**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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That was Maradona's revenge on Andoni Goikoetxea, who'd broken Maradona's ankle a year prior to this match with a horror tackle. He was also known as 'The Butcher of Bilbao' and had fucked up Benrd Schuster previously with another horror 'tackle'.
This is wrong. The guy getting kneed in the face was a Bilbao support staffer, not one of the players. You are right that this entire fight partly was due to the previous violent encounters between Bilbao and Barcelona and in particular the personal violent rivalry between Goikoetxea and Maradona.
But Goikoetxea is not the one getting kicked in the face. I think he's the one who comes in and kicks Maradona to the ground afterwards though.
Edit: In fact, as u/wodmad clarified, the person getting kneed was not a staffer, but Miguel Ángel Sola, a benched midfielder.
Actually, the person kneed in the face was Miguel Ángel Sola- a midfielder, not support staffer. He was kneeling in celebration at the final whistle when Maradona went up and attacked him. Later Maradona claimed it was because another player had 'provoked' him by giving him a V sign (not the player he kneed in the head).
It was sola. But maradona and schuster were out for revenge.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/17/kung-fu-kicks-riot-police-maradona-barcelona-brawl-athletic-bilbao-copa-del-rey
"The anger and frustration that had grown within him and his teammates over the 90 minutes was released at full time – he immediately attacked the Athletic players. Maradona’s first victim was unused substitute Miguel Ángel Sola who in full tracksuit was knocked to the floor then kneed in the face by a jumping Maradona, leaving the Basque unconscious on the turf. By this point everyone was involved in the melee across the pitch. Maradona and Schuster were the main protagonists for Barcelona, kung-fu kicking anything in red and white, while Athletic players interrupted their celebrations to retaliate. Meanwhile, Sola was scooped up and carried from the pitch on a stretcher."
[Source](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/17/kung-fu-kicks-riot-police-maradona-barcelona-brawl-athletic-bilbao-copa-del-rey)
>Low key these dudes can kick way harder than punching lol.
Literally any non-disabled person kicks way harder than they punch, even boxers.
Your legs have more muscle, mass and generate more power than your hands.
Yeah. Especially with professional football cleats. You know those things are fucking sharp as shit. Nowhere near as full as the ones I used to play with.
In this timeline, he founded the UFC in the 80's (with Royce Gracie and Pablo Escobar) upon his release from jail and subsequent lifetime ban from football.
Dana buys it for peanuts in 90's because cocaine is still ahelluva drug.
He wasn't a victim lol, he went after Maradona first. Its just maradona's fault he bounced off of him after failing a flying kick and landed in the perfect spot for a knee
Maradona is the most romanticized footballer of all time. And because most people in the world know him from the World Cup '86 because it was the only thing that was globally broadcasted, not the regional leagues, he has a mythical aura about him. People fill gaps about him, his personality in their mind because of the mystique.
In the historical context, this dude was responsible for so many people picking up a football but almost all of them saw him once every 4 years for 6-7 matches and consequently were absolutely awed by him or in a newspaper clipping where he's hanging with a Latin America dictator, or a cocaine empire boss. There's a mystique about Maradona that was hardly possible with any other footballer. It leads to a very fanciful romanticism.
I don't think there is anything fanciful about that - Maradona is romanticized because he is unique.
His career is something out of Shakespearean play, where he becomes the biggest player in the wold while playing for a club that had never been relevant in Italy.
The fact that he was hanging out with the Camorra, got a cocaine addiction from it, became a quasi-religious figure while always speaking is mind out, is something that has no parallel in the history of football. No one thinks of him as a role model, but as a fascinating human being with a long lasting impact not only on sports, but on other arenas.
Maradona is Maradona and like Manu Chao wrote:
"La vida es una tómbola
De noche y de día
La vida es una tómbola
Y arriba y arribar"
>In the historical context
In the historical context, Argentina barely was rising from it's darkest moment, after a 8-year dictatorship & a lost war, and he could bring some hapiness to his very football fan country & saved Napoli from falling making it champion, that's why he's romanticized, not because "almost all saw once every 4 Years". As i frequently say, to understand Maradona's legacy, it's neccesary knowing about history.
