Football (Soccer) Thread

[Maladict]

Sucks about Maradona. Great player. His legacy overtaken by his extracurrricular activities.

I'm an England fan, so I'm inclined to hate him; but my favourite Italian club is Napoli...so there's that.

You shouldn't hate the hand of god. it was retribution for screwing over portugal

Screwing over Portugal and unfairly denying England a WC are equally fine achievements. 

[Pedrito]

Apparently Maradona has just died 

I think that Maradona has been the greatest player to ever grace a football pitch.
Every consideration about individual technique aside, his ability to raise the quality of the team he played with, and many times singlehandedly change the course of a match, was awesome and unparalleled.

Some days ago, in celebration of his sixtieth birthday, a clip made the rounds on whatsapp of his feats during the 1986 World Cup; not only he scored 5 goals and made 5 assists (on a total of 14 goals scored by the team), but the real staggering part was about the number of times he made incredible plays, put the ball in the middle of the area only to be pushed behind the goal line, and his disgraced teammates squandered the opportunities.
 
Many of you probably did not follow Serie A in the Eighties, and many of you did not know the rather low quality of the Napoli side before the arrival of Maradona. And he managed to pull the team to a double Scudetto in a few years, a feat considered impossible. In Naples no one will ever be more loved, because he was a real embodiement of all the marvellous imperfection of the city and its people.

As they say in Naples, yes he was a dope fiend; he was friends with camorra bosses; his innumerable marriages and illegitimate sons were a boon for the papers; he won a WC with a handball; but he had some flaws, too.

R.I.P. Dieguito, the Greatest. 

L.

[Duque de Bragança]

In consecutive Champion's Leagues? That's pretty impressive.

Three consecutive Champions' Leagues, though truth be said, the last time Marseille played the CL, it was seven years ago.

[Duque de Bragança]

Apparently Maradona has just died 

I think that Maradona has been the greatest player to ever grace a football pitch.
Every consideration about individual technique aside, his ability to raise the quality of the team he played with, and many times singlehandedly change the course of a match, was awesome and unparalleled.

Some days ago, in celebration of his sixtieth birthday, a clip made the rounds on whatsapp of his feats during the 1986 World Cup; not only he scored 5 goals and made 5 assists (on a total of 14 goals scored by the team), but the real staggering part was about the number of times he made incredible plays, put the ball in the middle of the area only to be pushed behind the goal line, and his disgraced teammates squandered the opportunities.
 
Many of you probably did not follow Serie A in the Eighties, and many of you did not know the rather low quality of the Napoli side before the arrival of Maradona. And he managed to pull the team to a double Scudetto in a few years, a feat considered impossible. In Naples no one will ever be more loved, because he was a real embodiement of all the marvellous imperfection of the city and its people.

As they say in Naples, yes he was a dope fiend; he was friends with camorra bosses; his innumerable marriages and illegitimate sons were a boon for the papers; he won a WC with a handball; but he had some flaws, too.

R.I.P. Dieguito, the Greatest. 

L.

I only have very vague memories of the late '80s Serie A but I am not surprised Naples won't forget him. Though by 1990, with the Italy-Argentina WC game, that love was lost for a while.

[The Larch]

Hey Pedrito, I read somewhere yesterday that Napoli wanted to change the name of their stadium from San Paolo to Diego Armando Maradona, is that true?

[Maladict]

As they say in Naples, yes he was a dope fiend; he was friends with camorra bosses; his innumerable marriages and illegitimate sons were a boon for the papers; he won a WC with a handball; but he had some flaws, too.

[Pedrito]

Hey Pedrito, I read somewhere yesterday that Napoli wanted to change the name of their stadium from San Paolo to Diego Armando Maradona, is that true?

I've read there's a proposal by the city's street naming commitee; and I don't doubt that, would such a proposal need a vote, it will be an overwhelming success.

L.

[FunkMonk]

Modern football is incredibly scientific and systematized. Is it possible now for a player to be as dominant as Diego was? To be able to single-handedly drag an utterly mediocre team to victory in a World Cup or league championship?

[Maladict]

Hey Pedrito, I read somewhere yesterday that Napoli wanted to change the name of their stadium from San Paolo to Diego Armando Maradona, is that true?

I've read there's a proposal by the city's street naming commitee; and I don't doubt that, would such a proposal need a vote, it will be an overwhelming success.

L.

I could see Argentina wanting to rename one of their stadiums as well. Would that be a first, two major stadiums named after the same person? Is it allowed?

[Sheilbh]

I could see Argentina wanting to rename one of their stadiums as well. Would that be a first, two major stadiums named after the same person? Is it allowed?

The Argentinos Juniors stadium is already the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona. Not major but they're in the top league - so he could well end up with multiple top level stadiums on two continents named after him.

[The Larch]

Would that be a first, two major stadiums named after the same person?

There are a gajillion "Ataturk Stadium" in Turkey.

Is it allowed?

Why would it have to be allowed? Teams and stadium owners can put whatever name they want to them.

[Pedrito]

Modern football is incredibly scientific and systematized. Is it possible now for a player to be as dominant as Diego was? To be able to single-handedly drag an utterly mediocre team to victory in a World Cup or league championship?

Maradona played in the twilight years of old football. Arrigo Sacchi's A.C. Milan side started the revolution of organized football (graced by first-class players like Van Basten, Gullit, Paolo Maldini, and excellent midfielder-turned star coach Carlo Ancelotti), and Sacchi's first stint at Milan started in 1987, the year after Maradona's first Scudetto with Napoli.
In those years a player with the right mix of technique, charisma and "locker room weight" could tip the scale of the whole team more than it's possible today, IMO, and Maradona had everything of those in spades.

"What I do with a football, Diego does with an orange" - Michel Platini

Another fundamental characteristic of Diego was the total selflessness, inside and outside of the pitch. His former teammates say that everyone in the team, from the worst to the almost non-mediocre, knew that he was the best in the world, and that he was ready to play FOR them every single minute of the match.
If you love old football, go and watch the game Argentina's national team played in the 1994 WC after Maradona was disqualified for doping (as an aside, they were beaten by what was probably the best Romania team of every time - and yes, I have a *very* soft spot for WC94 East European teams  ), and watch the games they played with him before the suspension: you will see two utterly different teams, in the way they played but even more in the way they were "staying on the pitch", for lack of a better word.

L.

[Sheilbh]

Modern football is incredibly scientific and systematized. Is it possible now for a player to be as dominant as Diego was? To be able to single-handedly drag an utterly mediocre team to victory in a World Cup or league championship?

Maybe. I think part of it is we've seen a bit of a club-ification of international football. So the best international sides are ones that play as a team/unit in the way that clubs do (and very often given the increasing dominance of a few European clubs they already often play together) which I think has reduced space for the star. And there's no greater symbol of the "star" in world football than the Argentine 10. It's a bit like the debate about whether there's a space in football for a traditional 10 anymore - and there probably isn't but the role's evolved.

And there'll probably be a bit of a reaction.

[Barrister]

As they say in Naples, yes he was a dope fiend; he was friends with camorra bosses; his innumerable marriages and illegitimate sons were a boon for the papers; he won a WC with a handball; but he had some flaws, too.

[Maladict]

Why would it have to be allowed? Teams and stadium owners can put whatever name they want to them.

Yeah I guess so. I figured that would be the kind of thing FIFA likes to get their red tape all over.