Maradona

Argentina history book about the controversial Diego Maradona A soccer biography for kids Follows the author’s journey from childhood to 1994 “Sometimes I think that my whole life is on film, that my whole life is in print. But it’s not like that. There are things which are only in my heart—that no one knows. At last I have decided to tell everything.” —Diego Maradona Diego Maradona went from a poor boy in a Buenos Aires shanty town to a genius with the soccer ball. He kicked his way to the top of South American, European, and world soccer, but his battles with the many pressures of life inside and outside the game consistently threatened to tear his legend and his spirit down. He is one of many famous soccer players, but one of only a few to write their own soccer autobiography. Villain or hero, one thing about Maradona is clear: he was the best soccer player of his generation and possibly of all time. He has never shared his remarkable story in his own words—until this autobiography. From his poverty-stricken origins to his greatest successes on the field, Maradona remembers, with frankness and insight, the most impactful moments of his life. These include the pressures of being a child prodigy, the infamous semi-final game against England in the 1986 World Cup, an amazing turn-around and the dream-turned-sour at Napoli, and the disgrace and shame of his positive drug test at USA 1994. In this brutally honest autobiography, readers glimpse the inner thoughts of one of the most controversial, talented, and complex professional athletes of the times. He was a man divided between the demands of his corporate club bosses, the media, the fans, and his own tempestuous personal life. With a new epilogue that updates Maradona’s amazing story and includes over 80 delightful photographs, Maradona is a confessional, a revelation, an apology, and a celebration.

MARADONA is the definitive new biography of a true global icon, from world-renowned football writer and journalist Guillem Balagué. Diego Armando Maradona was widely acclaimed as a genius. One of the greatest footballers of all time, he was also one of the most controversial. In an international career with Argentina he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals and played in four FIFA World Cups. With his unforgettable 'hand of God' goal and unsurpassed second one in the 1986 quarter-final against England, he captained his nation and led them to victory over West Germany in the final in Mexico. His vision, passing, ball control and dribbling skills, and his presence and leadership on the field, often electrified his own team's overall performance. Maradona's club career included dazzling spells in his own country at Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and Newell's Old Boys, and in Europe with Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla. Yet his life was one of relentless media attention, including tales of drug abuse and constant health issues. Based on in-depth interviews and first-hand stories, Guillem Balagué's masterly biography represents a psychological and sociological approach to the legend. This journey of exploration takes Guillem to Argentina, Spain, Italy and Dubai. Along the way, he asks what fosters such adulation, and how this adoration engendered a self-destructive personality. Even after his untimely death in 2020, Maradona continues to fascinate: his divine status seemingly preserved for ever.

The story of the most remarkable—and controversial—World Cup triumph in history, told in a long-awaited firsthand account from Diego Maradona, its most legendary player. “This is Diego Armando Maradona speaking, the man who scored two goals against England and one of the few Argentines who knows how much the World Cup actually weighs” In June 1986, Diego Maradona—one of soccer’s greatest and most polarizing figures—proudly hoisted the World Cup above his head. Since then, Argentina’s World Cup victory has become the stuff of legend, particularly their infamous victory over England—only four years after the country’s defeat in the Falklands War—which featured arguably the best goal in history (Maradona’s “Goal of the Century”) and the worst (the notorious “Hand of God”). But Argentina’s victory came after months of struggle and discord within the team, including the Argentine government’s attempt to remove the team’s management, a lack of equipment that forced the players to buy their own uniforms, and an argument that caused the team’s captain to quit on the eve of the tournament. Now, thirty years after Argentina’s magical victory, Maradona tells his side of the story, vividly recounting how he led the team to win one of the greatest World Cup triumphs of all time.

This is a biography of Diego Maradona, one of the world's most controversial and flamboyant sportsmen, arguably the greatest and certainly the most widely-known footballer of the modern age. During his tempestuous career he has played for top clubs in South America and Europe, and has been a central figure in four World Cups. With the fortunes he has earned from sponsorship and transfer deals, he has personified football, both as popular sport and big business.

Features the life of Diego Maradona, from his poverty-stricken childhood to his emergence as the greatest soccer player of his generation.

This is the first book in English to closely examine the life of Diego Maradona from socio-cultural perspectives, exploring how his status as an icon, a popular sporting hero, and a political figurehead has been culturally constructed, reproduced, and manipulated. The volume looks at representations of Maradona across a wide variety of media, including literature, cinema, popular music, printed and online press, and radio, and in different countries around the world, to cast new light on topics such as the instrumentality of sporting heroes and the links among sport, nationalism, and ideology. It shows how the life of Maradona – from his origins in the barrio through to his rise to god-like status in Naples and as a postcolonial symbol of courage and resistance against imperial powers across the global south, alongside scandal and his fall from grace – powerfully illustrates themes such as the dynamics of gender, justice, and affect that underpin the study of sport, culture, and society. This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in football, sport studies, media studies, cultural studies, or sociology.

Intimate, behind-the-scenes account of the last age of innocence in football, just prior to the Premiership, based on the England midfielder's diaries. This is not a straightforward autobiography, it's a snapshot of a vanished era of football. The 1980s and the early 1990s was the last era of (relative) innocence in football. Steve Hodge played alongside Hoddle, Waddle and Ardiles in the lauded mid-1980s Spurs midfield; he was a dressing-room witness to the vagaries, charm, whims and downright venomous side of Brian Clough; he was at two World Cups, being instrumental in the 'hand of God' episode, and hanging out with the likes of Gazza and Lineker four years later in Italy. He won the last League Championship medal with Leeds, then languished in the reserves with a 'somewhat shy', cultured Frenchman. As the balls would fly over the midfield - Howard Wilkinson being a disciple of route one - Eric Cantona would turn to him and repeatedly ask, 'Hodgey, why are we here?' THE MAN WITH MARADONA'S SHIRT is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse of life at the top.

Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer. But how did this man -- a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others -- become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality? The world's greatest footballer now gives us the full story of his incredible life and career. Told with his characteristic grace and modesty, but covering all aspects of his playing days and his subsequent careers as politician, international sporting ambassador and cultural icon, PELE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY is an essential volume for all sports fans, and anyone who admires true rarity of spirit.