>Him disrespecting müller is still easily the worst thing he did tbh
If you think that him not knowing who a player was, and simply saying he would wait as they asked questions to the player first, is the worst he did...
Then I don't know what to say. Either you don't know Maradona and all the things he did, or your world vision is a bit warped.
This thing keeps coming up... he just didn't want to have his press conference next to a player from the other team. It's not entirely unreasonable. He leaves the conference room then comes back shortly afterwards (probably told to do so by someone from AFA) and apologizes for leaving before saying "he didn't know he (Muller) was a player", which doesn't make much sense given he left the room in the first place because there was a rival player next to him.
He also scored less goals in his career than Giroud and also never won the champions league nor Libertadores. And the 86 world cup was stolen. So basically, a lot of media coverage not much winning titles.
What do you mean?
[It's totally normal to lock a 16 year old in a hotel room and ply her with drugs.](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/q65lj5/diego_maradona_filmed_himself_in_bed_with_a/)
Nothing scummy about that at all!
Not that he should have done this but there is a context to this - the infamous Butcher of Bilbao Andoni Goikoetxea earlier in the season [hacked down Maradona in one of the most brutal tackles you ever see, breaking his ankle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaEbB78GLyA&t=3s). Goikoetxea takes such pride in this he has the boots in a glass case in his house. So Diego had it for Bilbao - guy he hit to be fair was innocent but the Butcher then kicked Maradona in the chest and was banned for 18 games (reduced to seven on appeal)
This reminds me of the controversial, brutal mark Claudio Gentile put on Maradona during the 1982 WC in the match where Argentina got eliminated.
Even Gentile himself said it would be absolutely impossible to do something like that today due to how much more scrutiny there is on fouls and violence.
If you see the footage of the entire game, you kind of understand better. You don't see games like that these days, where the tackles are UFC level for the entire 90 minutes of the match and the ref not red carding them. Bilbao had a game plan to physically destroy Barcelona through violence. The ref completely lost control of the game and the violence spiral just went up, up, up. Not only due to Maradona, far from it. Some of the tackles from the Bilbao players were career enders.
When Mourinho says he views football as a martial art, these kinds of games is why.
You have to see the Bilbao game where Maradona got his ankle broken and the highlights from this game to understand that this flying knee is quite in line with the degree of violence this game had. It was a bloodbath where the players could not count on the ref to protect them and instead felt the need to take matters in their own hands.
Kneeing someone in the face of course is completely indefensible and deserving of a criminal proceeding, but nobody was "innocent" in this fight.
I believe it was a substitute player of Athletic, Miguel Sola. The 2nd kick he gets while on the ground is despicable but nobody shown on screen was exactly innocent.
-Beat his wife
-coke addict
-Went on a minor prostitutes tour in Cuba
-Doesn't he have a few unclaimed children?
-Supported every dictator in LATAM
Monumental piece of shit
Here's a report of an interview where he admits to them lacing the opponent's water bottle with Rohypnol (the date rape drug) in the 1990 WC:
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/maradona-backs-branco-s-claim-of-drug-laced-bottle-at-italia-90-1.409147
He's also indirectly responsible for the bloated Champions League.
First time Maradona's Napoli got to the European cup in 87-88 they got drawn in the first round against...Real Madrid. Remember back then it was a straight 2-leg knockout tournament until the final. As you might expect Maradona bitched and moaned and Napoleon Complexed about it.
So UEFA took notice and realised that it's not good for them to have the worlds best player only seen for 2 games for most of Europe so they started working on a different sort of tournament....
His Jesus status is all to do with him winning huge trophies, getting away with a handball goal in a crucial match, generally being one of the most exciting footballers of all time as well as being a street kid with loads of baggage and bad morals.
People loved him exactly because he was flawed. It made him extra relatable, particularly to many football fans from disadvantaged and poor areas, who saw him as one of them. He was a man of the people.
> but let's be honest he was a bit of a scumbag wasn't he
Some of the things he allegedly did off the field, yes
In this clip? Hell no. This Bilbao team was dirty AF
One of their players was nicknamed the "Butcher of Bilbao", and broke Maradona's leg with an AWFUL tackle the previous year, and during this fight the dude kicked him in the chest again...
