In 1984, a football genius was introduced to a dysfunctional city and an unforgettable romance ensued. The world of Neapolitans was turned tumultuous when a 5ft 5in Diego Maradona from Argentina arrived as their saviour. But like all personalities with mass appeal, the greatest threat to Maradona was his fame which he got through hard work on the field. But that was very quickly diluted with his illustrious antics off the field. His addiction to drugs soon dragged him down making him the ‘pariah’ who faced the public wrath. He soon went from being the soul of Naples to a drug-addled outcast.
Maradona was notorious for going on a cocaine binge. His routine was to play a match on Sunday, binge on cocaine from Sunday night till Wednesday, sweat it all out from Wednesday to Saturday evening and then play a match again on Sunday. This played on a constant loop until he couldn’t repeat it anymore. For a person with such good ball control, everything else was out of control. Maradona operated in near-total chaos as opposed to the hermetically sealed world of today’s stars. Although Maradona had started taking drugs back in 1982 when he was playing for Barcelona, it increased exponentially after his arrival at Napoli with his close involvement with the Italian mafia.
Maradona once said during an interview, “I gave my opponents a big advantage due to my illness. Do you know the player I could have been if I hadn’t taken drugs? I am 53 going on 78 because my life hasn’t been normal”. True, Maradona’s weakness for drugs was his own undoing. Despite his huge intake of drugs, he never tested positive until 1991. This could also have been because of the immense support he received from the Italian mafia during his time playing for Napoli. The 1990 FIFA World Cup hosted by Italy marked the turning point in Maradona's life, both on and off the field. His blunder in asking the people of Naples to support Argentina during their semi final clash against Italy in Naples set off a series of events which saw him face the furore from Italians and from the mafia from whom he enjoyed immense support until then.
Maradona was banned for 15 months by Napoli after he tested positive for cocaine from April 1991 – June 1992. Later in the same year, he was arrested in Buenos Aires for possessing half a kilo of cocaine and was given a 14-month suspended sentence. The genius footballer became an outcast in Italy. After having arrived to crowds of over 80,000, he left the city alone into social oblivion. Although he was back in the Argentine team for the 1994 World Cup, he was expelled in the group stage for testing positive for five variants of ephedrine – a banned substance. FIFA banned him for 15 months, effectively ending his international career. In 1997, he failed yet another drug test, thus failing for the third time in six years. This put an end to his playing career. Despite the scrutiny and what it did to him as a football player, Maradona never hid his drug problem. He once told a drug charity, “Drugs are everywhere and I do not want kids to take them. I have two girls and I thought it best to say this, a father’s obligation. I was, am and always will be a drug addict”. He suffered an overdose in 2000 followed by a heart attack in 2004 and was forced to have a gastric bypass surgery in 2005.
Although he eventually stopped taking drugs, it was too late as it had already done the damage to both his body and his god-like stature. While his addiction did transform him from a godlike football genius and doting father to a bloated outcast and uncaring philanderer, nobody doubted his unmatched handling (pun intended) of the ball.
