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Diego Maradona 1986
because of their success in Mexico –where they were not only the best team but possessed the best individuals.
It is a reflection of the impression they left on viewers that players such as Maradona, Jorge Burruchaga and Jorge Valdano all figured in the top 20.
The value of Maradona’s triumph in Mexico City ’s Estadio Azteca has been calculated at a staggering £3 million this coming year in endorsements and promotional and sponsorship contracts.
But he is already putting something back. He is helping to publicise a fundraising game for UNICEF, and that personal crusade struck a chord when it was eventually possible to pin Maradona down and ask him all about his World Cup. In his words: “I want to dedicate this World Cup victory to the children of today who are as poor as I once was.
“If those who were able to watch our win over West Germany thanks to television were able to do so then l am pleased. Maybe in that way I, and my team-mates, were able to bring a little happiness into their lives.”
An unfair criticism launched at Argentina throughout the World Cup –to a large extent by critics who saw them mostly via TV rather than in the stadium – was that they were a one-man team. This was a nonsense. Maradona was the tournament’s outstanding individual. But
ultimate victory would have been impossible without the high degree of understanding within the team.
Maradona says: “We understood each other and the way we all wanted to play the game. I found it particularly easy to work with Jorge Valdano – our forward from Real Madrid. If he dropped back then it seemed only natural that I should find myself moving forward to use the space he had left. The same with Jorge Burruchaga. When he was younger he was considered a little selfish on the ball. Now he showed everyone that he knows just when to hold it and just when to release it.
“It was our manager, Carlos Bilardo, who put all our schemes into our heads so that we got to know what each player would do without even having to call.”
Bilardo, a former midfielder with the cynical Estudiantes de La Plata in the late 1960s, had withstood steady criticism all the way up to the finals.
Maradona says: “I admire him tremendously. He was the architect of our success. He suffered because of the perpetual attacks, but I’m so grateful that through it all he always believed in me. Daniel Passarella (ruled out of the finals by illness and then injury) was the pupil of Cesar Menotti, our World Cup-winning manager in 1978. I fulfilled the same role for Bilardo.”
Despite Bilardo’s World Cup triumph and tactical masterclass, he finished fourth in our Manager poll behind Guy Thys (Belgium), Valeri Lobanovskyi (Dynamo Kiev and the Soviet Union) and Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool).
Maradona believes that Argentina benefited from the general belief, until late in the tournament, that they were World Cup outsiders. This spared the team much of the pressure which stifled Brazil, which slowly wore down France, which unnerved Uruguay and which led Denmark into the trap of overconfidence.
“I had expected that France and Brazil would have been our greatest rivals. Yet neither even got as far as the final: Brazil because Zico missed a penalty he could not afford to waste... and France because, against the West Germans in the semi-final, they appeared to lack confidence and then perhaps the altitude and the heat got to them.”
Not that Maradona admitted feeling any ill-effects from the stage-managed kick-off times, rearranged to suit European television.
“It didn’t feel any different playing at midday or at four in the afternoon. Usually, before a game I go to bed late the previous night and then sleep through until 11 in the morning. Obviously I had to change my routine in Mexico.
“As for the altitude, in the early days after we arrived I felt strange pain in the chest which I’d never experienced before. But I adjusted. Everyone did. I don’t think the fact that we won the World Cup means we adjusted better. Simply – and I honestly believe this –we played better.” Philip Rising & Keir Radnedge
There can be no greater achievement for an individual in a team game than to captain
your country to the World Cup
Top 10 Players of 1986
Player Club Country % of vote 1) Diego Maradona Napoli Argentina 35.8 2) Igor Belanov Dynamo Kiev Soviet Union 6.2 3) Gary Lineker Barcelona England 5.7 4) Emilio Butragueno Real Madrid Spain 4.9 5) Jan Ceulemans Club Brugge Belgium 4.4 6) Michael Laudrup Juventus Denmark 4.1 7) Preben Elkjaer Verona Denmark 3.7 8) Careca Sao Paulo Brazil 3.5 9=) Jean-Marie Pfaff Bayern Munich Belgium 3.4 9=) Jorge Burruchaga Nantes Argentina 3.4
Born entertainer…Maradona
Other World Soccer Award winners 1986
World champions… Argentina
TEAM OF THE YEAR: Argentina
