Throughout the history of soccer, the man mononymously known as Maradona is often regarded as the greatest of all time. Maradona’s leadership qualities on the field boosted his teammates’ performance levels, and his presence alone struck fear into the opposition’s eyes as soon as he stepped onto the pitch. Of all of his numerous awards and accolades, Maradona’s greatest achievement was when he led the Argentina National Team to capture the 1986 FIFA(International Federation of Association Football) World Cup. The 1986 World Cup final was played between Argentina and West Germany(before the fall of the Berlin Wall), however, Maradona would create his legacy in the quarter-final match against England. During the 1986 World Cup quarter-final match, Maradona would score what is perhaps the most significant goal in the history of soccer. The goal would be celebrated throughout all of Argentina. In England however, Maradona’s goal would forever live in infamy.

The Goal

With the game tied 0-0 at the end of the first half, neither team had any sort of advantage heading into the second half of the game, however, Argentina would find the answer to breaking the scoreless tie. Maradona began the second half of the game playing much more aggressively and started to take over. In the 6th minute of the second half, Maradona dribbled the ball out of his team’s penalty box and initiated the sequence of events that would eventually lead to his infamous goal with a pass to Jorge Valdano. After some back and forth action at midfield, the ball eventually made its way towards England’s goal. The ball was sent flying into the air as Maradona got into position for the historic goal. Maradona leaped up and contested the ball with England’s goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, as the ball began its descent. With both Maradona and Shilton battling for the jump ball, Maradona punched the ball into England’s goal with his left hand. After a brief moment of indecision from the linesmen, the goal was awarded to Maradona, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead. The game would come to an end after Maradona scored yet another historic goal to result in Argentina claiming a 2-1 victory over England. After the game, the goal would be given its name as Maradona would go on to say that the goal was scored “a little with his head, and a little with the hand of God”.

“The Story is Already Written”

In 2005, 19 years after scoring the infamous goal, Maradona finally admitted that the goal was scored with his hand after nearly two decades of denying the fact of the matter. However, Maradona’s confession was viewed as an apology, which was not the case, and he gave a second statement to provide clarification on his confession. The Sun newspaper published Maradona’s statement:

“I never spoke of forgiveness. I said only that the story could not be changed, that I do not have to apologize to anyone, because it was a football game in which there were 100,000 people in the Azteca Stadium, twenty-two players, that there were two linesmen, that there was one referee, that Shilton speaks up now and he hadn’t noticed, the defenders had to tell him. So the story is already written, nothing can change it. And that was what I said. I never apologized to anyone. Besides, I don’t have to apologize by making a statement to England. For what? To please who? What p*sses me off the most is that they repeat this in Argentina and talk to people who know me. They talk about contradictions. At forty-seven I think that apologizing to the English is Stupid.”

Maradona’s statement provided the utmost clarification that he had not, nor will ever ask for forgiveness for the goal from the hand of God.

“Symbolic Revenge”

In his documentary, Maradona references the Falklands War as the reasoning behind his controversial goal. The Falklands War was a 10-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British-dependent territories in the South Atlantic. Maradona said “we, as Argentinians, didn’t know what the military was up to. They told us that we were winning the war. But in reality, England was winning 20-0. It was tough. The hype made it seem like we were going to play out another war. I knew it was my hand. It wasn’t my plan but the action happened so fast that the linesman didn’t see me putting my hand in. The referee looked at me and he said: ‘Goal’. It was a nice feeling like some sort of symbolic revenge against the English.”

Legacy

It has been 35 years since Maradona’s goal during the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final match. To this day, the entire country of Argentina still celebrates the most blatant act of cheating ever caught on tape. The moment when Maradona punches the ball into England’s goal has been immortalized in the famous picture taken by Alejandro Ojeda Carbajal. Prior to his untimely death in 2020, Maradona completed his autobiography, in which he makes his final statement regarding his infamous goal, and furthermore solidifies his legacy as the greatest of all time:

“Now I can say what I couldn’t at that moment, what I defined at that time as The Hand of God. What hand of God? It was the hand of Diego!”