Diego Maradona - Live Is No Longer Life

[sprocket]

That Maradona documentary that came out a couple of years back is great, if people haven't seen it.

RIP mad lad.

It's on More 4 at 01.15 tonight.

[Norton Canes]

Look I'm no Ben Garrison, OK...

[The Culture Bunker]

I remember when I was around ten, and that "Senza una Donna" song came out, the one by the Italian fellow and "Not the one from Mike and Mechanics" Paul Young.

Anyways, we sang the chorus bit as:

Poor Maradona
Couldn't score past Pat Bonner

I'm not sure Diego ever actually had a chance to put one past the Celtic stopper, but there you go, that's my little tribute to the Argentine wizard. Didn't Steve Hodge swap shirts with him after the '86 game? Perhaps the value has just gone up a tad. 

[checkoutgirl]

In the 2010 world cup in his capacity as Argentina manager he ran over a camera man's leg with his car and said "What an asshole you are, how can you put your leg there where it can get run over, man?"

Which instantly just makes me like him more. He was a lunatic but a very endearing one. Messi dodges tax and Ronaldo poses in magazines which for me just isn't the type of off field behaviour I appreciate in a football genius. They don't make 'em like Diego anymore.

[Twit 2]

and he was a leftist, which seems to be quite rare in football circles

RIP big guy

During a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1987, they clashed on the issue of wealth disparity, with Maradona stating, "I argued with him because I was in the Vatican and I saw all these golden ceilings and afterwards I heard the Pope say the Church was worried about the welfare of poor kids. Sell your ceiling then amigo, do something!"

[idunnosomename]

not sure what poor kids would want with gilded ceiling panels but it's a start

[Tony Tony Tony]

Diego, going, going..... gone.

[pcsjwgm]

RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ALr4tNiqGE

[Bronzy]

and he was a leftist, which seems to be quite rare in football circles

RIP big guy

The only other one I can think of at the moment is Oleguer who played for Barcelona, though unlike Maradona he was fucking shit.

I imagine that doing nothing else but playing on a pitch basically all day every day since childhood and getting paid ridiculous amounts for it is probably likely to leave most apathetic towards politics at best, somewhat understandable as it seems that the majority of footballers live in a bubble where most current events don't really affect them.

[Annie Labuntur]

[tag]Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney consult Plan B[/tag]

I once challenged him at keepy-uppy at a UNICEF charity event in London. He looked worried and politely declined didn't hear me because I was 30 yards away.

[Mr Farenheit]

Legend Diego (possibly?) doing a line on the pitch after scoring the winning penalty in a friendly

[jamiefairlie]

Look I'm no Ben Garrison, OK...

That's lovely :-)

[TheBrownBottle]

Like most normal, sensible people I avoid the autobiographies of sports figures.  Not applicable to Maradona - too interesting a life to dismiss his telling of it.  Sports, and football in particular, offer a way out of hell for some - reading about Diego the toddler falling into an actual cesspool of raw shit and piss has stayed with me.  The man is a fucking hero as far as I'm concerned - and the tabloid cunts delighting in his addictions always betrayed their psychopathic lack of empathy.  If I'd grown up in a world where you could drown in an open sewer if you took a wrong step, then a cocaine habit would likely be the least of my self-medicating.  Crying about the 'Hand of God' for decades is pathetic - as if cheating didn't occur in English football.  The headlines in the gutter press are exactly as you'd expect.  Embarrassing fuckers.

[Chedney Honks]

His bright flame lit up far more lives than it burned, and now there is only shadow.

[SpiderChrist]

Watched the 2019 documentary last night. Joyful and heartbreaking. What a player.

[Inspector Norse]

The only other one I can think of at the moment is Oleguer who played for Barcelona, though unlike Maradona he was fucking shit.

Two I know of: Chris Hughton was a member of the WRP and weote for their newsletter, and Javier Zanetti organised the Inter squad into contributing funds and resources to the Zapatistas.

[phes]

Watched the 2019 documentary last night. Joyful and heartbreaking. What a player.

I saw this at the cinema last year. Pretty great isn't it. Some eye watering footage of Italy in the 80s. And a glimpse outside of England's Italia 90 bubble into the reality that our semi final, pens, Gazza etc was little more than a footnote to what was happening in the other match

[Inspector Norse]

Legend Diego (possibly?) doing a line on the pitch after scoring the winning penalty in a friendly

Why was he wearing a nappy?

[Gulftastic]

It seemed to me you lived your life like a handball in the win.

[The Culture Bunker]

Shilton's bitterness towards Maradona I suspect hides a deep embarrassment at being outjumped so easily for that goal.

