Diego Maradona, One of Soccer’s Greatest Players, Is Dead at 60

Diego Armando Maradona was born Oct. 30, 1960, in Lanus, Argentina, and raised in the Buenos Aires shantytown Villa Fiorito, where he took up soccer on dusty streets with an urchin’s resourcefulness. By age 15 he had turned professional. (In his autobiography, he wrote that he had become so skilled a player as a youth that opposing coaches sometimes accused him of being an adult midget.)

He later starred with the European club powers Napoli and Barcelona and, in 2010, coached Argentina at the World Cup, held in South Africa, though his team suffered an embarrassing 4-0 loss to Germany in the quarterfinals.

He had a peripatetic coaching career, taking over club teams in Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico. In September, he was hired to coach the Argentine club Gimnasia y Esgrima in La Plata. On his 60th birthday, he attended his team’s match against Patronato, but left early in what became a 3-0 victory, prompting questions about his health.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/sports/soccer/diego-maradona-dead.html