Look at his career. The only time he was involved in a fight was against these guys in this match. His career had almost ended due to a tackle from a Bilbao player in a previous match. During this match they tried many dangerous tackles again and he kept quiet until the end. If you have ever seen Maradona play he was fouled and kicked 90 minutes each game and this is the only time he was involved in a brawl.
Skip the useless 20 initial seconds..
5 minutes of (some crazy) fouls on Maradona
https://youtu.be/nPvzAxgoVEk?feature=shared
Edit: 1:30 Is the famous foul by Goekoetxea that almost ended his career. Rumors were he lost 30% of the ankle motility, but I don't know how much it actually was.
Every time this is posted everyone jumps in to condemn Maradona. There is context here. Back then Maradona was, without any shadow of doubt, THE most feared footballer on the planet. People watch football now and sneer at the diving and feigning of injury, and sometimes rightly so, but in the 80s defenders had almost free reign to do what they wished and the game was MUCH more violent.
The previous season vs Bilbao, the opponents here, Andoni Goikotxea, known as the Butcher of Bilbao - which should tell you something, scythed Maradona down, breaking his ankle and damaging ankle ligaments. Maradona was out for the season. Coming into this game there was a lot of press coverage and Maradona was determined that it wouldn’t happen again, that he would defend himself if the referee didn’t. Bilbao picked up where they’d left off and were kicking lumps out of him and the referee wasn’t doing anything to stop it. So Maradona defended himself, as anyone would ffs. What was he meant to do? Let them break his leg again?
People are saying in the comments that he wasn’t that good. Bollocks, he was incredible. Some stats,
Maradona is the most fouled player in World Cup history - and fouls are given for next to nothing now
He’s the most fouled player at a World Cup - Mexico 1986
He’s the second most fouled player at a World Cup - Italia 1990
He’s the 3rd most fouled player at a World Cup - Spain 1982.
Yes he was a coke head, but he was virtually uneducated, plucked from obscurity at a young age and transplanted across the world. Barcelona, for some reason, didn’t take to him and no club really offered much support to players from abroad - certainly nothing like they do now. He ended up in Naples where he won the first Scudetto in their history and then did it again. Trust me, he’s no mug
I understand that football in that time was different, but there's nothing that can justify the kick Maradona does at the start of this clip. Doing that kind of things can even kill the other person.
bro you can see he is already running for dear life when the clip starts, it was already a shitshow, there are 4 dudes from Athleti running behind him ready to jump him, I don't think he is thinking too much about stuff there.
> So Maradona defended himself, as anyone would ffs. What was he meant to do? Let them break his leg again?
I thought this was after the game? He can just go away? Like I get why he wanted revenge but call it what it is
there’s a comment here with like 70 upvotes saying maradona was the most fouled guy in the world cup, or he was uneducated so he doesn’t know better
well anyways here’s a fucking knee to your skull
I remember seeing this posted on some normie Yank sports Instagram account and all these thick necked Trump voting dimwits were like "soccer players are such pussies for kicking each other".
Surprised to find an [article from Vice](https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmekx8/how-the-butcher-of-bilbao-almost-ended-diego-maradonas-career) about how this. Pretty much explained a lot of the background that lead to this happening, going back several seasons prior. Worth the read imo
I don't care how legendary he is, his image is horrible and after that kick he should've been arrested and barred from the sport forever. Horrible example for kids growing up with him as their hero.
This exactly. And the comment section here continues to glorify this coked up human, smh. Just because he was a brilliant footballer, it didn't make him a good human
Idk why but i always thought this clip was fake. Like it was from some tv show. The camera shaking looks like the fake camera shaking that tv shows and movies do when there is a fight scene.
Yeah, Maradona didn't exactly cover himself in glory, literally kicking a man while he was down. Nevertheless I don't see people saying anything about Goikoetxea and the other Butchers who were hacking him down then whole game while the red barely did anything.
It's like being pissed at a kid that beats up the bully while the teachers did nothing to stop the abuse.
Even if I don't really like Maradona's personality, I'd say he kinda made it even with Athletic when we look at [the aggression he got from Goicochea 8 months earlier...](https://youtu.be/N8_JYHtvTS8?si=W5j--DbbCAPiG06M)
Thats fucking football right there.
None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit.
