Diego Maradona at Mexico 1986, the fury of the dribble | OneFootball

Forty years on, Diego Maradona’s Mexico 1986 remains the World Cup most entwined with one man. At 25, Argentina’s No 10 dragged his side to the title with ferocious dribbling and decisive end product.

L'Équipe notes the scale of his dominance. Across seven matches he completed 53 dribbles and drew 55 fouls, unmatched in data tracked since 1966. He is still the only player to post five goals and five assists at one World Cup.

That summer’s runners-up were Ivan Yaremchuk with 16 dribbles and Enzo Francescoli with 27 fouls won. Even at their peaks, Eden Hazard in 2018, 36 dribbles, and Lionel Messi in 2014, 34, were distant.

The tone was set against South Korea, a 3-1 win, when a sharp feint and burst brought a heavy challenge to his right ankle. In a harsher era for defenders, he rode tackles and went again, quick feet and low centre of gravity.

In the quarter-final with England, already 1-0 up from his handball, he took a routine pass and in the 54th minute ran 11 seconds and 11 touches, all with his left, to seal a 2-1 win. He would slalom through half a team again against Belgium.

Lothar Matthäus curtailed him in the final, yet Maradona still slipped a pass for the 3-2 winner against West Germany. Alain Giresse has highlighted his first touch that wrong-footed markers, explosive balance and fearlessness, and how rarely he needed his right foot. The 1986 version was pure instinct, impossible to contain.

Source: L'Équipe