When Napoli beat Juventus 1-0 in November 1985, thanks to a Diego Maradona free-kick, five people fainted in the stadium and two had heart attacks. On the television news that night, a stern-faced presenter announced: “So quite literally by scoring this goal, Maradona made a big mess.” A year and a half later, Napoli were champions of Italy, their first scudetto in a long, underwhelming history. The party went on for two months. Hundreds of newborn boys were named Diego, the girls Diega.
These are details from the riveting, immersive new documentary Diego Maradona, made by Asif Kapadia, whose previous films have traced the extraordinary lives and premature demises of Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse. Much of Diego Maradona is preoccupied with the crazy tale of how the best player in the world ended up at one of Italy’s least desirable clubs and what happened next. The fact that the Argentinian, within three seasons, almost single-footedly took Napoli from perennial relegation-dodgers to the summit of the best and toughest league in the world is often used by his admirers to explain why he should be regarded as the greatest player ever to step on a football pitch.
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