Crime in Sports - #303 - If Michael Jordan Was Crazy... - The Transcendentness of Diego Maradona

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

This week, we look at a man who was once the most famous human being, on the planet Earth. He was a hero of his country, and many others, as well. Given godlike status by fans, all over the world, his soccer prowess was unmatched, but so was his ego, and passion for partying. Cocaine, ladies of the night, and plenty of mafioso friends led him down a path of excess that got him in trouble with police, on multiple continents, and destroyed his health. His legend is enormous, his list of mistakes is just as impressive!!Come from nowhere to be the greatest soccer player that exists, be rich & famous beyond dreams, as a teenager, and throw it all away, with no concern for health, or legacy with Diego Maradona!! Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!  Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman  Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail]  Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com  Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Discover all the best in audiobooks, podcasts, and originals featuring authentic Canadian voices and celebrity talent, like Brendan Fraser and Luke Kirby's latest sci-fi adventure, The Downloaded. A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, now available wherever you get your podcasts, you'll hear strange, dark, and mysterious stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. So go listen to Mr. Ballin Podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Crime and Sports! Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed.

My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another crazy edition of Crime and Sports, episode 303. We're stacking them up like crazy now. And this is one of the most requested ones we've had. So here we go. Oh yeah, this is a one of the most requested ones we've had so here we go yeah oh yeah this is a big one mainly internationally this has been the most internationally requested and really even americans too this has been just really requested we'll get into it quickly before we do that at the

start here i just want to say thank you for everything you've done your reviews are wonderful so whatever platform app you're listening on please please give us five stars. It does help a lot. Helps drive us up the charts. We wish we knew why, but we don't. Not our system. So head over to shutupandgivememurder.com today. Get all of your merchandise, tons of new shirts. We have the Shut Up and Give Me Murder coloring book there, the Small Town Murder coloring book.

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Fantastic. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all the bonus stuff in this week. No different. Good God, do we have a lot of good stuff for you. Anybody $5 or above, you get access to everything. That's crime and sports bonus, small town murder bonus. Anything we put out bonus, you are going to get it. This week we have for crime and sports,

we have an amazing story of this guy named L.W. Wright. He said that's what his name was. Showed up at a NASCAR race in like the late 70s, faked credentials, wasn't a race car driver, got in the race, crashed like five times, kept going, and then just disappeared for 40 years and no one ever knew who he was or what the hell happened. And then like a month ago, he came out and went, all right, I'll tell you the story. Here's what happened. And it's amazing. So we'll tell you all. We love a scammer and a came out and went, all right, I'll tell you the story. Here's what happened. And it's amazing. So we'll tell you all. We love a scammer and a schemer and a fraud here.

So that's going to be great. Then for small town murder, we're going to talk about a bunch of times throughout history, especially in the 80s. But it's persisted through the 90s and even pretty prevalent, even through today, like a variety radio station. We have pop culture has been blamed for murder whereas whether it's a video game caused somebody to do it or they heard a song that they just couldn't not murder when after they heard things like that we're gonna find out when pop culture's been blamed for shit that obviously didn't have any responsibility for so we'll talk about all of that and more patreon.com slash crime and sports and in addition to that of course course, you'll get your shout-out at the end of the show. Of course.

Where Jimmy's going to mispronounce your name because he can't read well. So it'll be a lot of fun. Well, he can't read names well. Anyway. I can't read well either. I was trying to give you some credit here, Jimmy. I was trying to say. I will not.

It's just names. I will not accept it. It's difficult this week, too, because you'd mess this guy's name up. Let's get into it. Like I said, one of the most requested we've ever had, Diego Maradona. All right. Let's get it on. Diego Armando Maradona Jr., as a matter of fact.

Oh, he's a junior right out of the gate. Of course he's a junior. This is a little streak. Ray McDonald last week, also a junior. So we're cooking with juniors over here. He's born October 30th, 1960, Maradona. And now, first of all, to the international listeners, as we say that, like, but people outside of the United States, they know who this guy is. They know all of his exploits, what he's about. People in the United States have no – I know it's hard to understand that the rest of the 5 billion, 6 billion people in the world really know somebody and we're like, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. But it's actually true here. I can't express this enough to you. People here don't know anything.

