Diego Maradona

Argentine soccer champion who scored the winning goal in the final 1986 World Cup Game, when Argentina beat Mexico. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award. A precocious talent, Maradona was given the nickname El Pibe de Oro ("The Golden Kid"), a name that stuck with him throughout his career.

He began playing soccer early and led the Argentina youth team to win the world cup in 1979. After the 1982 world cup in Spain, he joined Barcelona and played in Spain for two seasons. In 1984 he joined Naples, Italy and won two Italian Championships in 1986-1987 and 1989-1990, a Coppa Italia (1987), an UEFA cup (1989) and a Supercoppa Italiana (1990).

Maradona's career began a slow decline, when he failed a drug test in 1991 and was suspended from soccer. When the suspension was over, he played for Seville, Spain and then returned to Argentina.

In the World Cup of 1994 in the USA, Maradona was tested after the match against Nigeria and was found to have used "ephedrine." As a result, he was suspended for more than a year. For the remainder of his soccer career, he played for Argentina's Boca Juniors and, on 30 October 1997, he retired from football, aged 37.

His post-retirement years were not easy. He battled drug addiction. In late February 2005, the retired Argentine soccer star lost his lawsuit in an Italian court and was ordered to pay 30 million euro ($40 million) in back taxes to the Italian government. As if his addictions and financial troubles weren’t enough, his weight ballooned since his retirement to 280 pounds (130 kg) on a 5’5” (1.65 m) frame while he battled his addictions primarily in Cuba. On 9 March 2005 he checked out of a Colombia hospital four days after having gastric bypass surgery in an attempt to lose weight and regain health.