Diego Armando Maradona: World Football Icon Dies At Age 60

 

Legendary football icon Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60 after a cardiac arrest according our correspondence from Argentina.

Maradona had been feeling poorly for some time now. He underwent successful brain surgery on a blood clot earlier this month. 

He last appeared in public on his 60th birthday last Friday before his side’s league match against Patronato. He was gifted a plaque and a cake to celebrate the occasion but he did not stay to watch the game and witnesses said he looked unwell and weak.

He has suffered frequent periods in hospital over the years, often due to the extravagant lifestyle that accompanied and followed his playing career. He was also admitted to hospital in January 2019 with internal bleeding in the stomach.

He also fell ill at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box at the Argentina-Nigeria game.

Maradona was taken into hospital in 2004 with severe heart and respiratory problems linked to cocaine use. He later underwent drug rehabilitation in Cuba and Argentina before a stomach-stapling operation in 2005 helped him lose weight.

In 2007 he checked himself into a clinic in Buenos Aires to help him overcome alcohol abuse problems.    

He was the subject of a feature-length film exploring his extraordinary time at Italian club Napoli, who he led to their first ever league title. 

The film also detailed his worrying slide into drug use and his association with organised crime gangs in the city. 

He will be remembered for leading the Argentine team to the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico where they beat West Germany 3-2 in the final.

Four years later in Italy, he led Argentina to the final again but ended up on the losing side as they lost 1-0 to West Germany.

Among the clubs he played for are Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, Boca Juniors, Newell’s Old Boys and Argentinos Juniors.

He helped Napoli win their first ever Serie A title in the 1986-1987 season and repeated it in the 1989-1990 campaign.