Ossie Ardiles: Diego would tell me it is very beautiful being Maradona, but it is not easy either

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Ossie Ardiles26 November 2020

First of all, it was a big, big shock when I heard the news. In many ways, it was news I had been expecting at some point but when it happened it was an incredible shock, whether I was prepared for it, or not.

Last week Ray Clemence passed away, and now Diego. It is a very sad time.

For me, Diego was one of the three I would always pick out as the very best in the history of the game. There are, of course, more players I could mention, but there are three when I ever mention the all-time greats — Pele, Maradona, and Messi. Of those three, Diego is the best.

Like Pele, Diego played at a time when it was much more difficult to play than now. Now nobody is allowed to touch you, but when Diego played there was always the chance of being injured, and it was always a question of when you would be hurt — and hurt by what I would call 'the bad boys', who were out to catch him.

It might have been incredibly difficult at the time he played, but he was extraordinarily skilful, tremendously gifted, an unbelievable talent. What would he be worth now? Even at that time he was the most expensive transfer of all time, and he would be the most expensive transfer now.

Diego Maradona and Ossie Ardiles

There is one story I have never told about Diego. It happened in the 1982 World Cup in Spain and we travelled to a small town in Spain about 10 days before the tournament. I was sitting next to Diego at dinner, when he asked me what I was doing the next day. It was an unusual situation as we also had our wives, and in Diego's case, his girlfriend, staying in the next hotel. That never used to happen as we were happy just to concentrate on the tournament.  

It was a Saturday evening when he asked me about my plans for the next day. "Cordobes, what are you doing tomorrow?," he said. He called me that because I was from the town of Cordoba in Argentina. We woke the next morning and, after a quick breakfast, we slipped past all the security that was around us due to the war with England over the Falklands, pinched a car outside of the hotel, as there were so many there, and headed into town — about a 15-minute drive away to go to mass and have some lunch afterwards.

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We went to this small cathedral and when we opened the door everybody looked at us, the priest had to stop the mass, as everybody wanted to touch Diego, or have a picture with him, as even then, he was so well known. The priest took us into a corner but Diego said it was no problem if anyone wanted a picture.

During the mass, you would turn to the person next to you and say "Peace is with you", and put your hand in their hand — and sitting next to us was someone from England! Incredible.

Back at the hotel, we heard later, there was panic. "Where is Diego and Ossie?" With so much security, somehow they had gone missing, and there was panic. Back at the cathedral, before mass had finished, at the door were some big guards in sunglasses, "Oh, there they are!" We took our car back to the hotel accompanied by security.

When it came to the World Cup in 86, Diego was by then Argentina's big hope, but there were two very important warm-up games in Norway and then Israel. But after the Norway game, Diego announced that he was off to London to play a game for Tottenham. They couldn't believe it, and told him, "No, you are not going."

He told them: "I am going." They insisted he was not going. But he had told me he would play in my testimonial, so he left the World Cup camp and headed off to London even though he was not allowed to.

I picked him up at the airport and took him to a hotel in central London where he insisted he wanted a sleep before the game. I told him we must leave early as there would be a big crowd wanting to see him, and that it was always a lot of traffic. I waited for hours, and as he had his phone off the hook, could not get through to his room. He finally emerged with little to no time to get to the ground. We inevitably got stuck in traffic and the kick off had to be put back, there was a full house.

I was panicking as I drove him along Seven Sisters Road which had come to a standstill, but we had a police escort for the final stages to get us to the stadium.

He wanted to wear his famous No10, so Glenn [Hoddle] gave him his No10 shirt. Diego had arrived without a thing, not even a bag, let alone any kit.

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Diego Maradona
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He had a fantastic game, and after the game the team went to dinner with Diego, and then onto a private nightclub where I left him about three in the morning. He hardly had much sleep the night before travelling and not much sleep the next night but had to make it to the airport at 7am, and almost missed his flight to Israel, but I imagine he got some sleep on the flight.

I brought him to Wembley when Spurs played there and beat Liverpool 4-1 when Mauricio Pochettino was the manager, and all the players wanted to meet him. I introduced him to Harry Kane as he popped into the dressing room to say hello.

Everyone talks about the Hand of God goal, but he did what he had to do, and for me it is blown out of all proportion. Here we have a unique talent, who scored a wonder goal against England, but the Hand of God goal is the one they talk about. He wanted to win at all costs, do anything to win, he was a winner, but he wasn't the only forward who handled a goal, there are many other examples, from Thierry Henry to Joe Jordan, it happens all the time. I can't judge him on that.

I talked to Diego all the time, sometimes for five minutes, sometimes half an hour, we would talk about football, but we would talk about everything. I always tried to help him as much as I could.

All our conversations would finish in the same way… He would say it is very beautiful to be Maradona, but it is not easy to be Maradona.

I knew what he meant. He was loved wherever he went, no, more than loved, people absolutely loved him, wanted a part of him, a picture with him, just to touch him, and he was wonderful with the people.

But he was mortal just like the rest of us, he never had a childhood because he was so famous so quickly. He came from a very poor background, but never forgot it, and the first thing he did when he could was to buy a house for his mother and father, and to make sure all his family were well looked after.

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