No. They've never heard of him. Never once. No go Pele played soccer right like we don't know shit about soccer I literally know seven soccer players yeah people in this in in the United States know like a few players from the Olympic women's team that's what we know we don't know that's all we know we don't know anything right so this guy though internationally is so famous this guy is like it's like michael jordan divided by mike tyson would be the best way to to put it like the most talent and also the biggest fuck up you could imagine like you know really wayne gretzky and J.R. Ryder. If you if you put them in a blender, you get this guy. I swear to God, you'd get him.

Terrific. It's a really bad combination. So let's get into it here. Here's something from the Houston Chronicle that they wrote about Maradona. Just to give you an idea of who he is, because there's Americans and gave a shit. Yeah. It's this guy was trying to put it in perspective for American readers how big he is. And I think this is the best way you can put it for the Americans to listen. To understand the gargantuan shadow Maradona casts over his football-mad homeland,

one has to conjure up the athleticism of Michael Jordan, the power of Babe Ruth, and the human fallibility of Mike Tyson. Lump them together in a single barrel-chested man with shaggy black hair and you have El Diego, idle to millions who call him D10S, a mashup of his playing number and the Spanish word for God, Dios. What? D10S, Dios. Get it?

God of soccer. They call him God soccer god yeah that's what i mean you can't explain how insanely huge this guy is he's that big there and that big just in soccer we'll talk about it when he goes to italy it's like uh it's fucking crazy like he he they have a giant they fill a stadium full of people not even to watch him play just to introduce him it's crazy so we'll talk about he didn't create that somebody else did that's the fucking unbelievable part about it somebody else connected the dios part oh this isn't floyd mayweather like doing shit on so this is right a guy who they just deified because he was amazing just incredible and came through in the clutch and also is one of the most like imagine if like you know literally michael jordan retired from basketball you know because he had some problems and we'll say like the gambling scandals were bigger than they were and shit like that. And then just went off into just a path of debauchery and coke and, you know, women and just I mean, he's into the women and all that and was for a long time.

But I mean, without the coke and all this shit and getting arrested, it's just insane. So he was born here. First of all, he is the there was four sisters before him. He's the first son, the fifth child. Oh, that's why he got the junior tag. He got the junior, and then he's got two brothers after him. So they had four girls, then three boys. And not wealthy people.

Let's just say that they had uh they cut they came from the countryside to the from the corrientes province uh into near buenos aires argentina the outskirts here uh via fierito uh they moved to to just looking for work they were countryside people that came there's no money there's no food yeah so they just came where people were to work and uh started this family and father was a factory worker and everything like that his mother uh dalma everybody calls her donatota for some reason i don't know uh she um said that when her son was baptized. Yeah.

Okay, now I'm going to tell you why she's so grandiose here. When her son was baptized, she saw a star reflected on the floor of the church. Oh, stop this. And imagined the bright future that it was calling for her son as an accountant. That's what she said. He was chosen. He was chosen to be the best accountant on the planet. She said he's going to be an accountant sitting in an office doing work,

and that's the stuff. From the heavens, they're going to shine down to say. It has been written. This boy shall find tax loops for rich people. That's what he shall do. All hail the majestic begotten child CPA.

I bequeath upon thee an adding machine. There. And an extra receipt roll. There you are. Now you're on your own. Unbelievable. That is fucking amazing. His mother, though uh is actually italian so

okay argentina by the way south america tons of italian people in south america tons yeah during mussolini and world war ii when the nazis were occupying for a long time italian people left in droves and there were certain times when they weren't when uh let's just say america said all full on the guineas thanks no thanks anymore of you guys enough where you had to have like family here to get here like yeah my great grandfather officially he had gone back and forth but he officially came here in 1930. Okay. Didn't get the rest of his family.

This is Italian grandma and her brother, sisters, and mother. Didn't get them here until 1947. 17 years? It took 17 years to get his family here, dude. Think about that. Think about that. 17 fucking years. And he waited.

What is this? The Italian notebook? He had to go back and forth. He went on the ship. He would knock her up and fucking have another kid, and they'd name it after the ship that he came over on. I swear to God. That's why my grandmother's name was Loida, because the ship's name was the Lloyd something, so they named her Loida. Shit you not.