[TheBrownBottle]

Shilton's bitterness towards Maradona I suspect hides a deep embarrassment at being outjumped so easily for that goal.

It's incredible that he had nearly a foot on him & was able to use his hands legally and yet he still was second to the ball.

Personally, it makes me smile that the reactionary old twat is personally responsible for England being eliminated from three WCs ('74, '86 & '90).  Shilton, like Seaman and many others, is the embodiment of the English blind spot re the quality of the goalkeepers the country produces.  Goalkeepers are defined by their mistakes; ours tend to drop massive howlers on the biggest stage of all.

[The Culture Bunker]

It's incredible that he had nearly a foot on him & was able to use his hands legally and yet he still was second to the ball.

Personally, it makes me smile that the reactionary old twat is personally responsible for England being eliminated from three WCs ('74, '86 & '90).  Shilton, like Seaman and many others, is the embodiment of the English blind spot re the quality of the goalkeepers the country produces.  Goalkeepers are defined by their mistakes; ours tend to drop massive howlers on the biggest stage of all.

I remember watching the 86 QF a few years ago, and Shilton did have a decent game otherwise. Always fairly sure Gary Lineker is glad everyone focuses on Maradona's first goal, as it glosses over him missing an absolute sitter to make it 2-2.

There wasn't really anybody else worthy of the #1 shirt at the time: Chris Woods was average at best, Gary Bailey was in the squad but had suffered the injury that ended his first class career. Elsewhere, Ray Clemence had retired from England duty, Phil Parkes was also knocking on... Bobby Robson never seemed to fancy Tony Coton, Nigel Spink or John Lukic.

[TheBrownBottle]

I remember watching the 86 QF a few years ago, and Shilton did have a decent game otherwise. Always fairly sure Gary Lineker is glad everyone focuses on Maradona's first goal, as it glosses over him missing an absolute sitter to make it 2-2.

There wasn't really anybody else worthy of the #1 shirt at the time: Chris Woods was average at best, Gary Bailey was in the squad but had suffered the injury that ended his first class career. Elsewhere, Ray Clemence had retired from England duty, Phil Parkes was also knocking on... Bobby Robson never seemed to fancy Tony Coton, Nigel Spink or John Lukic.

All absolute mediocrities of course (Woods got the chance to prove that with his run in the side under Taylor).  By '90 Shilton was virtually immobile.  England simply doesn't produce top notch goalkeepers. Also agree on Lineker's miss - one of those 'easier to score' moments.  Maradona was the real difference (that Argentina side is probably the weakest to win a WC, excluding Diego). .

[The Culture Bunker]

All absolute mediocrities of course (Woods got the chance to prove that with his run in the side under Taylor).  By '90 Shilton was virtually immobile.  England simply doesn't produce top notch goalkeepers. Also agree on Lineker's miss - one of those 'easier to score' moments.  Maradona was the real difference (that Argentina side is probably the weakest to win a WC, excluding Diego). .

Shilton at his peak (late 70s, early 80s) was an excellent keeper, by all accounts. But it's true he owes his high cap count in large part to the fact that in the second half of the 80s, there was nobody else really competing.

And let's not forget he didn't mind using the whole affair to cash in with 'Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona', available on Amstrad, C64 and Speccy: a weird title otherwise, as it had nothing to do with the Argentine.

[Dex Sawash]

Not really familiar with footballers from the days before helmets came in.

[SpiderChrist]

Shilton at his peak (late 70s, early 80s) was an excellent keeper, by all accounts.

As a Southampton fan, I can testify to that. He was a bit good.

[The Culture Bunker]

As a Southampton fan, I can testify to that. He was a bit good.

But I believe you replaced him with someone even better (and only two years younger) - the pride of West Cumbria, John Burridge.

[king_tubby]

Two I know of: Chris Hughton was a member of the WRP and weote for their newsletter, and Javier Zanetti organised the Inter squad into contributing funds and resources to the Zapatistas.

Paul Jewell's pet tortoise was called Trotsky.

[Jockice]

I certainly did, in between massive bouts of laughter.

I never saw it live. I was at a Simple Minds concert in Milton Keynes of all things. The crowd kept chanting 'what's the score?' Jim Kerr kept trying to ignore them but eventually told us, adding 'music's better than football anyway.'

Knowing Jim's tastes in football I trust he found it just as hilarious as I did watching it later on.

[SpiderChrist]

But I believe you replaced him with someone even better (and only two years younger) - the pride of West Cumbria, John Burridge.

Ha! Ah yes. The mighty Burridge. A Chris Nicholl signing.