The two lives of 22 June: the day Maradona forged his own myth | OneFootball

The historic match between Argentina and England at Mexico ’86 was played in two different moments: first on the pitch, through the feet and hands of Diego Maradona; and a decade later, through his own telling of it. The myth of the “Hand of God” and the “Cosmic Kite” was not an immediate phenomenon, but rather matured over time until it became the ultimate legend, shaped by its own creator.

The era of Maradona the champion over Maradona the “avenger”At 25, after reaching glory in 1986, Maradona continued his career looking ahead. He took Napoli to the top, reached the 1990 World Cup final, suffered his first positive doping test, and lived through titanic comebacks amid political tensions with the Menem administration.

Throughout that entire journey, which ended with the 1994 World Cup and his final spell at Boca Juniors, the “Number Ten” barely mentioned the match against England or linked the game to the Falklands War. In the collective memory of those years, the image of Maradona lifting the World Cup against Germany carried more weight than any role as a patriotic avenger.

Football in the time of innocence

In the years after 1986, the football business was not on today’s scale. The sport was not a 24-hour televised spectacle, nor were there:

At that time, the national team traveled in economy class, and Maradona walked out of Ezeiza Airport through the main entrance, without today’s media shielding. Even Víctor Hugo Morales’s iconic commentary went largely unnoticed at the time, only becoming a cult piece in the 1990s with technological advances.

From political correctness to a warlike narrative

In the buildup to the 1986 match, played just four years after the Falklands conflict, caution and politically correct statements from the players set the tone. Maradona himself repeated that it was “just a match”, that football and politics should not be mixed, and that invoking the war would be disrespectful to the fallen.

However, when the idol’s physical abilities began to fade and retirement became inevitable, the narrative changed. Starting in 1996, on the tenth anniversary of the match, Maradona began to rewrite the mystique of the Azteca in words, giving it the geopolitical and emotional backdrop we know today:

A myth built collectively

Maradona did not build this legend alone. The milestone of June 22 drew on indispensable elements and secondary figures: the rushed making of the blue shirts, the honesty of the English defenders who did not foul him, a particular refereeing crew, and Víctor Hugo Morales’s commentary.

Just as writer Octavio Paz said of actress María Félix — stating that she was born twice: first conceived by her parents and then invented by herself — Maradona managed to invent the most famous match in football history twice.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.