And then he'd go back here, and he had to finally finally because you have to have a certain amount of money a certain amount of all this shit to be able to get people over here and then he finally brought everybody here and my grandmother's brother when they got to ellis island there he was uh he was uh well he was sick they sent him back is that right oh yeah they said he was like 10 they sent him back so the whole thing was like, bye. And he never came. He lived in Italy forever. I met him in like the 80s.

He came over here. Yeah, I don't know. I tried. I got there. They sent me back. I said, I'm not doing it again. That's it. He was, well, yeah, then it was a whole other thing to get him over here.

It's a long fucking trip. Well, it was a big deal to be able to get him over here was the problem. So, yeah, it was a hard deal. So in South America, I want to say is it venezuela i believe i think it's venezuela uh that has the second most italian people outside of italy in the whole world so it's well it makes sense too because that the language is an easy gap to bridge and you can just get through life pretty pretty simply i mean you just got to know where shit is back in the like in the 40s and 50s like when they said latin that meant yeah south america italian spanish portuguese that's what latin was that's what that was that encompassed and then at some point in the

60s 70s it was they just dropped off anybody well if you're european you're not latin now so it was a one of those things but it was from the latin language bases that's what the whole point was anyway meanwhile like greek and roman spoke that shit didn't they what spanish latin latin yeah yeah yeah that's i mean that's why it was there that whole this anything south of of a certain area that were okay yeah or break offs of the latin language were considered latin and then for some reason they they started to get picky about it yeah anything in that riviera riviera riviera the riviera anywhere in that riviera right that's what i was oh in this my brain my brain refused to say Riviera. I thought you were saying Riviera. It was like in the Riviera. The Riviera-ium. That's fucking hilarious.

Ah, Christ. So he's going to have a bright future as an accountant. Absolutely here. Add it up, sir. Oh, he's going to do it from the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires here. He's got younger brothers, Hugo and Ra raul both of whom were also professional football players so yeah it's uh it's you know it's it runs in the family and and argentina i mean that's the national game so you get a soccer ball everybody wants to be a soccer player his dad

worked in a chemicals factory which i'm sure a chemicals factory in Argentina in the 50s was probably really safe and you didn't get any harmful effects from those chemicals at all to your body, I'm sure, right? In America, I think all our OSHA rules, we just adopted Argentina's safety protocols. From chemical plants in the 50s, yeah. But he lived to be 88, so he didn't do too bad. Yeah, not too shabby somehow. He must have been

a tough son of a bitch. So he was of indigenous and Spanish descent. He was part Basque and part Guarani. So of descent there. And his mother was Italian. So he's very,

he's got a lot of different things. Very olive skinned. Yeah. He's got Spanish, Italian, and indigenous Argentinian so uh he started he basically got a soccer ball before he was three and was obsessed with it slept with it you know that was his jam that's all he cared about um he played in by 1973 here he's playing in like juniors and all this shit, but we'll get to that in a second here. His youth coach said of him, quote,

When Diego came to Argentinos Juniors for trials, I was really struck by his talent and couldn't believe he was only eight years old. Imagine having a talent for something at eight. It's horny for that kid. Wow. He said, in fact, we asked him for his id card so we could check it but he told us he didn't have it on him we were sure he was having us on because although he had the physique of a child he played like an adult when we discovered he'd been telling us the truth we decided to dedicate ourselves or we decided to devote ourselves purely to him wow he's he's a

prodigy that's the thing like from a young age well the documentary that's made about him is the third in a series of child prodigies that the guy's making one's about amy winehouse one's about somebody else a race car driver he's got so this guy's considered like you know he's like fucking mozart or something like he's a a soccer prodigy he doesn't they're like it's an he's 10 times better than all the other kids. Didn't believe he was eight, and then we asked for his ID. And wouldn't you know it, an eight-year-old didn't have an ID. Eight-year-old with his ID.

Hold on. Let me get my driver's license quick. I got it suspended for a Dewey, but I keep it on me just in case, you know, somebody needs to see how old I am. You know what I mean? I guess it's a good way to catch somebody in a lie. You're eight. Show me your ID.

Look, I'll prove it. Wait, what? Why would you have an id if you're right why do you have an identification what's going on that's fucking girl let me give you my army draft papers here you go so they were a close family very poor though chemical factory seven kids not exactly you know not exactly uh it's a tough start. It's a tough start. So he was first spotted by a scout at age eight. That's when they found him and wanted his ID. And he became, he got on the Los Cebolitas team, the Little Onions is their team.