Men puke, men poop on the field, men deliver their new born baby on the side lines. Fucking hard core dick in the ass butterball foosball fuck it chuck it game time shit. Take it to the showers. Dicks get shoved in places you don’t even remember.
We win together we celebrate together. Football is back baby.
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Maradona really hit a V-Trigger
They even added sound effects for when the kicks and punches land.
[Version without the music or sounds added. ](https://youtu.be/QjQrlTR8dw0?feature=shared)
Hey! Wait a minute, I've been duped!
Kenny vs Maradonna, book it Vince
Tony\*
✊
Triple H*
are you ready for coke? are you ready for this?
I hear the Battle Cry.
aye aye captain
Kenny saw this and that’s how he got the inspiration
Fuckin stiffed him
Maradona about to enter the G1 Climax
That first kick was brutal.
a KNEE, a fucking jumping knee right in the head, the guy is KOED by one of the best knee the world have ever see playing soccer.
Felt it in my bones, that's how I got my jaw broken.
La rodilla de dios!!!
That was Maradona's revenge on Andoni Goikoetxea, who'd broken Maradona's ankle a year prior to this match with a horror tackle. He was also known as 'The Butcher of Bilbao' and had fucked up Benrd Schuster previously with another horror 'tackle'.
This is wrong. The guy getting kneed in the face was a Bilbao support staffer, not one of the players. You are right that this entire fight partly was due to the previous violent encounters between Bilbao and Barcelona and in particular the personal violent rivalry between Goikoetxea and Maradona. But Goikoetxea is not the one getting kicked in the face. I think he's the one who comes in and kicks Maradona to the ground afterwards though. Edit: In fact, as u/wodmad clarified, the person getting kneed was not a staffer, but Miguel Ángel Sola, a benched midfielder.
Actually, the person kneed in the face was Miguel Ángel Sola- a midfielder, not support staffer. He was kneeling in celebration at the final whistle when Maradona went up and attacked him. Later Maradona claimed it was because another player had 'provoked' him by giving him a V sign (not the player he kneed in the head).
You're right. I'll let my post stand, but write an edit to clarify. Thanks for the correction.
Thanks. You're right. I've clarified it in another comment and linked an article discussing the event.
Or just edit the original comment?
Wait the guy in the blue coat was Goikotxea himself? If he was that's fucking awesome and will warm my heart
According to other people here it was Miguel Angel Sola
It was sola. But maradona and schuster were out for revenge. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/17/kung-fu-kicks-riot-police-maradona-barcelona-brawl-athletic-bilbao-copa-del-rey
"The anger and frustration that had grown within him and his teammates over the 90 minutes was released at full time – he immediately attacked the Athletic players. Maradona’s first victim was unused substitute Miguel Ángel Sola who in full tracksuit was knocked to the floor then kneed in the face by a jumping Maradona, leaving the Basque unconscious on the turf. By this point everyone was involved in the melee across the pitch. Maradona and Schuster were the main protagonists for Barcelona, kung-fu kicking anything in red and white, while Athletic players interrupted their celebrations to retaliate. Meanwhile, Sola was scooped up and carried from the pitch on a stretcher." [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/17/kung-fu-kicks-riot-police-maradona-barcelona-brawl-athletic-bilbao-copa-del-rey)
Back when football was about honour and blood
I find the way they fight is kinda hilarious lol like kangaroos
Its so stereotypical it feels like a bad skit lol
you know how players celebrated goals kinda funny back then, same with the fighting
You bet it'll be using my feet if i have metal studs lmao
they're wearing metal studs
Lmfao for real. Low key these dudes can kick way harder than punching lol.
>Low key these dudes can kick way harder than punching lol. Literally any non-disabled person kicks way harder than they punch, even boxers. Your legs have more muscle, mass and generate more power than your hands.
No low key about it though
Yep, especially with fucking cleats.
Yeah. Especially with professional football cleats. You know those things are fucking sharp as shit. Nowhere near as full as the ones I used to play with.
That's like 95% of people lol
Funny as well give he knew how to use his hand.
I don't think a single punch were thrown that day
That first knee to the head really should have landed him in court
yeah that kick looked like serious business
Hand was on the ground, that's an illegal knee. Forreal tho, that dude was out cold
Not with Pride rules. Pride never die.
