With Argentina struggling to qualify for 2018 World Cup in Russia, the country’s last title triumph 30 years ago in 1986 in Mexico, becomes all the more refulgent an achievement. There is no doubt that the inspiration for 1986 World Cup victory came from Argentina’s captain Diego Armando Maradona’s boots and heart.
Now, almost in a self-imposed exile in Dubai, Maradona must be kicking and screaming in his Palm Jumeirah villa as his beloved country struggles to get past Uruguay and Venezuela to avoid the ignominy of a playoff to qualify for Russia 2018. May be to remind Messi and co., may be to provoke current Argentina coach Jorge Luis Sampaoli, Maradona has come up with a no-holds-barred memoir about his successful World Cup campaign in 1986. Touched By God: How We Won The Mexico ’86 World Cup (Publisher: Little, Brown, Distributor: Hachette India, Pages 226, Price Rs 699) is a must-read for all football fans-Maradona fans, Argentina fans, Messi fans- as a preparation for their own World Cup in 2018.
Russia 2018 is the final chance that that glorious player Lionel Messi will have to redeem himself at home- in Argentina. Messi may be popular across the world, but he is not the beloved of the Argentinians. He is not the rebel. That is Maradona.
As he reminisces sitting in his Dubai villa, Maradona makes clear who the architect of that famous victory was. Not coach Carlos Bilardo. His antipathy against Bilardo comes across loud and clear- surprisingly he says he belongs to the Menotti camp- as is his tetchy relationship with Argentina’s other World Cup (1978) winning captain Daniel Passarella.
Maradona says that in 1986 all his team wanted was to do justice to the history of Argentine soccer. Not many in Argentina were hoping that they would win the World Cup and, according to Maradona, people were saying they would be home after the first round. And they did it undefeated, with only a draw against Italy, and without ever going into extra-time. Maradona recalls every match, starting with South Korea, and that electrifying quarterfinal against England, and all the way to the final winning moment against West Germany. Obviously, he has a lot of praise for the Tunisian referee Ali Bennaceur who failed to see the Hand of God hovering over Peter Shilton’s head.
Maradona has described the goal succinctly: “It was Maradona’s head and God’s hand.” To those who call him a cheat, Maradona points out that he is 100% behind technology in soccer but back then technology was not used. He also argues that if there had been technology then, England would not have won the 1966 World Cup. And then followed the Goal of The Century, an achievement that Maradona is delighted to recall in all vivid detail.
Maradona is not your average footballer. You must recognize his passion and madness. He has got the Argentine jersey tattooed on his skin, with the number 10 on his back and the captain’s band on his left arm.
Maradona is someone who values leadership. The captaincy of 1986 team meant a lot to him. He was not merely a great footballer, he wanted to be a leader too.
As he puts it: “The captain’s armband wasn’t a burden or a responsibility for me. Being captain meant not putting the blame on anyone, not going behind anyone’s back.” The real reason why captaincy mattered a lot to him could be the presence of former captain Passarella in the side, who accused Maradona of using coke and tried to undermine his authority as a leader.
Now amidst Argentina’s beleaguered qualification campaign for Russia 2018, reports are doing rounds about the rift between Messi and the newly drafted in coach Jorge Sampaoli. And Messi has played only eight of Argentina’s 16 games so far.
Maradona, who also donned the role of a coach of an Argentina that included Messi, however, makes himself clear where he stands in the coach vs players debate. He says credit should go to the players out there on the field and less to the coach’s tactics, in an apparent put-down of Bilardo. He puts it bluntly: “I’m tired of hearing that the big winner of the ’86 World Cup was Bilardo. The winners of the ’86 World Cup were the players, one and all, because we put up with all of Bilardo’s bullshit.”
Among that group of players who Maradona led in Mexico in 1986, Jorge Valdano was the philosopher. Maradona banks on Valdano, who later went on to become director general at Real Madrid, to sum up the campaign. Valdano, who scored in the final against West Germany, said it was a triumph of how a group of scattered individuals could come together as an inviolable team. There cannot be a better description and it is time for Messi, Mascherano, Banega, Paulo Dybala, Mauro Icardi and Sampaoli to come together as an inviolable team to script a revolution in Russia.