The news of the death of Diego Maradona sent shock waves across the world. Many fans, footballers and football managers mourn the loss of a football legend. During the top of his form he was all powerful on the pitch: he was the magician dribbling the ball past defenders who were struggling to keep pace with him. He was standing at the top of the world when he led Argentina to win 1986 World Cup. He is the legendary footballer who won world’s recognition.
The other face of him was that he was mired in drug abuse and womanising scandals. He was sent home earlier after failing a drug test in 1994 World Cup Finals. In conclusion, people don’t have a good impression of the legendary footballer retired from the pitch. Tony Evans, chief football writer of The Independent, wrote that the child-like footballer was only responsible when he was playing football. English fans do not forget his ‘Hand of God’ that defeated England. No wonder Evans wrote that Maradona scored with his feet or hand.
It is perhaps a fair assessment to rank him one of the three greatest footballers in the world, if we judge from his performance during his playing career. It is only fair when we also take a look at modern professional footballers: thanks to strict discipline of football clubs and national teams, many self-disciplined and ambitious players take up courses to become licensed coaches after retiring. Some become football pundits commentating for television stations in different parts of the world. They are steadily building their second career and might have outperformed Maradona in many aspects. Some were not top players during their professional playing career, but when they become managers of football clubs they are able to lead the teams to win major titles in world football. These achievements are not something achieveable for Maradona, whose private life was messy after he hung his boots. His image as a legendary footballer, however, will remain deep-rooted in people’s mind.
May the King of Football rest in peace and play football in Heaven.
阿根廷球王馬拉多納逝世的新聞讓全球哀慟，球迷、球員、足球隊經理都為他的離去覺得婉惜。
他最巔峰的時候在球場上叱咤風雲，魔術般的運球技術讓敵軍後衛疲於奔命，帶領阿根廷贏得世界盃的時候站在世界的巔峰，確實是人人認可的球王。
祇可惜他從球場上退下來之後，各種吸毒、玩女人的醜聞不斷，1994年美國世界盃決賽圈因為檢驗出使用禁藥而提前收拾包袱回家。總的來說，退休後的球王其實讓人印象不好。英國《獨立報》足球主編 Tony Evans 筆下的文章也不諱言：這個孩子般的球王，唯一負責任的時候就是踢足球的時候。英格蘭當然沒忘記他當年憑「上帝之手」淘汰英格蘭，難怪 Evans亦嘲諷他用腳射門得分，有時候也用手。
以球員時期的表現來說，他是全世界最偉大足球員前三名大概是很公允的評價。但是若檢視現當代球壇的球員，由於球隊紀律嚴明，很多球員若有自律和上進心，退休後考教練執照當領隊﹐有些當世界各地電視台的足球評述員，穩穩當當開展事業的第二春，其實很多方面都已經超越馬拉多納了。有些人當球員可能不大出色，當起領隊卻可以帶領球隊贏盡大型賽事的冠軍盃，這都不是高掛球靴後私生活混亂的馬拉多納所能達到的成就。但無論如何，他貴為球王的形象依然深入民心。
願球王安息，在天國馳騁綠茵球場。