“Simply the Best” – Remembering Maradona

We couldn’t possibly go a whole 24 hours without talking about the sad passing of the Greatest Footballer of All Time in the legendary Diego Maradona.

Regulars to Ibrox Noise might know we’ve never subscribed to Pele, Messi or Ronaldo as the greatest ever, preferring instead always the Argentinian world cup winning genius (honourable second place to Brazil’s own maestro Ronaldinho).

And the news of his passing was a bit of a shock, young at only 60, but the guy certainly lived 10x the life most of us ever will.

He’s been viewed as villain and genius in England since that world cup, both kind of fairly in truth, but the memory of him is and always will be that no one was ever better with the ball at their feet than him in the history of our beautiful game.

This guy won the world cup on his own. He had a supporting cast, yes, but he’s the reason Argentina won, and he’s the reason Napoli were so successful back in the day too.

He was unspeakably good, a freak of nature, a true master and the only reason less people exalted him than should, till his passing, of course, was his troubled later years with the unfortunate lifestyle and questionable choices not to mention that Hand of God.

On the grounds of his football acumen, no one could touch him.

He is simply the best, the best that has ever played the game. He changed the game in the 80s and showed what was possible with a football. The sport is littered with genius – Cruyff, Best, Matthews, you name it – but Maradona was on a different planet, and no one since him, bar Dinho, has come even in the same ballpark to what Maradona did.

His legend will live forever, as it should, and hopefully he’s remembered for the genius of his career and not the more unsavoury stuff that went alongside him.

Descansa en paz, Diego