DIEGO MARADONA
General:
Diego Armando Maradona, born 30 October 1960, is an
Argentine football coach as well as a manager and former
player. Many experts, football critics, former players, current
players and football fans in general consider Maradona to be
the greatest football player of all time.
Maradona is considered one of the sport’s most controversial and
newsworthy figures. He was suspended from football for 15 months in
1991 after failing a drug test, in Italy, and he was sent home from the
1994 World Cup in the USA after testing positive for aphedrine. In 2005
he lost the weight and overcame his drug addiction. His outspoken
manners have sometimes put him at odds with journalists and sport
executives but his honesty is admirable. Although he had a little
managerial experience, he became head coach of the Argentina national
team in 2008 and held the job for eighteen months until his contract
expired after 2010 World Cup.
Early Years…
Maradona was born in Lanús, but raised in Villa Fiorito, a shantytown on the southern
outskirts of Buenos Aires, to a poor family that had moved from Corrientes Province. He
was the first son after three daughters. He has two younger brothers, Hugoand Raúl , both
of whom were also professional football players. Maradona has Italian, and indigenous
ancestry.
At age 10, Maradona was spotted by a talent scout while he was playing in his
neighborhood club Estrella Roja. He became a staple of Los Cebollitas (The Little Onions),
the junior team of Buenos Aires's Argentinos Juniors. As a 12-year-old ball boy, he amused
spectators by showing his wizardry with the ball during the halftime intermissions of first
division games.
CREATED BY:
Kostas Dimopoulos, Aris Katsolis,
Panos Konstantopoulos, Dimitris
Athanasoulis, Thanasis Bantos.