Football lovers around the world are still shocked by the sudden demise of one of the greatest footballers of all time, Diego Armando Maradona who passed away aged 60.
The legendary Argentine forward gave the world so much memories that would be difficult, if not impossible to forget. Winning the World Cup for Argentina made him a great, but his wild, passionate and complex love of football makes him a genius.
Diego made some passionate statements about football during his time on the earth. Below are ten of them:
- “If I was in a white dress at a wedding and a muddy ball arrived…I would stop it from the chest, without thinking about it”.
- “There would be no debate about who was the best footballer the world had ever seen – me or Pele. Everyone would say me.”
- “Messi scores a goal and celebrates. Cristiano scores a goal and poses like he’s in a shampoo commercial.”
- “God makes me play well. That is why I always make the sign of the cross when I walk out onto the field. I feel I would be betraying Him if I didn’t.”
- “I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi. Messi is a genius.”
- “I am Maradona, who makes goals, who makes mistakes. I can take it all, I have shoulders big enough to fight with everybody.”
- “I was waiting for my teammates to embrace me and no one came, … I told them, ‘Come hug me or the referee isn’t going to allow it.’”
- “Even if there was a hand, it was the hand of God.”
- “To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world”
- “I’m alive and I want to keep living.”
Diego Maradona died on Wednesday in the city of Tigre after suffering a heart attack, according to reports from his spokesman.
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Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has declared three days of national mourning following the news of Maradona’s death.
