Inspiration: Diego Armando Maradona

In Argentina – perhaps more than anywhere else – fútbol is life. And if there’s one person who is fútbol argentino, it’s Diego Armando Maradona. 

Raised in a shanty town outside Buenos Aires, Maradona rose to the pinnacle of the world’s beautiful game. His near-magical soccer talents and relentless pursuit of glory on the field forever captured the hearts of his countrymen. 

Maradona played club ball in Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Naples, but his heroic feats for the selección are what Argentinians, even those not born at the time, remember intimately. In 1986 he captained the national team to a World Cup win. The campaign included what some consider the best goal ever scored in the tournament – a dazzling run by Maradona through half of England’s team – and of course the infamous ‘mano de dios’ goal against the same dreaded rivals. 

In Naples, where Maradona led Napoli to two Serie A titles and a European championship, thousands every year visit a street shrine to him in the city’s Spanish Quarter. Fans there affectionately refer to him as ‘d10s’ (a play on díos and his number 10), and the team changed the name of its stadium to The Maradona after his death. 

Maradona became synonymous with football greatness around the world, his image adorning countless murals in far flung places that he never even visited. Any Argentine soccer star since points to him as their inspiration: Gabriel Batistuta, Javier Mascherano, Diego Simeone, Sergio Aguero and, of course, Lionel Messi.

Drugs and addiction plagued the super star throughout his adult life, but most Argentines adore Maradona for his exploits on the pitch while also mourning his personal struggles and untimely death in 2020. 

Things may change with time, especially if Messi can lead Argentina to World Cup victory this month, but for now the debate over who is the country’s greatest ever is not much of a debate for many Argentinians.