Rafael Nadal: "Diego Maradona one of the greatest sportsmen ever"

Diego Armando Maradona's life gone beyond the world of soccer: also a tennis champion like Rafael Nadal payed omage to El Pibe de Oro.

On Twitter Rafa wrote: "Today the world of sport in general and football in particular have a vacuum. Maradona was one of the greatest sportsmen in history. My sincere and heartfelt thoughts go out to his family, the world of football and all of Argentina."

Hoy el mundo del deporte en general y el fútbol en particular tiene un vacío. Se nos fue #Maradona uno de los deportistas mas grandes de la historia. Queda lo que hizo en el fútbol. Mi mas sincero y sentido pésame a su familia, al mundo del fútbol y a toda la Argentina 🇦🇷

— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) November 25, 2020

Maradona, the greatest soccer player ever

Nicknamed El Pibe de Oro, Maradona is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, if not the best ever In a professional career of more than twenty years he played in Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, ​​Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys.

With the Argentine national team he participated in four World Cups (1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994), winning the 1986 tournament as a protagonist; the 91 matches played and the 34 goals scored in the national team constituted two records, which were subsequently beaten.

Against England in the 1986 Mexico quarter-finals he scored a goal considered the goal of the century, three minutes after scoring a goal with his hand, known as Mano de Dios, another episode he is often remembered for. He was never able to enter the Golden Ball rankings because until 1994 the award was reserved for European players: for this reason in 1995 he won the Golden Ball for Lifetime Achievement.

However, he has received numerous other individual awards: he shares with Pelé the official FIFA award for Best Player of the 20th Century, and in 1993 he was awarded the title of best Argentinesoccer player ever, awarded to him by the Argentine soccer federation.

In 2002 he was included in the FIFA World Cup Dream Team, a selection made up of the best eleven players in the history of the World Cup, obtaining the highest number of votes among the eleven of the ideal team. In 2004 he was included by Pele in the FIFA 100, the list of the 125 best living players, drawn up on the occasion of the centenary of the federation.

In 2012 he was awarded as Best Footballer of the Century at the Globe Soccer Awards and in 2014 he joined the Italian football Hall of Fame among foreign players. Among the most controversial figures in the history of soccer for his eccentric personality on and off the pitch, he was suspended twice from playing football for different reasons: once for cocaine use in 1991 and another time for positive doping tests.

at the 1994 United States World Cup. Argentina's CT for a short period in the late 2000s, after his official retirement from football in 1997, Maradona suffered excessive weight gain and the consequences of addiction to cocaine, from which he is released after long stays in detox centers.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/373d2p2