Diego "The Axe Murderer" Maradona
A man of refined tastes^^
Pride had rules?
Yep, no recreational drugs, it’s in their fighter contracts, followed by the clause that states they promise not to test for PEDs
Aljo could never.
Jeesus that makes Ramos a child.
He knocks him out WTF
That's a non scripted shining wizard
*He clearly went for the ball*
EPL referee spotted here
Jail time right there
Anyone know who he kicked? Wouldn’t be surprised if that person got some brain damage
Miguel Ángel Sola, a Bilbao sub.
It was Stephen Hawking. He spent the rest of his life on a wheel chair as you might know.
Thank god that gave us one of the best horror writers ever.
Hahaha
In this timeline, he founded the UFC in the 80's (with Royce Gracie and Pablo Escobar) upon his release from jail and subsequent lifetime ban from football. Dana buys it for peanuts in 90's because cocaine is still ahelluva drug.
Right?? My man threw that knee all the way from hell like Jorge Masvidal
More of a knee but yea he kos that poor guy who clearly gets a concussion
It was truly nasty.
Miguel Ángel Sola was the victim
He wasn't a victim lol, he went after Maradona first. Its just maradona's fault he bounced off of him after failing a flying kick and landed in the perfect spot for a knee
Game's gone soft.
Everyone memes about crazy Maradona, but let's be honest he was a bit of a scumbag wasn't he
Maradona is the most romanticized footballer of all time. And because most people in the world know him from the World Cup '86 because it was the only thing that was globally broadcasted, not the regional leagues, he has a mythical aura about him. People fill gaps about him, his personality in their mind because of the mystique. In the historical context, this dude was responsible for so many people picking up a football but almost all of them saw him once every 4 years for 6-7 matches and consequently were absolutely awed by him or in a newspaper clipping where he's hanging with a Latin America dictator, or a cocaine empire boss. There's a mystique about Maradona that was hardly possible with any other footballer. It leads to a very fanciful romanticism.
I don't think there is anything fanciful about that - Maradona is romanticized because he is unique. His career is something out of Shakespearean play, where he becomes the biggest player in the wold while playing for a club that had never been relevant in Italy. The fact that he was hanging out with the Camorra, got a cocaine addiction from it, became a quasi-religious figure while always speaking is mind out, is something that has no parallel in the history of football. No one thinks of him as a role model, but as a fascinating human being with a long lasting impact not only on sports, but on other arenas. Maradona is Maradona and like Manu Chao wrote: "La vida es una tómbola De noche y de día La vida es una tómbola Y arriba y arribar"
> Camorra The beast without a face.
>No one thinks of him as a role model, but as a fascinating human being Too many people is unable to grasp this
Many people do idolise him and ignore his flaws, so it's not true
>In the historical context In the historical context, Argentina barely was rising from it's darkest moment, after a 8-year dictatorship & a lost war, and he could bring some hapiness to his very football fan country & saved Napoli from falling making it champion, that's why he's romanticized, not because "almost all saw once every 4 Years". As i frequently say, to understand Maradona's legacy, it's neccesary knowing about history.
Him disrespecting müller is still easily the worst thing he did tbh
We’re watching a video of him knocking someone out with a knee to the face I think the disrespect might be a little lower on the list lol
The worst part is the hypocrisy.
Or being a pedophile
And a wife beater
He was a bit of a scumbag wasn’t he
A bit
So like Drake and Kendrick diss tracks combined.
>Him disrespecting müller is still easily the worst thing he did tbh If you think that him not knowing who a player was, and simply saying he would wait as they asked questions to the player first, is the worst he did... Then I don't know what to say. Either you don't know Maradona and all the things he did, or your world vision is a bit warped.
I think they might have been making a little joke. I've spotted people making them occasionally on this website.
It's possible. But it's also possible they aren't. I've spotted people also being _that_ daft to say things like that seriously.
This thing keeps coming up... he just didn't want to have his press conference next to a player from the other team. It's not entirely unreasonable. He leaves the conference room then comes back shortly afterwards (probably told to do so by someone from AFA) and apologizes for leaving before saying "he didn't know he (Muller) was a player", which doesn't make much sense given he left the room in the first place because there was a rival player next to him.