Is that what that is? Yeah, the Little Onions. Gross. The junior team of little stinky kids. That's all I picture. A little smelly bastard. Well, after soccer, soccer too everybody would be stinky because you're running a lot yeah you ever smell the hockey team afterwards it's the grossest thing you'll ever smell in your life i got a i got a son who doesn't do shit and he always stinks yeah it just happens um as a 12 year old ball boy he would show off to the spectators by doing ball tricks at halftime in the adult games.

He'd do crazy, like, kicking the balls routines that the crowd would watch. That was the halftime show. Here's this little kid kicking a ball around, and he was good. So, yeah, at 10, he joined the Los Sebelitas team. That's the youth team of Argentinian juniors and one of the biggest teams in argentina sure and they said that he was so good he led them to 136 game winning streak or unbeaten what not winning there's some ties i guess in soccer 136 136 game unbeaten streak unbeaten while he was on the team. Yeah. Dominating.

He will end up making his professional debut for the senior team before his 16th birthday. Awesome. Just a fucking prodigy. Yeah, so at age 10, he was signed up by the, like I said, the Argentinian junior football team, which he took to the first division during his first full season in 76 at 16 they called him fiorito he's from via fiorito so that's probably another reason but which means in bloom okay so he's a little onion in bloom he's a little blooming onion there he is it's going to be delicious by outback yeah dip him in that's that weird fucking sauce i don't know what the hell it is chipotle mayo ranch i don't know what the hell it is. Chipotle mayo ranch.

I don't know what it is. It's got red shit in it, paprika or something. It's fucking tasty. You dip shit in it. He's very happy. Chipotle mayo horseradish. That's it. That's what he uses for hair gel.

So October 20th, 1976, he plays his first match in the argentine with the juniors here against jesus christ talaris de cordoba uh 10 days before his 16th birthday so he comes in and he wore number 16 was his number then so not bad you know he's like i'm 16 i'll be number 16 they said that uh uh well we'll talk about uh they they immediately compare him to Pele. Because at the time, Pele is the biggest guy in the world. So that's immediately, what is he going to be as good as Pele? Still is. One guy said, this is a sports writer, quote,

What happened to Maradona could not have happened to Pele. It's a symptom of the absurdity of the money that has come into the game of turning its players into pop stars. OK. That's the other thing. Does it blame cash? This is the first. This would be like the difference between, you know, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds, you would say. Like, oh, well.

I guess that's blaming free agency and money. It's money. It's saying that they're turning to it turn turn them into these crazy rock stars rather than they always say that about the nfl because they say but i mean the guys if there's billions of dollars being made they deserve the cut of the billions of dollars but they say like you know back in the day the guys in the nfl used to live they used to live in blue collar neighborhoods at normal that three three bedroom two bath houses next door to guys who came to the to the games.

You know what I mean? So it was a much different thing, whereas now it's all totally different. There are stars now. Oh, yeah. You don't live anywhere near Troy Aikman. No, that's what I mean. You can't get near his games. His electrified fence is nowhere near your house, trust me. Or mine or Jimmy's or anybody else's right so it's a different

different level of shit here so it makes sense though he said maradona was offered six hundred thousand dollars by coca-cola when he was only 16 that's six hundred thousand dollars in 1976 money yeah which today is three million thirty one1,676.63. It is five times more money now than in the 70s? In 1976, yeah. Wow. 76, yeah. We had our, was it 81 was our biggest year of inflation through that time.

So it was building up to that point, inflating since like 73. 72 is when it started, and then it went into like the early 80s. 600 grand. 600 grand. 600 grand, though. So that's a shitload of money when you're 60. He's dancing. The guy said, and it never stopped. Here, he was offered as much as he wanted.

He just named a figure, and of course, he always said yes. It brought out his weakness and his loneliness. It caused his fall. So we'll talk about that they want to blame money huh they want to blame too fast too soon type of thing which okay to go from nothing to being extremely wealthy at 16 is a lot yeah you got to have your head on really straight to not lose your mind at that you know think about how great how much ego would you have if someone gave you three million dollars for anything when you were 16 because of something you did like you'd be out of control

oh i'd be broke because my parents would have stolen it from me but that's the other point too it's like he's not in control of his money right he is this isn't the united states this is fucking argentina he's 16 this is he's a pro he's out there this is his money right he is this isn't the united states this is fucking argentina he's 16 this is he's a pro he's out there this is his money unbelievable so yeah he would have been i'd be a disaster at that age oh my god i had no money and i was a disaster at that age imagine if i was rich i could have financed all my fucking bullshit that i wanted to do holy crap forget financing i'd pay for it all in cash and then be broke. That's the other problem, too. Yeah.

