Maradona’s marvellous legacy  soiled by his ‘Hand of God’ goal 

The football world is mourning the death of one of the finest players, Diego Maradona, who died of a heart attack on Wednesday, at the age of 60, leaving soccer lovers in grief. 
The Argentinian’s story is that of from grass to grace; having risen out of biting poverty to reach the pinnacle of the beautiful game with his transcendent talent. He helped Argentina to win the 1986 World Cup trophy and won the golden ball for player of the tournament. 

His marvellous talent notwithstanding, Maradona was a cheat that didn’t deserve all the glory he got. Starting with the famous or infamous (depending on where you stand) ‘Hand of God’ goal where he used his hand to score against England during the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, and again at the 1990 World Cup where he used his hand to clear the ball off the line against the Soviet Union. He was unrepentant throughout, which blunted his credibility in the sight of those who pitch for fairness.  

On the ‘Hand of God goal,’ it is easy to forgive Maradona for crediting God. After all, God is omnipotent and without His approval, the ball wouldn’t have gone in. Consider that the ‘Hand of God’ goal was quickly followed by the ‘Goal of the Century’ that starts with Maradona picking the ball at the centre of the field, dribbling his way past several England shirts, and finally outfoxing the goalkeeper and coolly slotting home. 

It is a goal that takes my breath way whenever I watch it. The argument, then, can be that if God was mad at Maradona for cheating, He wouldn’t have shortly after let him score that classic beauty that sealed Argentina’s progress to the semi-finals of the world’s most important football tournament at the expense of England.

Otherwise, for many and Sir Bobby Robson in particular, it was not the ‘Hand of God’ goal as Maradona cheekily captioned it, but the ‘hand of a rascal’. The former England manager who had watched Maradona score with his hand from a vintage spot behind the goalposts said: “It wasn’t the ‘Hand of God’. It was the hand of a rascal. God had nothing to do with it. The world bought in to Diego Maradona’s poetic description of the ‘goal’ that put us out of the 1986 World Cup, but I didn’t. That day, Maradona was diminished in my eyes forever.” 

Maybe, one can argue, as it has often been said, that football is defined by thin margins; that good-luck was with Maradona and Argentina, and that in accordance with Murphy’s Law, anything that was meant to go wrong went wrong with England. However, Maradona didn’t have to play the devil’s advocate by attributing his unjust goal to the God factor. He gloated that he had scored a little with his head and a little with the hand of God, leaving England fans shuddering at his temerity to call his sinful hand God’s hand.
 
God is holy and just; He does not condone cheating. Although He granted human beings free will to do as they like, we shall all account for our actions before the Judgement Seat someday. 
Today, thanks to VAR, Maradona’s goal would have been disallowed and maybe England’s fortunes would have turned out differently. Even with that knowledge, Maradona refused to apologise in the spirit of sportsmanship. In so doing, he projected himself as an unrepentant cheat and left a sour taste in the mouths of crusaders of justice.  

That cheating streak is the scar Maradona has gone to the grave with. The other tumultuous aspects of his life like drug abuse were not as scarring as the fraud orchestrated by his hands. That fraud soiled his reputation glaringly, leaving the Brazilian Pele as the undisputed “greatest of all time (Goat)” in the football world.
May the good Lord teach us to play the game of life fairly and win honestly. And may He have mercy and grant Diego Maradona everlasting peace. 

Mr Dennis D Muhumuza is a football lover and SC Villa fan. [email protected]