And there is only one man responsible for this: Diego Maradona.
The Argentine, it is claimed, single-handedly won his team the World Cup in 1986 – which was a time when the previous generation was growing up – and as a result, earned himself and his team millions of fans.
And the effect of it can still be witnessed today. Maradona was a magician with the ball at his feet – one of the best ever, if not the best – but apart from that, he is perhaps the worst among all the football legends.
The things he says and does outside the pitch is something that can’t be neglected and here are 7 instances that prove why he is the worst football legend ever…
#7 Criticising Messi for retiring
After losing three finals in a row, Messi had had enough and decided to announce retirement from international football. He did, however, make a comeback after a few months, much to the relief of Argentina fans.
Diego Maradona, meanwhile, wasn’t pleased. The former Argentina captain suggested that the whole act could have been staged while also adding that the reaction of Messi was uncalled for since he was not the one to be blamed for the loss.
“I don’t know whether this was staged to make us understand that he’d lost three finals, but we never lost by big margins.
“He got annoyed for nothing. He wasn’t to blame for the defeat, others were. So why did he announce his retirement? He spoke too quickly, made everyone hold their breath (on a potential return),” he Maradona said.
This might have been the general consensus among many people, but the fact that an Argentine icon like Diego Maradona used the opportunity to throw dirt at Messi even before the wounds had healed just goes on to show the kind of man that he is – someone who does everything to steal the limelight.
#6 Showing the finger
This one is among the recent ones. Argentina needed a win against Nigeria to qualify for the round of 16. While the Argentine players were giving their all on the pitch, Maradona was backing them from the stands.
All great.
Then Messi scores and Maradona goes berserk, almost as though he has been possessed by a djinn.
Nigeria equalized and he was visibly upset. After a while, he was caught sleeping on camera – and it was later revealed that he needed medical attention.
Finally, when Marcos Rojo scored a peach of a goal in the final few minutes of the game, the Argentina legend was visibly out of control and showed the middle finger of both his hands while celebrating.
On live TV. During a World Cup game. Wow.
#5 Kicking a fan
Maradona has a short temper. It is very easy to get on the nerves of the Argentine World Cup-winning legend, which in turn makes him do something barely believable.
One such incident happened during his time at Al Wasl, a club from Dubai, when he was getting his photo clicked in front of a poster that read ‘Te Amo Benja’ – or, ‘I love you Benja [Benjamin, his grandson]’.
While he was looking for the perfect shot, a fan was interrupting him by lifting the poster continuously, he kicked his hand to stop the fan. While it might have been a normal thing to do for a commoner, Maradona is a legend and could have handled it better instead of kicking someone who had no idea of what was going on and just wanted to have a look at him.
#4 Slapping a journo
Maradona’s psychotic behaviour doesn’t end in the last slide – or in this one, for that matter – as controversy and Maradona walk hand-in-hand. This video reveals another thing about him: that he is very sensitive about his girlfriends.
When a journalist did something as trivial as winking at his girlfriend, Maradona walked up to him to ask him what was wrong and then seemingly slapped him for his supposed audacity.
This is just another instance of a grown man – who is supposedly a revered figure in one of the greatest sports of all time – behaving like a street kid.
#3 Telling Pele that Messi lacks personality
There are often moments when one begins to feel like the Argentine legend suffers from split personality disorder. Sometimes, he praises Messi as though the Barcelona number 10 is the greatest of all time and at other times, he criticizes him when there is no need to.
At an event where he was talking to Pele, Maradona was asked by the Brazil legend as to whether he knows Messi personally. A normal answer would be ‘yes’, but Maradona doesn’t like normal.
“He’s a really good person, but he has no personality,” Maradona replied to Pele, before adding: “He lacks [the] character to be a leader.”
Pele was seemingly having fun at the controversial nature of their discussion and took the opportunity to bury the dagger deeper.
Pele responded: “Ah, I get it, he’s not like we were back in the days. In the 70s we [Brazil] had really good players like Rivellino, Gerson, Tostao.
“Not like Argentina now, which depends only on Messi. He [Maradona] is saying that Messi is a good player, there’s no doubt about it, but he has no personality.”
#2 “Don’t come back”
After Argentina secured their third final in as many years, the usual thing to do would be to inspire and motivate them to play well and win the trophy. Argentina had lost the final of the World Cup 2014 and Copa America 2015 and now they once again had the chance to win the Copa America in 2016.
However, instead of making them feel confident, Diego Maradona put unnecessary pressure on both Lionel Messi and his team by stating that they shouldn’t come back to Argentina without the trophy.
“Of course I think we’ll win,” he said. “But if you don’t win, don’t come back.”
In the end, Argentina lost on penalties and Messi subsequently retired before making a comeback – and that also didn’t go down too well with Maradona (as mentioned in the first slide).
#1 Blasting England
There is a reason why there is a sentiment of dislike towards Maradona from the English. After all the Argentina legend scored a goal using his hand against England in the 1986 World Cup and later had the audacity to name it as the ‘Hand of God’, something which perhaps may have coated the fact that he cheated to make Argentina win the World Cup that year.
And as if that incident wasn’t enough of a reason for the English people to dislike Maradona, the Argentine has provided them with more fuel to light up the embers and burn the whole place down.
As England qualified for the quarter-final after beating Colombia, Maradona took the opportunity to criticize the referee for that game and belittle England’s feat.
“I apologise to all the Colombian people, but they must know the players are not to blame. It is the man who decides who is the referee who is to blame. A man like that should not be put in charge of a game of that magnitude.
“With all due respect, Pierluigi Collina, as the man who designates the referees, he is very bad. He must apologise to the Colombian people.”
After that, he went on to criticize Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, for not being transparent and also accused the English players of diving.
“I told Gianni Infantino that if I worked for FIFA I would change everything. It has to be transparent. That’s why I didn’t go there. The referee knows a lot about baseball, but he has no idea about football.
“The Colombian players asked for VAR and he did not give it to them. Twice the English threw themselves to the ground and he did not admonish them. This was theft.”
While Maradona will forever be one of the greatest icons of the game, these incidents just show that he is the worst among the legends as he has no regard for the image that he carries.
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