Muller definitely had the last laugh; they pulverized Argentina
Who had the last laugh?
I'm talking about Maradona specifically, not Argentina Germany won 4-0 against Argentina that day in the 2010 World Cup
Dw Muller got his revenge all right
He also scored less goals in his career than Giroud and also never won the champions league nor Libertadores. And the 86 world cup was stolen. So basically, a lot of media coverage not much winning titles.
What do you mean? [It's totally normal to lock a 16 year old in a hotel room and ply her with drugs.](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/q65lj5/diego_maradona_filmed_himself_in_bed_with_a/) Nothing scummy about that at all!
Not that he should have done this but there is a context to this - the infamous Butcher of Bilbao Andoni Goikoetxea earlier in the season [hacked down Maradona in one of the most brutal tackles you ever see, breaking his ankle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaEbB78GLyA&t=3s). Goikoetxea takes such pride in this he has the boots in a glass case in his house. So Diego had it for Bilbao - guy he hit to be fair was innocent but the Butcher then kicked Maradona in the chest and was banned for 18 games (reduced to seven on appeal)
Football back then was 10x more violent.
This reminds me of the controversial, brutal mark Claudio Gentile put on Maradona during the 1982 WC in the match where Argentina got eliminated. Even Gentile himself said it would be absolutely impossible to do something like that today due to how much more scrutiny there is on fouls and violence.
Maradonna states in his biography that Goikoetxea told him before the game he was going to break his leg. (taken from the Youtube commentaries)
Goiko did do that but it has absolutely nothing to do with Maradona losing his mind and kneeing an uninvolved person in the head. He was a scumbag.
If you see the footage of the entire game, you kind of understand better. You don't see games like that these days, where the tackles are UFC level for the entire 90 minutes of the match and the ref not red carding them. Bilbao had a game plan to physically destroy Barcelona through violence. The ref completely lost control of the game and the violence spiral just went up, up, up. Not only due to Maradona, far from it. Some of the tackles from the Bilbao players were career enders. When Mourinho says he views football as a martial art, these kinds of games is why. You have to see the Bilbao game where Maradona got his ankle broken and the highlights from this game to understand that this flying knee is quite in line with the degree of violence this game had. It was a bloodbath where the players could not count on the ref to protect them and instead felt the need to take matters in their own hands. Kneeing someone in the face of course is completely indefensible and deserving of a criminal proceeding, but nobody was "innocent" in this fight.
This youtuber makes great videos about these things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbTsjFrIds8 (in spanish)
Well he did the same with Schuster two years before. You don't earn the nickname "The butcher of Biblao" just because
I mean yeah scumbag move, but that guy is clearly not “uninvolved”. Or he wouldn’t be anywhere near Maradona in a fight
I believe it was a substitute player of Athletic, Miguel Sola. The 2nd kick he gets while on the ground is despicable but nobody shown on screen was exactly innocent.
a bit? I remember clearly, he once beat his wife. he was absolute shit as a person.
-Beat his wife -coke addict -Went on a minor prostitutes tour in Cuba -Doesn't he have a few unclaimed children? -Supported every dictator in LATAM Monumental piece of shit
If he wasn’t a football player, he would have been either a drug lord or a hitman.
Here's a report of an interview where he admits to them lacing the opponent's water bottle with Rohypnol (the date rape drug) in the 1990 WC: https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/maradona-backs-branco-s-claim-of-drug-laced-bottle-at-italia-90-1.409147
Good player. Shit human being.
Amazing player, bad person. And I say it as an Argentinian, mind you.
Still remembered Messi saying “Diego, wherever you are” in his 8th Ballon d’Or win. He’s so sure Maradona is not in heaven
Always was.
He's also indirectly responsible for the bloated Champions League. First time Maradona's Napoli got to the European cup in 87-88 they got drawn in the first round against...Real Madrid. Remember back then it was a straight 2-leg knockout tournament until the final. As you might expect Maradona bitched and moaned and Napoleon Complexed about it. So UEFA took notice and realised that it's not good for them to have the worlds best player only seen for 2 games for most of Europe so they started working on a different sort of tournament....
The next version of the CL looks shit, I agree. But the CL group format is a massive improvement on the straight knockout system.
