Maradona

YEAR	HOST	APPS	GOALS	RESULT
1982	Spain	5	2	GROUP STAGE
1986	Mexico	7	5	★ WINNER
1990	Italy	7	0	RUNNER-UP
1994	United States	2	1	ROUND OF 16

⚡ DEFINING MOMENTS

▲ 1982 · A Bruising Introduction

Maradona arrived in Spain at 21 as the most expensive footballer alive and was kicked from one end of the tournament to the other. Argentina, the holders, went out in the second group stage, and his temper finally snapped against Brazil — a retaliatory kick earned him a red card and a chastening early exit.

▲ 1986 · Four Minutes Against England

In the Mexico City quarter-final he scored the two most discussed goals in the tournament's history within four minutes — the 'Hand of God' he punched in unseen, and a slalom from inside his own half past half the England side that is routinely called the goal of the century. He then captained Argentina to the title and was named the tournament's best player.

▲ 1994 · Expelled in the United States

At 33 he returned transformed, scored a thunderous goal against Greece and sprinted to the touchline camera with a wild stare that became its own infamous image. Days later a positive test for ephedrine ended his World Cup, and his international career, in disgrace.

📜 CAREER TIMELINE

1977

Made his senior Argentina debut at 16, but was controversially left out of the 1978 home World Cup squad.

1982

Played his first World Cup in Spain and was sent off against Brazil in the second group stage.

1986

Captained Argentina to the World Cup in Mexico, scoring five and winning the tournament's best-player award.

1990

Led an injury-hit Argentina back to the final in Italy, losing to West Germany without scoring at the tournament.

1994

Expelled from the World Cup in the United States after a positive doping test, ending his international career.

2020

Died at 60, mourned in Argentina with three days of national mourning.

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█ THE ALMANAC SPEAKS

PROF. INKSWORTH:

No player ever bent a World Cup so completely to a single will. Mexico 1986 was, by any honest reckoning, a tournament Maradona won almost by himself — directly scoring or making ten of Argentina's fourteen goals, and producing in one English quarter-final both the cup's most cynical goal and its most beautiful. The ledger that followed is messier — a final lost in 1990, a doping expulsion in 1994 — but the archive files him without hesitation among the two or three greatest ever to play the game.

His four-minute double against England in 1986 paired the 'Hand of God' with a run voted the World Cup's goal of the century.
He won 152 free kicks across his four World Cups — the most in the tournament's history, and more than twice the next-best tally.
He is one of only a handful of men to both captain a World Cup-winning side and be sent off at a World Cup.

🌎 WORLD CUP RECORD

⚡ DEFINING MOMENTS

📜 CAREER TIMELINE