Diego Armando Maradona (born October 30, 1960) is an Argentine ex-football player, and manager-elect of the Argentine national side. He is regarded by many as the greatest football player of all time, having shared the FIFA Player of the Century award with Pelé after finishing first in a FIFA internet poll on the best player of the 20th century.
Over the course of his professsional club career Maradona played for Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona, and, most distinguishedly, SSC Napoli. In his international career, playing for Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. He played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments, including the 1986 World Cup where he captained Argentina and lead them to their victory over West Germany in the final, winning the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player.
In that same tournament's quarter-final round he scored two remarkable goals in a 2-1 victory over England which instantly cemented his fame. The first goal was an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal was a spectacular 60-metre weave through six England players, commonly referred to as "The Goal of the Century".
For various reasons, 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 doping test for cocaine in Italy, and he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the USA for using ephedrine.
After retiring from playing on his 37th birthday in 1997, he increasingly suffered ill health and weight gain, hardly helped by ongoing cocaine abuse. In 2005 a stomach stapling operation helped control his weight gain. After overcoming his cocaine addiction, he became a popular TV host in Argentina.
In October, 2008, in a move which surprised many, Maradona was named as the new head coach of the Argentina national football team. He is scheduled to take control in December of 2008.
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