Diego Maradona represented a footballing culture that is now passe

One thing is certain, every football fan with a long memory will be grateful that the Hand of God produced Diego Maradona

My last memory of Diego Amando Maradona was at the 2018 World Cup just before the clash between Argentina and Nigeria. Always a striking presence in the stands when La Albiceleste are on show, he entertained the crowds with a disco bump number with a buxom Nigerian fan. He may have danced again after a joyous, nail-biting match when Nigeria nearly went ahead, Lionel Messi scored a sublime goal from a brilliant cross-field pass and Marcos Rojo spared Argentina the blushes in the dying moments of the match. But that was Argentina’s last hurrah after a drubbing by Croatia before, and a thrilling 4-3 defeat to France after, undoubtedly the match of the tournament.

In a sense, it was Maradona’s last bow too.

Insanely talented and endlessly controversial, he represents a roistering footballing culture that is now passe.

Thirty-two years separated the 2018 World Cup from the 1986 edition in Mexico – the first time Doordarshan broadcast a World Cup tournament -- when Maradona burst on the scene with those glorious slaloming runs past defenders before putting the ball at the back of the net. But it is more than years that distinguish the two events. The star who was born in Russia was the French footballer Kylian Mbape, whose supersonic bursts of speed and piranha-like attacking skills were on full display against Argentina.

Of Nigerian descent, Mbape couldn’t be a bigger contrast to the hard-drinking, drug-imbibing Maradona, whose ignominious exit at the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for ephedrine marked a little noticed transition in global footballing culture.

Drugs and booze don’t figure in Mbape’s life. He talks of the many sacrifices he made to grow as a professional footballer in his teen years – no partying and so on. Apart from his footballing achievements, Mbape occasionally hits the headlines for speculation over transfers (Real Madrid wants him, no Manchester City has bid for him), mega-sponsorship deals (for instance with Nike) and philanthropy (investing in football development programme in Africa). This life is pretty much par for the course for most of the big stars in the game today.

In the many obituaries about Maradona, commentators wrote lyrically about his achievements for club (especially Napoli) and country. His second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup will always be cherished for the approach play, which is why the illegality of first one, the infamous Hand of God, is forgiven by all (except the Brits, of course). Obituary writers also had to record a long post-retirement career marked by reports of drug abuse, arrests, and an erratic managerial stints memorable less for Argentina’s achievements than his controversial statements and FIFA bans. He was a “human” star they wrote.

Maradona’s tragedy was that he played in an era when professional football was on the cusp of becoming the mega-buck global business that imposes an iron discipline on the lives of its stars. In his heyday, footballers were expected to be hard-drinking, big spending bad boys who relied on natural talent to take them as far as it could, Then, as now, they came from mostly poor backgrounds and had earned unimaginable wealth by their early twenties with little or no advice on how to handle their success. Manchester United’s sixties’ star Georgie Best, often described as the most talented footballer never to play the World Cup (he represented Northern Ireland), summed it up wistfully after a brilliant if bibulous career: “I spent most of my money on booze, babes and fast cars. The rest I just wasted.”

His ideological descendent was the brilliant and mercurial Paul Gascoigne (Gaza), best remembered for his tearful exit in the semi-final against Germany in the 1990 World Cup, whose struggles with alcoholism cut short what could have been a long and even more dazzling career.

By the nineties, as television beamed top-flight football into homes around the world, the advent of the big buck “premier league” format meant that clubs could no longer afford to have players who boozed, snorted or generally caroused in season. Diet, highly specialised physical training and even psychological conditioning (had they played today, Diego, Bestie and Gazza would have been sent to psychiatric counselling) now dominate footballer’s daily regimen, even those of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Sure, you may see the odd fellow with his arm around a young lady in a night club, but it’s a non-sweetened soda he’ll be drinking. The bling culture endures only in the babes and fast cars – the booze has long been jettisoned. No footballer would survive long today if he followed the example of Maradona's personal life.

Equally, hedged in by tougher and more protective rules, it is worth wondering how many of today’s stars would have endured the hazardous seventies and eighties. Maradona played in an era when his 5 foot 4-inch frame was subject to crunching tackles that would have drawn a whole pack of red and yellow cards today. Equally, VAR would have ruled out his Hand of God goal in a matter of seconds, and enhanced drug testing protocols would have made it unlikely that he would have made even a club team, since he was already using in 1982.

Does that make him any less a GOAT? That is a pointless debate. But one thing certain. Every football fan with a long memory will be grateful that the Hand of God produced Diego.