It would be unfair to the great football genius Diego Armando Maradona and a great storyteller to take away the narrative of his own canonization. Today, June 22, marks 40 years since the afternoon at the Azteca, the creation of The Hand of God, the Goal of the Century, on the field and in the voice of Víctor Hugo Morales. Of the cosmic kite trick. Of the play of all time. Everything has been told and known, so returning to the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup can only bring us back to Maradona and the explanations he has given and stopped giving over the decades about everything that happened.
"Come on, let's go! Come on, these sons of bitches killed our kids, our friends, our neighbors. We can't lose!" was the phrase from El Pelusa, as told by José Luis Brown, just after the Argentine anthem played.
Minute 51. "The first goal? I swear on whatever you want, I jumped with Shilton but I hit it with my head. The thing is, the goalkeeper's fist was seen, causing confusion. But it was with my head, no doubt about it. I even got a bump on my forehead. I did it with Maradona's head but with the Hand of God," Maradona told Crónica in the Azteca locker room. There is no video or audio, just the text from the special envoy. That's when The Hand of God first appeared.
"The referee was going to be banned for life"
The next day, on June 23, Maradona, in Tiempo Argentino, denied saying that: "What I said was that I jumped and the ball hit me, but I didn't do it on purpose, I even thought Shilton had scored an own goal." But on the 24th, in an interview with Gente, he began to embrace the phrase. "I know I did it with my head. Many say I did it with my hand. I say I did it with my head and with the Hand of God."
Jumping to 1998, 12 years later. "I stole the wallet from the English without them realizing, without blinking. Shilton, all goalkeepers are stupid and you are no exception," he exclaimed in a documentary. A decade later, in 2008, in El Gráfico, he insisted: "I said 'it was the Hand of God' because I couldn't say 'it was with my hand.' The referee was going to be banned for life because the English were the bosses of everything. It was a whole mess."
Minute 54. "The Black Enrique says he gave me a pass that left me alone. He gave it to me from far away. I was lucky to face them and see the English couldn't catch me," he summarized on ESPN. "When I saw Fenwick hesitate, I pushed the ball forward, he tried to grab me, but I was going a hundred miles per hour. No one could stop me. When I was about to shoot, I saw Shilton covering the whole goal. So I faked him out, played it short, Shilton was left sprawling, and I pushed it in. I felt a kick from Butcher on my right ankle. He broke it, but the joy of the goal was so great that I didn't feel the pain," he added.
In Infobae, in 2020, in one of his last interviews, he gave more details: "That goal still moves me because I always find something new in it. Shilton's poor clearance or the pass from Black Enrique, because someone else would have just kicked the ball away, but he saw me and gave it to me. Over time, I said the second goal was so they wouldn't say I scored one with my hand. That way, they had no excuses."
Maradona took 10.6 seconds to cover 52 meters. He took 44 steps, touched the ball 12 times, and left six English players behind: Hoddle, Reid, Sansom, Butcher, Fenwick, and the goalkeeper, Shilton. In the stands, 114,580 spectators. On Radio Argentina, Víctor Hugo Morales, with the iconic commentary, now a cornerstone of popular sports culture. "Here is Maradona, marking two, Maradona steps on the ball. The genius of world football starts on the right. He could pass to Burruchaga, but it's always Maradona, genius, genius, genius, tatata, Goal, goal. I want to cry, Holy God, long live football. What a goal. Diegol. Maradona. It's enough to make you cry, forgive me. Maradona, in a memorable run, in the play of all time, cosmic kite, what planet did you come from to leave so many Englishmen behind? So the country is a clenched fist shouting for Argentina. Thank you, God. For football, for Maradona, for these tears. For this Argentina 2, England 0."
In the Azteca locker room, Maradona reflected like this, according to Crónica. "I'm sorry if we disappointed those who thought this match was a revenge for the Falklands. We thought of our compatriots, how they were experiencing this match. It wasn't just any match. It was a special one because of the circumstances we were living through."