Dylan Hernandez: World Cup offers Argentina's Lionel Messi stage to be on same level as countryman Diego Maradona
by Dylan Hernandez, Los Angeles Times
Jun 13, 2018
4 minutes
Diego Maradona, long retired as a playing star, still makes regular appearances on my news feed, often for doing or saying something stupid.
Kicking a security guard at a charity game to promote world peace. Brawling drunkenly on the streets of Croatia. Dancing at a political event staged by a Latin American dictator.
The stories make me strangely cheerful. The behavior is appalling but the spirit is familiar. It's the spirit of a man who was absolutely joyful on the soccer field. Also incredibly arrogant, reckless, unafraid, petulant and unscrupulous.
There hasn't been a personality like Maradona's since. There hasn't been a player like him, either. No one
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