At first, it looked like a stunning feat of athleticism. How a 5'5" Diego Maradona had jumped high enough to beat the 6-foot tall goalkeeper Peter Shilton to a ball in the air. Shilton had even extended his long arms to collect the ball. But, somehow his hands did not reach the ball before Maradona's head. Of course, it was apparent on closer inspection that it was Maradona's left arm, not his head (although the leap was still impressive), that touched the ball into the net. But the goal stood and gave Argentina a 1-0 lead in 51st minute of the World Cup quarterfinal against England. Maradona later dubbed it the hand of God.
Four minutes later, Maradona scored what came to be known as the goal of the century. In the immortal words of British broadcaster Bryon Butler: “Maradona, turns like a little eel and comes away from trouble, little squat man, comes inside Butcher, leaves him for dead, outside Fenwick, leaves him for dead, and puts the ball away.... He buried the English defence… it's a goal of great quality by a player of the greatest quality.” Maradona, then 25, ran about 60 yards in 10 seconds and dribbled past four English players and the goalkeeper to score. This was indeed the real stunning feat of athleticism and skill.
Skill was something that the diminutive Argentine had in abundance, to put it mildly. You can make a valid argument for Maradona being the greatest attacking midfielder of all time and his name definitely deserves to be part of any debate about who the GOAT (greatest of all time) is. He had absolute control over the ball even while running at full speed. He was explosive and quite simply unstoppable, at times. While Maradona may not quite be the GOAT, his peak was possibly the greatest ever. That peak was in the 1986 World Cup and the "goal of the century" was a concise summation of his greatest attributes.
While his genius was evident in the hundreds of masterful goals he scored in his career, the hand of God remains unforgettable, for the athleticism and for the cunning. Maradona was never apologetic about the illegal goal that he got away with on the grandest of stages. He even went on to speak and write about it. He has said that he scored several handball goals in Argentina and even a couple for Napoli in Europe. In the 2019 documentary, Diego Maradona, directed by Asif Kapadia, Maradona linked the goal to the Falklands War, saying it was symbolic revenge against the English.
Those two goals were defining moments in Maradona's career. That a footballer of his talents had to resort to such tactics was sad. But, it showed the two sides of the player that he was. On that day, June 22, 1986, Maradona was destructive and devious. The handball will always be unjustifiable, but it is worth pondering how his legacy would have been affected had he not scored the wondergoal within minutes. Maradona balanced out his footballing sin with a footballing miracle. He went to the 1986 World Cup to win it, at any cost. And today Mexico 1986 is known as Maradona's World Cup.
