Diego Armando Maradona was just 5 feet 5 inches tall - a dwarf in comparison to the likes of European footballers - yet he struck fear in the hearts of his opponents.
Born on October 30,1960, Maradona is renowned for his flamboyant display of footballing skills, dribbling, and nutmegging his opponents at his peak. This made El Diego, as he was called, a living football legend.
His name is often mentioned in the same vein as George Best, Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, and Johan Cruyff.
But Diego Maradona was not a legend. He was an enigma.
As much as Maradona was adored and loved by his fans, he was equally controversial as well. The now iconic but infamous Hand of God incident, in which he scored a goal against England using his hand at the 1986 World Cup, made him one of the most hated football players as well.
I was born in the same year when Maradona lifted the World Cup. While he was already past his prime by the time I was old enough to recognize him, when the news of his passing broke, I felt deeply sad.
It feels as though I lost a friend.
Maradona was always present, in a sense, whenever I watched football. His name would be mentioned on the lips of my friends whenever we talk about football. Pundits and commentators would never mention his name in passing without fail whenever the World Cup season came.
While he was indeed a living legend and a controversial figure due to his cocaine addiction, Maradona, who passed away on November 25, 2020 due to cardiac arrest, was an enigmatic figure in his time.
The God of Football was in Malaysia.
One person who did witness him rise to become a star, albeit from afar, was my father-in-law, Sharmugam Manickam.
Being a football coach himself and a huge lover of the sport, Mr Shan was at Stadium Merdeka when Diego Maradona's Boca Juniors met Malaysian team, Selangor on January 12, 1982.
"What I remember about the match was Maradona scoring from the middle of the pitch. The ball hit the inner part of the post and bounced out. The goal was disallowed," my father-in-law said to me over the phone.
There were two reasons why this friendly match was significant. The first was because Maradona scored the winning goal against Malaysian goalkeeper, R Arumugam, sealing Boca Junior's victory 2-1.
It was a hard fought match because the Selangor team during that period was lethal.
Singapore's Fandi Ahmad scored for the Malaysian team while Carlos Córdoba scored the other for Boca Juniors that night.
The second reason was because Maradona played against Malaysia's footballing legend, the late Mokhtar Dahari.
Maradona was only 21 years old and was reaching the peak of his footballing career.
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Cover image sourced from Reddit.
