Impact beyond the football field
There is no doubt that the person whose death on November 25 caused global grief was the most-talked-about footballer ever, if not the best. Nobody influenced a single edition of a World Cup as single-handedly as Diego Maradona did in 1986. His exploits and tales of frailties are well documented. There is nothing new to say about them. What goes somewhat unnoticed in this outpouring of emotions is the anti-establishment tirade of the late Argentinean. Maradona was a fierce critic of FIFA and the nexus the world football body formed with global sponsors of the game. Run-ins with the administration made things difficult for him, in spite of his conquests on the field.
Maradona stood vindicated about three decades after making those allegations, when a corruption probe resulted in revelations of widespread irregularities in FIFA. It shook the foundations of the world’s richest sports body and incriminated big names, starting from the then FIFA chief Sepp Blatter. Not that Maradona’s allegations had anything to do with the investigations. But it was proven that at least a part of what he had said years ago was right. The European lobby and media did not pay heed then and labelled him a genius on the field and a crook off it. They failed to understand that the definitions of ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ are different in Europe and South America. In the impoverished continent, survival is often a struggle and forces people to do what is not the norm in Europe. Maradona embodied those traits with pride, which made him uncultured and a misfit in the continent where he earned his living.
Stars in sports are a passing phenomenon. They make way for the next generation and do not dominate collective consciousness forever. Maradona is an exception. Whether he or Pele or Cruyff or Messi or anybody else is the best is an endless and futile debate. What is clear is nobody else made as big an impact, on and off the field, for reasons ranging from noble to not-so-noble. This is why Maradona will be remembered as a sports figure who influenced life beyond his chosen field.