Because I'm of the mindset of being scared to death of owing anything to anybody because I'm always afraid that they're going to take it from me. Okay. Yeah, well, that makes sense. I'm horrified. Well, if you owe it, then yeah, eventually you're going to have to give it, right? No, I mean, I'm afraid they're going to take back whatever I've financed. I'm just scared to death of that.

I've seen zero evidence of this ever happening unless you don't pay for it. And I have all the intention in the world paying for it. Yeah, sign a contract with them. And part of that is I'll pay you this and you let me keep that. They're not just going to be like, we don't like you anymore. We're taking this back. That's what I'm afraid of. Wow.

Is that how far the self-loathing goes to the point where you think a finance company's computer understands that you're a douchebag and they're going to fucking take your car back because of it? Talk about that with your therapist. That's the next subject. Be like, this is how deep it goes. It's like a tooth. It looks like it's just on the gums but that root is to your asshole you understand me i am scared to death that i will lose everything and i've paid a bunch of money into it and now i don't get to have it that is

hilarious that is a very very i've seen nobody in my life in my personal like close to me it's never affected me all bills will have always been paid wow but i see famous people lose shit and i'm just like not gonna be me i'll buy cheap shit that they can't take from me not me i'll be miserable till i die then they can fucking then someone else can take it yeah let it be somebody else's problem that's how my racist nan lived like that nothing just fucking cheap as shit i'm gonna die with everything okay great but i don't have anything no no no but whatever you have you're gonna die with clutching all of it clutching your white knuckled corpse will be fucking clutching away from me bank of america you can't have it that's hilarious

a little bit so at 16 though that would just be like oh and i'm the greatest i'll be and everyone's telling you like you're the anointed thing. Right. You know. So in 77, May 27, 77, he plays his first match with Argentina's national team against Hungary. He does not. He's not on the 1978 World Cup team. He's left off the team, which pisses a lot of people off because they think he could do it. But the coach, Cesar Monati, said that he didn't include him on the list because he

said that he was too young to handle the pressures. Thought he was a little too young for it. He's got 600 grand, $3 million in my money, but he can't play? Yeah, he doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to get through the World Cup, apparently. In 1978, though, he is the top goal scorer of the league he's in here. Wow. He's apparently really good, but they're like, you know what, just too young, which is a dumb thing. In 1979, he's the top goal scorer of the league he's in here.

He's the top goal scorer of the national team as well. He is the world champion with Argentina in the Youth World Cup. They win that in 79. He wins the Olympia de Oro, which is the best Argentine football player of the year. He is chosen by FIFA, the international organization there. Yeah, the big body. As the best player of the year in he is chosen by fifa the you know international organization there yeah the big body as the best player of the year in south america and he receives i don't know who he receives this from i don't know maybe it came like the star from the church ceiling i'm not sure receives the quote gold ball as the best player of the moment for how long is a moment who gives out the gold ball man that's what i want

to know shadowy figure do they gold is that what they do i don't know if it's a gold it's for a moment how long is the moment of the moment i don't that's not a year that's not a know what it might be whenever they start making the ball yeah by the time they get to like engraving it with a name who's the guy right now right now and you tell him all right engrave it engrave it by the time he gets it could be over but he's by the time we finish his name we're starting a new ball it could be over but he's getting this ball he's the player of that moment that we've chosen as the moment of engraving that's what it is the gold ball that is hilarious i just i want to know the shadowy figure who who fucking dulls the gold ball so uh 1980 he is the top goal scorer of the

league and the national team as well and again chosen by fifa as the best player of the year in South America. Awesome. From 76 to 80 in the Argentino junior team, in 166 matches, he scored 116 goals. That's a shit load. That's unbelievable. That's an amazing fucking ratio. That's incredible. Incredible. Wow.

He skulls gores. He skulls gores. He skulls gores. He skulls the gores, right? Skulls the gores. That's so many goals in 166 matches. That's ridiculously high. Wow. That's what I mean.