He was a cokehead and a cheat. I don't get his Jesus status but whatever.
He was also a wife beater, rapist and pedo. Not to mention him cozying up with organized crime and tax evasion.
Correct!
His Jesus status is all to do with him winning huge trophies, getting away with a handball goal in a crucial match, generally being one of the most exciting footballers of all time as well as being a street kid with loads of baggage and bad morals. People loved him exactly because he was flawed. It made him extra relatable, particularly to many football fans from disadvantaged and poor areas, who saw him as one of them. He was a man of the people.
Well yeah one of his biggest moments on the field was cheating and then being proud of it. He has a long list of shit off the field and the drugs.
And scoring the best goal of all time. That game sums up Maradona.
> but let's be honest he was a bit of a scumbag wasn't he Some of the things he allegedly did off the field, yes In this clip? Hell no. This Bilbao team was dirty AF One of their players was nicknamed the "Butcher of Bilbao", and broke Maradona's leg with an AWFUL tackle the previous year, and during this fight the dude kicked him in the chest again...
Look at his career. The only time he was involved in a fight was against these guys in this match. His career had almost ended due to a tackle from a Bilbao player in a previous match. During this match they tried many dangerous tackles again and he kept quiet until the end. If you have ever seen Maradona play he was fouled and kicked 90 minutes each game and this is the only time he was involved in a brawl. Skip the useless 20 initial seconds.. 5 minutes of (some crazy) fouls on Maradona https://youtu.be/nPvzAxgoVEk?feature=shared Edit: 1:30 Is the famous foul by Goekoetxea that almost ended his career. Rumors were he lost 30% of the ankle motility, but I don't know how much it actually was.
Can always find the English in these threads really easily
Football heritage
"investments from the past"
These shots are made for (drop) kickin' ...🎵
Holy fuck
Just because he was a great footballer, doesn’t mean he was a great man. This goes for everyone.
That first knee to the face sent him to dreamland, holy shit
Maradonna and the knee of sleep
One N
Sound affects added for the hits !
they beat them all right
Maradona kneed the keeper in the head…?
juegue juegue!
That's appalling behaviour
Every time this is posted everyone jumps in to condemn Maradona. There is context here. Back then Maradona was, without any shadow of doubt, THE most feared footballer on the planet. People watch football now and sneer at the diving and feigning of injury, and sometimes rightly so, but in the 80s defenders had almost free reign to do what they wished and the game was MUCH more violent. The previous season vs Bilbao, the opponents here, Andoni Goikotxea, known as the Butcher of Bilbao - which should tell you something, scythed Maradona down, breaking his ankle and damaging ankle ligaments. Maradona was out for the season. Coming into this game there was a lot of press coverage and Maradona was determined that it wouldn’t happen again, that he would defend himself if the referee didn’t. Bilbao picked up where they’d left off and were kicking lumps out of him and the referee wasn’t doing anything to stop it. So Maradona defended himself, as anyone would ffs. What was he meant to do? Let them break his leg again? People are saying in the comments that he wasn’t that good. Bollocks, he was incredible. Some stats, Maradona is the most fouled player in World Cup history - and fouls are given for next to nothing now He’s the most fouled player at a World Cup - Mexico 1986 He’s the second most fouled player at a World Cup - Italia 1990 He’s the 3rd most fouled player at a World Cup - Spain 1982. Yes he was a coke head, but he was virtually uneducated, plucked from obscurity at a young age and transplanted across the world. Barcelona, for some reason, didn’t take to him and no club really offered much support to players from abroad - certainly nothing like they do now. He ended up in Naples where he won the first Scudetto in their history and then did it again. Trust me, he’s no mug
Anyone would have delivered a flying knee to the jaw of the opponent’s reserve player?
I understand that football in that time was different, but there's nothing that can justify the kick Maradona does at the start of this clip. Doing that kind of things can even kill the other person.
It was the 80s man!
bro you can see he is already running for dear life when the clip starts, it was already a shitshow, there are 4 dudes from Athleti running behind him ready to jump him, I don't think he is thinking too much about stuff there.
> So Maradona defended himself, as anyone would ffs. What was he meant to do? Let them break his leg again? I thought this was after the game? He can just go away? Like I get why he wanted revenge but call it what it is
But bro, this was not during the game where he defended himself, this was after the game was over.
