost millions of dollars, even if maradona is too fond of it, Deng Gong will put this matter aside. However, as long as there is Maradona's game, Deng Gong will still watch it all without falling, and even give him the nickname "That Little Man".
Perhaps because of his stature, Deng Gong's love for Maradona is overflowing with words, and Deng Gong himself has been an absolute football fan since he was a child. Although he did not have money when he was young, he had to watch games even if he was hungry during his study in France, which was enough to see Deng Gong's love for football. In the 1990 World Cup, Deng Gong's health was not as good as before, and even if he could not watch the live broadcast, he would watch the video broadcast on the second day until all 52 matches were watched.
Although the gracious invitation was rejected by Maradona, Deng Gong's approach was all for the country and the people, after all, it was impossible to spend a huge amount of money to meet his preferences, and it could also indirectly reflect that Maradona and the team's vision was not long-term enough at that time. Although there is not much intersection between the two, when Deng Gong died in 1997, Maradona also officially announced his favorite stadium, and a generation of football kings hung up their boots and returned, which is also a small coincidence between the two.