Diego Maradona

Born

1960 · Lanús, Buenos Aires, Argentina (raised in Villa Fiorito)

Roots

Argentine; Indigenous and Italian descent

Family

Poverty

Factory-worker father; the fifth of eight children in a shantytown house without reliable water or power.

Education

Left school for football in his early teens

Started with

A gifted ball

A cousin's present at age three; by his account he slept with it.

Affiliations & societies

Camorra (Naples underworld)Reported

Biographers and press documented social ties to the Giuliano clan during his Napoli years; he was never charged with membership.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1970 · age 10
   Los Cebollitas

   Joins Argentinos Juniors' youth side, entertaining crowds with ball juggling at halftime; the team runs 136 games unbeaten.

2. 1976 · age 15
   Professional debut

   Ten days before his 16th birthday.

3. 1984 · age 23
   Napoli£6.9M

   A world-record fee takes him to a club that had never won the title; 85,000 attend his presentation.

4. 1986 · age 25
   The Hand of God

   Against England in the World Cup quarter-final — followed minutes later by the Goal of the Century. Argentina wins the Cup.

5. 1987 · age 26
   Napoli's first scudetto

   The south beats the industrial north; a second title follows in 1990.

6. 1991 · age 30
   The fall

   A cocaine ban ends the Napoli years; a 1994 World Cup doping expulsion follows.

7. 2020 · age 60
   Dies

   Argentina declares three days of mourning; the casket lies at the presidential palace.