So who else is on the naughty list? The Beatles? Jimmy Hendrix? Jim Morrison? Kurt Cobain? Bob Marley? John Keats? Lord Byron? Judy Garland?
Well yes, he was. Maradona should never have had the option of getting near the ball with his hand. I mean, it really doesn’t matter, but that’s all I’m saying. For some reason you’re taking that as me saying “cheating is okay”, which is something of a leap.
The whole remembering him as a cheat is a funny one for me. It reminds me of the whole “Lewis Hamilton is a tax dodger” spurious argument too. There’s just so many double standards at play - with Lewis it’s a nefarious undercurrent to do with race (I believe), and as I said before, with Maradona it’s some weird subconscious pantomime villain tied in with the Falklands (and his later misbehaviours). Yeah, he cheated. But there’s a catalogue of other instances of that within football that don’t get the same opprobrium. It’s quite interesting. (It may of course just be a British thing - I wonder how he’s reported in other countries, I don’t know the answer there. But again, that’s a Falklands thing, as well as being the ‘victims’ of his cheating. Though I think the second goal really did for us).
I still don’t know why he wasn’t brought down on the half way line, at the start of his run for the second goal. Something most of us would accept, if it stopped a goal, even if it might be cheating. Also, shouldn’t we have had a free kick immediately prior to him getting the ball? A truly great player. RIP.
Agreed. All should, could, if, but. Shouldn't Lineker have soured shortly afterwards? Irrelevent now. Flawed and no saint, but a football genius and gave so many happiness and hope.