Touched By God

In June 1986 Diego Maradona, considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time, proudly hoisted the '86 Mexico World Championship Cup in his hands. Now thirty years on from that magical game, and after a life in sports marked by controversy, Maradona tells, for the first time, the untold stories behind that one-of-a-kind World Cup. Mexico '86 was the pinnacle of Maradona's career, and in this book he will reveal all about every game, what happened afterwards in the locker room, the months leading up to the World Cup, when the team had to go to Mexico City a month early to avoid the overthrowing of the technical director by the Argentine president, Alfonsin, the mystery behind 'El Gran Capitan' Passarella ('78 World Cup Champion), the strategies and tactics that revolutionised the game, training in a country that was recovering from an earthquake, the public's hostility, the jerseys they went out to buy in Mexico City, the meeting in Colombia where the team really came together, his relationship to drugs: the clean World Cup, and the best goal in football history. Mexico '86 is Maradona's World Cup and Maradona is who he is because of that World Cup. Explosive, gritty and unapologetic, Touched by God will tell the inside story of one of the greatest football victories of all time.

The book's greatest strength is that it feels unmistakeably like 1986 all over again . . . I loved this book. I loved its nostalgia

Préface
Over thirty years on from the magic of the '86 Mexico World Cup, Diego Maradona reveals, for the first time, the untold stories behind that one-of-a-kind championship.

Auteur

Diego Maradona was born in Buenos Aires in 1961. He is widely recognised as one of football's greatest players. He has played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca, Barcelona, Naples, Seville and Newell's Old Boys, but he will always be most strongly associated with the Argentinian national team. He lives in Dubai.

Daniel Arcucci is one of the most respected and recognized Argentinian sports journalists. He began his career at the legendary magazine El Gráfico in Buenos Aires. He met Diego Maradona in the Christmas of 1985. He covered the '86 Mexico World Cup and interviewed Maradona more than 150 times. His books To Meet Diego and I am the Diego of the People were both bestsellers in Argentina. In 2007, he was awarded the Platinum Konex award for sports journalism.

Texte du rabat

'This is Diego Armando Maradona speaking, the man who scored two goals against England and one of the few Argentines who knows how much the World Cup actually weighs'

In June 1986, Diego Maradona - one of the greatest and most controversial players in history - proudly hoisted the World Cup above his head. Since then, Argentina's World Cup victory has become the stuff of legend, and their quarterfinal with England, which featured arguably the best goal in history (Maradona's 'Goal of the Century') and the worst (the notorious 'Hand of God'), is infamous. Now, for the first time ever, Maradona tells his side of the story, detailing every game and pulling no punches.

But Argentina's victory came after months of struggle and discord within the team and off the pitch, including the Argentine government's attempt to change the team's coach, a lack of equipment that forced the players to buy their own uniforms, and an argument that caused one the team's star players to quit on the eve of the tournament. Now, thirty years after Argentina's magical victory, Maradona tells his side of the story, vividly recounting how he led the team to win one of the greatest World Cup triumphs of all time.