30 October: Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona

Villa Fiorito

He grew up in Villa Fiorito, a poor shanty town south of Buenos Aires. At twelve he did keepy-uppies at half-time during Argentinos Juniors games, and people were already going to watch him. He made his first-division debut ten days before turning sixteen.

In 1979 he won the World Youth Championship in Japan and in 1981 the league with Boca Juniors. A year later Barcelona signed him.

Barcelona

His time at Barcelona was short and eventful. He had hepatitis, and in September 1983, at the Camp Nou, a tackle from Athletic's Andoni Goikoetxea broke his ankle. Even so he won a Copa del Rey, a League Cup and a Super Cup, and left moments still remembered in Barcelona, like the goal at the Bernabéu where he waited for the defender before rolling it in, which ended with the Madrid crowd applauding him.

His last game for Barça was the 1984 cup final against Athletic, which ended in a mass brawl on the Bernabéu pitch.

Naples and Mexico

In 1984 he arrived at Napoli, a southern club that had never won the league. With him they won two, in 1987 and 1990, plus the 1989 UEFA Cup. In Naples he is far more than a footballer.

At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico he was Argentina's captain and soul. In the quarter-final against England he first scored with his hand, the Hand of God goal, and four minutes later went past half the England team from his own half for what is considered the greatest goal in World Cup history. In the final he laid on the decisive goal for Burruchaga.

Sevilla and the last game

After Napoli he spent a season at Sevilla, in 1992-93, with Carlos Bilardo in charge. At the 1994 World Cup he was thrown out of the tournament after failing a drug test.

He played his last official game on 25 October 1997, five days before his thirty-seventh birthday, at the Monumental: Boca beat River 2-1 and at half-time he was replaced by a kid called Juan Román Riquelme. He died in November 2020.

🔴⚪ Sporting Gijón players born this day

They played for Sporting Gijón and were born on this same day. There is only their data here: we would rather name them than leave them out, and rather give the bare facts than invent a story.

Another 48 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.

Dates, clubs, individual awards and photos come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under free licences, and update themselves. Ages are not written anywhere: they are calculated the moment you open the page, so this page always shows the right age, this year and twenty years from now. If any of these players signs for another club or wins an award, their profile picks it up on its own. What is written by hand is the story and the judgement: who the day belongs to, and why.