Diego Armando Maradona Franco (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo maɾaˈðona], born 30 October 1960) is a retired Argentine footballer. He has served as a manager and coach at other clubs as well as for the national team of Argentina. Many experts, football critics, former players, current players and football fans regard Maradona as the best football player of all time. He was joint FIFA Player of the 20th Century with Pelé.
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A play maker who operated in the classic number 10 position, Maradona is the only player in football history to set the world record transfer fee twice, first when he transferred to Barcelona for a then world record £5m, and second, when he transferred to Napoli for another record fee £6.9m. He played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys during his club career, and is most famous for his time at Napoli where he won numerous accolades. In his international career, playing for Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals.
Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. In the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history, though for two different reasons. The first goal was an unpenalized handling foul known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "The Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.[12]
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 drug test, for cocaine, in Italy, and he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. after testing positive for ephedrine. In 2005, he lost a considerable amount of extra weight and overcame his cocaine addiction. His outspoken views have sometimes put him in conflict with journalists and sport executives. Although he had little managerial experience, he became head coach of the Argentina national team in November 2008, and held the job for eighteen months, until his contract expired after the 2010 World Cup.
He coached Dubai based club Al Wasl in the UAE Arabian Gulf League for the 2011-2012 season. In August 2013, Maradona joined Argentine Primera D club Deportivo Riestra's staff as "spiritual coach".
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