Diego Maradona’s spell as coach of Argentina’s national soccer team was as turbulent as the rest of his erratic life on and off the pitch.
He was given a hero’s welcome despite the team’s 4-0 World Cup quarter-final defeat by Germany earlier this month. However, his popularity was not enough to keep him in the job, and soccer chiefs voted unanimously on Tuesday not to renew his contract.
Maradona, 49, rose from a shanty town to become one of the world’s greatest sportsmen, plunged into the depths of drug abuse and then bounced back to play a starring role at the World Cup in South Africa.
PHOTO: AFP
Best remembered for leading Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986 he attracted a vigil outside his hospital when he spent 10 days in intensive care in 2004.
For some, though, his career will always be tarnished by his “Hand of God” goal against England at the same World Cup and his expulsion from the 1994 finals for a doping offense.
Maradona’s magical skills and electric pace were dulled only by injury and a tendency toward being overweight later in his career.
The fifth of eight children, he grew up in a shanty town. Discovered in street kickabouts by a scout for Argentine first division club Argentinos Juniors, he made his league debut at 15.
His international debut followed two years later, although he was left out of the 1978 World Cup squad in a decision which remains controversial even now.
Maradona won an Argentine league title with Boca Juniors in 1981 but by he had attracted the attention of European clubs.
He had two unhappy seasons at Barcelona before moving to Napoli in 1984.
Maradona enjoyed the status of a demi-god in southern Italy and helped transform a mediocre club into one of the best in Italy, winning two “Scudetto” titles and a UEFA Cup.
However, after 1990, drugs and alcohol began taking over.
In 1991, Maradona was handed a 15-month worldwide suspension for doping and was called to trial in Naples over alleged links with a vice ring.
He was banned again for 15 months after testing positive for drugs at the 1994 World Cup.
On his return to Argentina, he was convicted for an earlier incident when he fired an airgun at reporters, receiving a two-year suspended jail sentence.
In between, he had playing spells at Sevilla, Newell’s Old Boys and Boca where missed training sessions became the norm.
He retired from professional soccer in 1997 after failing another doping test and almost died from cocaine-induced heart problems in 2000.
For the next five years, he underwent drug rehabilitation living on-and-off in Cuba.
Argentine media gave blanket coverage of his 10 days in intensive care in 2004, a gastric bypass operation the following year and his 2007 spell in hospital for alcohol-induced hepatitis.
Maradona’s appointment as Argentina coach in November 2008 began with a series of embarrassing defeats, leaving the team in danger of failing to qualify for this year’s World Cup.
However, once in South Africa, he reveled in the spotlight as his team won four games in a row to reach the quarter-finals.
It ended in tears, however, when Germany beat Argentina 4-0.
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