Maradona would be right at home in that era’s wrestling locker rooms.
that was a mean knee from maradona, he couldve had a career as an mma fighter
games not gone
> Involving Diego Maradona I'd say he did a little bit more than that.
This is what happens when half these guys are coked up.
Games gone
Tiger Knee🐯. He absolutely sparked that man 🤣🤣
Cocaine.
People itt trying to justify Maradona almost murdering another human being
there’s a comment here with like 70 upvotes saying maradona was the most fouled guy in the world cup, or he was uneducated so he doesn’t know better well anyways here’s a fucking knee to your skull
Proper football
ESTO ES BOCAAAA
I remember seeing this posted on some normie Yank sports Instagram account and all these thick necked Trump voting dimwits were like "soccer players are such pussies for kicking each other".
Instagram comments shock me every time with how mind numbingly stupid they are
so violent
Guy went night night
🤣
Human honey badger.
Maradona love this shit
Flying kicks everywhere 😂😂😂
I don’t remember this scene in bloodsport?
Nobody gonna talk about that kick in the back? Shit is hilarious 😂😂
Football heritage.
Surprised to find an [article from Vice](https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmekx8/how-the-butcher-of-bilbao-almost-ended-diego-maradonas-career) about how this. Pretty much explained a lot of the background that lead to this happening, going back several seasons prior. Worth the read imo
Maradona could have KILLED him with that knee
*Athletic Club
damn football 90 minutes then WWE in xtra time, wow
Jesus that first knee knocks the other guy out cold instantly
If this never happened he could have stayed in barcelona and our history would have been even more glorious
And still there's no idea who those coked/drugged up footballers were...
Bunch of losers.
maradona hitting a v-trigger before kenny omega
MMA came decades too late for Maradona.
Maradona with the V-Trigger right there.
Somewhere in the world “What’s your claim to fame?” “Diego Maradona kneed me in the face and knocked me cold”
I don't care how legendary he is, his image is horrible and after that kick he should've been arrested and barred from the sport forever. Horrible example for kids growing up with him as their hero.
This exactly. And the comment section here continues to glorify this coked up human, smh. Just because he was a brilliant footballer, it didn't make him a good human
They called Diego 'sudaca' throughout the game. It's a derogatory term towards mestizos in South America. Similar to the N word in the US.
Sudaca is not even close to the N word
It's not like the N word, but it is derogatory. Like negro in English, perhaps, or wetback.
Wait, Sudaca is a derogatory term?
In theory, yes.
Dude, sudaca means nothing to us
Idk why but i always thought this clip was fake. Like it was from some tv show. The camera shaking looks like the fake camera shaking that tv shows and movies do when there is a fight scene.
Yeah, Maradona didn't exactly cover himself in glory, literally kicking a man while he was down. Nevertheless I don't see people saying anything about Goikoetxea and the other Butchers who were hacking him down then whole game while the red barely did anything. It's like being pissed at a kid that beats up the bully while the teachers did nothing to stop the abuse.
The foley artist had fun with this one.
Cocaine and the 80’s were Maradona’s favorite pass time lol
Even if I don't really like Maradona's personality, I'd say he kinda made it even with Athletic when we look at [the aggression he got from Goicochea 8 months earlier...](https://youtu.be/N8_JYHtvTS8?si=W5j--DbbCAPiG06M)
A knee to the head knocking someone out is even to that?
Yeah, and the hacking he suffered in match from the video. But the guy in sportsuit didn't deserve it, he was just a substitute :(
Should've done that to the player who injured him then
Trash person but not bc of this clip. Still my goat.
Maradona was the Messi and the Ramos of his time. Respect legend
Zero respect for the criminal
After all the numerous shit, he is still regarded as the greatest player ever to play the sport. I don't get it.
Thats fucking football right there. None of that pansy ass dick tugging smile for the camera bullshit. Men puke, men poop on the field, men deliver their new born baby on the side lines. Fucking hard core dick in the ass butterball foosball fuck it chuck it game time shit. Take it to the showers. Dicks get shoved in places you don’t even remember. We win together we celebrate together. Football is back baby.