Argentine teammates rode on his shoulders. His unforgettable dribbled goal through the entire English defence in the quarter-final in Mexico was the perfect expression of his solitude. Yet he himself said he preferred his“ hand of God” goal in the same match:“ It was like stealing the wallet of the English.” Those two goals were the two faces of Maradona: The one beautiful, the other dirty.
In 1990 he took an even poorer Argentine side to another final, and in 1994 completed his cycle of World Cups with another early ejection, this time after testing positive for ephedrine. Drugs had plagued him since he became addicted to cocaine while playing for Napoli. Maradona, a man of wild poetry, always seemed more rock star than athlete.
Nobody imagined there could be another dribbler like him, until he was more or less reincarnated in his compatriot, Leo Messi.