“How is the teaching going?”, I asked a friend of mine from home who had come to Argentina to teach English. “It’s easier than I thought it would be”, he confided, “Whenever I run out of things to say, I just get them to argue about Diego Maradona”.  

Diego Maradona in Argentina is very much like Marmite in England. You either love him or you hate him. For many the bitter taste it leaves in your mouth ruins not only your toast, but the rest of your day. For others this viscous, tangy spread is unique and unrivalled; a god among condiments. There can be no dialogue between these two factions. Foreigners, however, rarely understand the controversy that surrounds this sticky, black goo. “How could anyone possibly like such a thing? It is simply foul”, they say. 

Few have travelled the route from glory to disgrace as frequently or as rapidly as Diego Maradona. In his time he has plunged from World Cup glory to drug rehabilitation; gone from air rifling journalists to hosting a TV show; and recovered from near fatal obesity and drug addiction to become Argentina’s national coach. Insanely talented, painfully arrogant and deeply flawed, Maradona is a character the likes of which football has never seen.  

Most of the world, however, (according to a official FIFA poll in Argentina, and many outside, still regard him as the greatest player ever to grace the pitch. During his prolific dominance of the game, between 1986 and 1990, his club Napoli enjoyed the most successful period of their history. They won their only ever two league titles, as well as the Copa Italia, UEFA cup and Italian Supercup. He was the most expensive player of his generation, breaking the world transfer record twice. First when he transferred from Boca Juniors to Barcelona for £5 million in 1982 and again in 1984 when he joined Napoli for £6.4 million.   

It was, however, the World Cup of 1986 that more than anything else cemented Diego Maradona’s reputation as an international superstar and a deity in his homeland. On Latin American soil (the tournament was hosted by Mexico) he captained Argentina to their second ever world cup triumph, playing every minute of every match of the campaign. With 5 goals and 5 assists, his breathtaking performance earned him FIFA’s player of the tournament.  

One particular match of the 1986 campaign is commonly presented as best summing up Maradona, both as a player and as a personality. It is the quarter final against England. Played at the height of emotional tension surrounding the 1982 Falklands War, Maradona led Argentina to a 2-1 victory; scoring both goals. The first is widely accepted to be the most controversial ever scored in international competition, the second the most brilliant. Known as the “hand of God goal”, Maradona scored the first by using his hand to out leap England keeper, Peter Shilton, and tap the ball into the net. The second was pure magic. Maradona picked the ball up in his own half, turned and dribbled, with eleven deft touches, past six England players, before sliding the ball into an open goal. With it he ensured Argentina’s place in the last four and his place in history. It would later be named the greatest goal of the century.  

Much of the period from 1990 onwards, however, was marked more by controversy than brilliance. In 1992 Maradona left Napoli in disgrace after failing consecutive drugs test for cocaine. In 1994 he was sent home from the World Cup, again testing positive for cocaine. Indeed, Maradona is suspected to have been addicted to the white powder from 1983-2004. In 2004, overweight and largely forgotten outside Argentina, Maradona suffered a major heart attack, the result of a cocaine overdose. He remained in intensive care for 10 days, and many presumed the end was near for this one great player. With rumours of his imminent death, fans gathered outside his hospital singing the songs of their hero.   

Maradona has never, however, been predictable. By 2005, now slim and fit (after a stomach stapling operation), he was hosting the most popular show on Argentine television. In November 2008 he became his country’s national coach and on 14 October 2009 his team qualified for South Africa 2010, with a 1-0 win over Uruguay. However, with six defeats during qualification, including a 6-1 thumping by Bolivia, the jury is still out on Maradona’s skill as a coach. The story of this fascinatingly controversial figure thus continues, and I for one would be the last to try and predict how it will end.

• Meet the locals: Nicolás Gómez – Post-modernist poet
• Community Entry: Argentine Cuisine
• Community Entry: Argentine Wine
• Early History of Argentina: From the Pre-colombian era to the Golden Age
• Recent History of Argentina: “Infamous Decade” to the 2001 crash.
• The Tango
• Eva Perón
• Football in Argentina
• Che Guevara
• Diego Maradonna