Michael Batson

To get an insight into football, and Argentine football in particular, you can’t go past the documentary ‘Maradona’ by Palme D’or winner Serbian, Emir Kustinica. Filmed over two years from 2005 to 2007, it includes archival footage and interviews with the great man himself at home with his family in Buenos Aires, and on a trip to Belgrade, Kustinica’s hometown and scene of one of Maradona’s triumphs playing for Barcelona against Red Star Belgrade.

Included in the cast of characters are Maradona’s buddies; Bolivian president Evo Morales, Venezuela’s Hugo “The Boss” Chavez, and Fidel Castro; and his nemesis, Margaret Thatcher and George W Bush, the latter much reviled by Maradona.

While the Latin American leaders appear in real life footage, the Western leaders are portrayed in comical animated fashion. Bush as a gun-toting cowboy and Thatcher, laughably as an opposition defender on the field, who in one scene losing her head literally, when captivated by Maradona’s silky skills.

The backbone of the film is the greatest goal of the century, scored by Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals against England. Maradona scored two goals in that match, both unforgettable, one for all the wrong reasons, the so-called “Hand of God” goal, and the other for all the right reasons, named by FIFA as “The Goal of the Century”. Maradona collected the ball in his own half and then proceeded to run for 60 metres and 10 seconds through the English defence, beating five players one of them twice, before slotting the ball home past the helpless goalkeeper.

As English commentator Martin Tyler said “The first goal was highly doubtful, if not to say illegal, and the second was worth two anyway.”

Diego Armando Maradona was born in an impoverished Buenos Aires slum. Amazingly, there is film of him as a skinny teen keeping a ball up in the air with his head and almost solely his left foot, though he did use his right once, but only once. It was that left foot which would earn him a fortune, make him a household name throughout the world, well almost, save for the United States. There he would later he would meet his demise during the 1994 World Cup finals. The US was to become the target for Maradona’s anti-imperialist rhetoric. In Kustinica's words Maradona, "if he wasn't footballer, would have been a revolutionary."

It was that skinny kid he would sign with Argentinos Juniors before making the big move to the country’s most popular team, Boca Juniors. He signed with Boca he said, to fulfil a promise made to his father to do so, though cross-town rivals River Plate were offering more money. Boca is also the team of the working class, whereas River is seen to identify more with the middle class, hence their nickname Los Millionarios, “The Millionaires”. Every year Boca’s stadium, La Bombanera rocks literally to the contest between the two clubs, El Superclasico, amongst the most heated sporting contests on the face of the planet.

From Buenos Aires he made the leap to Europe and Spanish giants, FC Barcelona. Barcelona is probably the only team certainly in the Spanish-speaking world whose rivalry with Castilian rivals, Real Madrid, could match in intensity and scale, the clashes between Boca and River.

Kustinica describes Maradona as the Sex Pistol of the football scene. “The man is his own worst enemy, doing everything to his own detriment!” Repeated footage of his “goal of the century” is played to the driving soundtrack of the Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” because on that day in the Azteca Stadium before a crowd of 114,000 in 1986, she didn’t save England.

Interviewed by Kustinica about that game and seated in some garage workshop in Buenos Aires with his long-suffering wife seated in the background, Maradona wearing two gem-bespectacled identical wrist watches, like some rich match official, said the game was about revenge. He is clear, in the game Argentina were representing the dead killed by Thatcher’s British forces in Islas Malvinas.

When in Argentina it pays not refer to Isla Malvinas as the Falkland Islands, and if you’re travelling on a British passport, do not refer to them at all.

Kustinica mentions the goal of the century as the moment when a billion people “jumped up together” amazing then the planet kept on spinning on its axis. For Maradona, that goal and that game, was about Argentina beating one of the rulers of the world. Only in football can small countries triumph over larger nations.

Off the field all Maradona’s troubles began, for on the pitch he was safe. If only his life consisted of the game, but once that whistle blew, he was in danger. It is alleged, though not stated in the film, Maradona was a coke addict during his time at Barcelona. Home fans would jeer him because they knew he was stoned and therefore not playing his best for the team, and in Barcelona it’s more than sport. It’s as much about politics, language, culture and independence.

“More than just a team” is the catch-cry in Catalonia, and Barcelona is recognised as Catalonia’s national team.

Still his performances were remarkable, like the goal against Red Star, where he beat several players before producing a stunning shot to lob the ball over the ‘keeper from distance. Standing on the very pitch years later, Maradona in the film indicates the position. “It was from here. I can still remember the look on the goalie’s face.” He mimicked a look of shock. The keeper was two-metres tall, yet with arms outstretched, was still beaten by Maradona’s inventiveness.

Spanish sides began employing increasingly brutal tactics to suppress Maradona’s prodigious skill, while under the influence or not. Man-marker enforcers were introduced week-in week-out. The most notorious of these was Andoni Goikoetxea Olaskoaga of Athletic Bilbao. Bilbao is the pride of the Basques while Barcelona represents Catalonia. You can only play for Bilbao if a full-blooded Basque, the exception to this rule was the Frenchman, Bixente Lizarazu, but then his mother was Basque.

In one game in Barcelona’s stadium in 1983, the famous Nou Camp, Goikoetxea shattered Maradona’s ankle ligaments, purportedly afterwards keeping the boot that did the damage, in a display cabinet in his home. Later that same year the two teams meet in the Spanish cup final, which resulted in an all-in brawl, footage of which is shown graphically in Kustinica’s documentary. Some players are seen flying through the air with kung-fu kicks into their opponents.

From Barcelona, Maradona moved with great bombast to Naples in a move of incredulous proportions and with great overtones. Anyone who tells you sport has nothing to do with politics doesn’t know what they are talking about. Italy is divided between the rich north and the impoverished south. The north is represented by industrial powerhouses such as Turin and slick fashion house like Milan, while the south is feudal Sicily, and the almost Third World chaos of Naples.

To pay for Maradona, Napoli the perennial Italian league under-achievers, reputedly sold 80,000 season tickets (for a stadium holding 60,000). He captured for them two league titles, the prized Scuddeto, literally, “little shield” against the traditional and much more fancied, mainly northern, opposition, and entry into Europe.

In an example of the universality of the English language, I can recall a Greek and an Italian talking football, in albeit broken English on Antiparos, the Greek island in the Mediterranean. The Neapolitan’s contribution was that “Diego Maradona plays for my team,” as if this was the definitive line in any football argument, which it was at that time. Between the two of them they then searched for superlatives to describe this superstar, which he almost certainly was by this time.

During his tenure as a Napoli player, Maradona and his entourage were housed occupying the entire floor of a downtown Naples hotel. His hangers-on numbered about 40 or so. When not playing or training, he had little to do with his time. Poorly advised, the monkey-on-the-back of the poor and ill-educated that succeed while offered hitherto unfancied income, he spent his time supplied with hookers and cocaine by Naples extensive organised crime network.

During the film Maradona alludes to this while placing the blame elsewhere TBC...