The Return of the King

25 June, 1994 – FIFA World Cup Group Stage Match, Foxboro Stadium, Boston – Argentina vs Nigeria.

12 June, 2010 – FIFA World Cup Group Stage Match, Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg – Argentina vs Nigeria.

Separated by sixteen years and three World Cups, these two identical matches hold a special significance in the history of the World Cup because of a common factor— Diego Armando Maradona. The match in Boston was the last time the world witnessed the greatest footballer on the planet in Albiceleste colours as he was controversially banned by FIFA for the use of ephedrine.

Saturday’s match in Johannesburg brought Argentina’s greatest icon back to where he belongs— the football pitch, albeit as a manager of the team he had led to World Cup glory in 1986. Life has come full circle for the Golden Boy of Argentine football after 16 years; it was an emotional and passionate homecoming for one of world sport’s greatest personalities pitted against the very team he had last played in the 1994 World Cup.

In the period between 1994 and 2010, Maradona has experienced everything— undergone drug rehabilitation, survived a massive heart attack, gained abnormal weight and then had surgery to reduce it, written an autobiography, hosted a chat show that had Pele as a guest and been voted the greatest footballer of the century. In between he’s also had a church named after him established in Argentina, which now has a global following.

After having experienced all this, the man who many across the world claim to be their God has now taken up coaching and is in charge of perhaps the most talented team in this year’s World Cup. Roles may have changed but Maradona has not. In the match against Nigeria, he showed glimpses of his passion for football and the fact that he loves the game more than his life could be evident from his actions on the sidelines.

Somebody rightly said “You can take the ball away from Maradona but you can’t take Maradona away from the ball”. Seldom in the history of football has any coach in the dug-out been so impatient to have physical contact with the ball. At one point of time during the match, Diego instinctively caught a ball that flew in his range, whereas at another point, the little man seldom seen in a suit showed glimpses of magic by juggling the ball with his neat black shoes. That is Diego Maradona for you – he does not follow rules, he makes his own rules. It is not for nothing that one of the greatest players of all time, Michel Platini said “What I can do with a football, Maradona can do with an orange”.

Maradona is not Rinus Michels; neither is he an Alex Ferguson or a Jose Mourinho. Neither does he have a formal coaching degree. He is just Diego Maradona— a man who is not limited to the conventional rules and regulations of life. Maradona and out of the box thinking go together. There was no particular way in which a defender could have stopped Maradona in his playing days because he always had a plan B with which he duped defenders all across the world for over two decades. No coach can make somebody play like Diego Maradona because no one can play like him. He has always been unconventional, rightly labeled “The Rebel Child”.

Maradona’s coaching tactics had been criticised by all and sundry prior to the World Cup mainly because of his experiments and the use of more than 100 players, which is why many feel Argentina had to scrape through to the finals. Even his onetime teammate Osvaldo Ardiles launched a scathing attack on his methods. But the fact is there’s no place of the word “method” in Maradona’s life. All his critics know very well that Diego loves Argentina more than his life. A BBC reporter once heard this from an adoring fan on a street of Buenos Aires: “Diego Maradona is not Argentine, Diego Maradona is Argentina”.

Maradona knows how to lead a team. He was the architect who orchestrated Argentina’s World Cup triumph in 1986. He is now in charge of a team considered by some to be the most talented in the World Cup. Maradona has begun well as a coach in the World Cup by winning his first game in charge. The game also saw the individual brilliance of the man Maradona calls his heir apparent— the reigning European and World Player of the Year – Lionel Messi. The Barcelona wonder kid would definitely have scored a hat trick but for the individual brilliance of the Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama who almost single-handedly kept Argentina at bay.

One of the memorable scenes of the 2010 World Cup has been an ecstatic Diego Maradona lifting Lionel Messi after the match, reminiscent of a father lifting his child after the child has made him proud. This was similar – Messi was simply mesmerizing, producing many Maradona-like moments which have lit the World Cup. Many in Argentina were critical of Maradona because of his strained relations with mercurial midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme as a result of which Riquelme vowed never to play under Diego. Many feel Riquelme was the man destined to lead Argentina to glory. But as of now Diego seems to have his own orchestra scripted. He has given Lionel Messi a free role which would have been difficult if Riquelme were around. And the world has witnessed over the past few years the destruction a freewheeling Lionel Messi can create. It now remains to be seen whether Messi, guided by Maradona, can lead Argentina to World Cup glory. But as of now, the journey has begun positively— Argentina’s football is in its most trusted hands, the hand that many call the “Hand of God”. And God does not disappoint His followers— we just need to trust Him.