Diego Maradona

In Maradona's first goal of that game, the ball bounced off his fist, a violation of one of soccer's most stringent rules, but the referees did not see his hand touch the ball before it landed in the net. Maradona later said that it was not his hand, but rather the "hand of God" that had put the ball in the net. Later in the game, Maradona ran 55 yards down the field, deftly eluding England's defense, and again scored. England lost and was ejected from the quarterfinals, and Argentina went on to beat West Germany. In England, Maradona was excoriated in the press, derided for what was seen as a decidedly unsportsmanlike move; in Argentina, however, the win was heralded as yet another example of what Argentines prided themselves as possessing as a national character trait, viveza, or triumph through cunning.

Back in Naples, Maradona remained a major celebrity and inarguably the Italian League's biggest star. But stories of drug use and illegal gambling began to dog him, and he was rumored to have links to the Neapolitan camorra, or organized-crime syndicate. As he gained weight and grew sloppy in his training habits, Italian sportswriters enjoyed poking fun at him. At the time, he was soccer's highest earner. "For some veteran observers, Maradona is a symbol of all that has gone wrong with the sport of soccer," wrote Sports Illustrated's Rick Telander. "He is aloof and mercenary, whereas most great former players were supposedly kind, grateful and dedicated beyond the limits of monetary reward."