Diego Maradona's birthday: Remembering the ‘greatest footballer of all time’
Maradona displayed football talent at a very early age. At the age of eight, he joined Las Cebollitas (“The Little Onions"), a boys’ team that went on to win 136 consecutive games and a national championship. Maradona signed with Argentinos Juniors at age 14.
He made his first-division debut in 1976. He was the youngest Argentine to make his debut with the national team. Maradona was excluded from the 1978 World Cup-winning squad because of his age.
It was felt that he was still too young to play. Maradona, the midfielder, spent five years at the Argentinos Juniors, scoring 116 goals in 166 appearances. In 1979 he led the national under-20 team to a Junior World Cup championship.
In 1981, Maradona moved to Boca Juniors and, in the next year, he moved to Europe, playing with FC Barcelona for a record fee of $7.3 million. In June 1983, Maradona became the first Barcelona player to receive standing ovations from Real Madrid fans. In 1984, Maradona was transferred to Napoli for another world record fee of $13 million.
With Maradona the Napoli team won the league title and cup in 1987 and again the league title in 1990. Maradona’s stint with Napoli came to an end in 1991 when he was arrested in Argentina for cocaine possession and received a 15-month suspension from playing football. In 1995 he returned to Boca Juniors and played his last match on October 25, 1997.
Maradona represented the Argentine national team in four World Cups: 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1994. He dominated the 1986 competition in Mexico. In a 2–1 quarterfinal victory over England, he scored two of the most memorable goals in the history of the World Cup.
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