Maradona

The date, Saturday 2nd June 1979.Glasgow's hottest day for thirty-years. The time around 4.50.pm, and an eighteen-year old Diego Armando Maradona was taking the acclaim of an adoring Hampden Park crowd, along with the rest of his Argentinian compadres from the centre-circle. A rapturous 62,000 crowd rose as one, for despite being brutally outclassed by the reigning World Champions, losing the game 3-1, they had witnessed something quite extraordinary. This ferociously, partisan crowd had lost their hearts to a mere five-foot five, cropped, black-haired kid, (Maradona was doing his nation service at the time), who stood nothing more than knee high to a bottle of Irn Bru, and had spent the last ninety-minutes torturing their heroes with his bewildering ball skills and blistering speed off the mark. It was incredible to watch a smiling Diego tear past Scottish dark-blue shirts, whose attempts to stop him verged on cartoonish, as he simply left them standing, huffing and puffing appearing like drunks on a dance floor, out of rhythm with the music. Such was Diego's insane ability to slip tackles and explode clear of challenges, a Scotland player could well have produced a machine gun, opened fire, and still Maradona would simply drop a shoulder, ignite and dodge the bullets! Told through flashbacks from 2008, we also take in Diego Maradona's first game as Argentina's coach, at of all places. Hampden Park!