The football legend Diego Maradona died at 60

Diego Armando Maradona Franco
Date of birth – 30 October 1960
Place of birth – Lanús, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death – 25 November 2020 (aged 60)
Place of death – Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona has passed away at his home in Tigre after suffering a cardiac arrest, a spokesman told news agency AFP.

The flamboyant player, best known for leading Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title, was 60.

Earlier in November, Maradona had undergone a surgery for a brain clot.

His personal doctor, neurologist Leopoldo Luque, had said that the problem likely was caused by an accident.

He was, however, released from a Buenos Aires hospital just over a week after undergoing the surgery, and was to continue his recovery in a private home.

Maradona’s lawyer, Matias Morla, had said he will continue to receive treatment for alcohol dependency. He was reportedly staying in a house near his older daughters.

He had celebrated his 60th Birthday on October 30 and had showed up that night for Gimnasia’s national championship match against Patronato, which his team won 3-0.

He left before the end of the first half, which had raised questions about his health.

Before his birthday, Maradona had been isolating at home after coming into contact with a person who showed symptoms of COVID-19.

Along with Brazil’s Pele, Maradona was known as one of the greatest footballers of all time.

Maradona has continued to cause controversy since his heyday as a player, getting sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the United States for doping and later dropping in and out of the game as a coach.

Years of drug use, overeating and alcoholism truncated a stellar career and altered his appearance from the lithe athlete who could slalom effortlessly through teams to a bloated addict who nearly died of cocaine-induced heart failure in 2000.

But he reinvented himself in a stunning comeback in 2008 as coach of the Argentina team, persuading managers that with sheer charisma he could inspire the team to victory, despite a lack of coaching experience.

In Argentina, he was worshipped as ‘El Dios’ – The God – partly a play on words on his number 10 shirt, ‘El Diez.’

He was largely responsible for Argentina’s World Cup victory in 1986 in Mexico, scoring two famous goals in one game against England in the quarter-finals.

“In our collective imagination Diego Maradona represents a certain glorious past, he’s a symbol of what we might have been,” popular culture professor at Buenos Aires University and Maradona expert Pablo Alabarces told news agency Reuters.

“He will always be forgiven,” said Maradona fan Marcelo Pose, a Buenos Aires attorney.