That's like Gretzky kind of numbers, soccer-wise. It's crazy. How do we not know who this guy is how do you know what i mean how does that not how does that not excitement not get into american culture you mean when you were a kid watching monday night soccer on abc it's this this never came up that's why i guess because they didn't have hank williams singing the singing the fucking anthem for sunday night or monday night night soccer. Monday night soccer. Are you ready for some football?

It's a bunch of little Spanish guys. They're kicking balls and running all around. I don't understand the shit they're doing. Oh, the score is one to nothing. Maybe it'll be a tie. All my rowdy friends are sleeping on Monday night. That's what it would have been in America. That's what.

Scores one to nothing. It might be a tie. Yeah, that tie is a motherfucker. Maybe that's all it is. Well, I mean, if they guaranteed a victor, maybe we'd watch. It didn't work for hockey. Hockey's at its lowest watching point in history, if they guaranteed a victor, maybe we'd watch. It didn't work for hockey. Hockey's at its lowest watching point in history, and they have a winner. Yeah, but their finish is fucking dumb.

It's stupid. We play a whole game, and then let's just scrap that at the end and have a whole different game. It's a whole different game. Why don't you just play a whole fucking game of slap shots at each other? Maybe we'll watch that. It's just dumb. Weird ninth grade gym class exercise. If you come up with a good solution, yeah, if it's something each other. Maybe we'll watch that. It's just dumb. Weird ninth grade gym class exercise. If you come up with a good solution, yeah, if it's something that's exciting,

we'll watch. If it's competitive. I think the field is too big. This is what I'm, okay. It really is big. For, and I'm just saying for the American audience of what our eye is used to seeing, we're used to seeing burst sports.

Basketball, fast break burst boom baseball is slow but it's run base to base is fast yeah home run is fast you know what i mean pitch is fast football a lot of waiting waiting waiting but once the play happens it's it's an explosion of chaos yeah okay soccer at its best is happening at a lava pace. You know what I mean? The guys are moving fast in context, but on that giant field, it's like a NASCAR race. It doesn't look like they're driving 200 miles an hour because they're all driving 200 miles an hour.

Some of those kicks, that ball goes 50 fucking yards, 80 yards, but it looks like it goes 20 feet. Okay, I have an idea to fix this. It's my same idea for NASCAR, but for soccer in nascar i want one regular like lady driving to work in the morning in the mix so you could

see how fast everybody's going every once in a while cut to her car as they go for your own buyer and she goes oh god oh jesus christ holy shit jesus in a little corolla doing doing doing 65 around the track all the way in the right lane going, holy shit, every time they pass. That's what I want here. One middle-aged fat man in the middle of the field trying to keep up with the ball, falling over, holding his pants up and shit. One on each team. And we would really see how quick this game is moving and how amazing these athletes are.

Or shrink the fucking field because it's so big. Yeah, that's the other thing. And they have indoor soccer here, which is a little more, I think that's pretty popular because of that. And it makes it a little more fast-paced. It certainly is a lot of fun. But then you mix the hockey angle in and people are getting boarded. And that is not easy to take, man. That fucking hurts.

I'm not wearing hockey pads. That's true. You just blast tiny me into a chain link fence and boards. It hurts. And on skates, you can achieve a speed quickly that's faster than you can running. So that's the other thing. And there's the matter of a hockey puck being hit over 120 miles an hour at people, which is also pretty frightening. That's mad dense.

Yeah. The wait is over. So far, you're not losing. the only thing you're losing is my patience quickly i see that the queen of the courtroom is back i didn't do anything you wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face i see he's not intimidated by anything anything I can fix that new cases she wanted to fight me leave her a low okay so not this is not a so this is a period classic Judy did you sleep with her yes your honor you married his cousin his brother that's not him yes ma'am I would make a beeline for the door the Emmy award-winning series returns.

How did I know that? I have a crystal ball in my head. It's an all-new season. It's streaming. You can say anything. Judy Justice, only on Freebie. If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia.

But that's okay. I am here for you. I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting you to listen to my new podcast, WikiHole, from Smartless Media. Discover the craziest rabbit holes on Wikipedia with me and my funny friends as we bring the cyber frontier directly to your tympanic membrane.

And if you listen to my podcast, you'd learn that that's the sciency term for eardrum. We embark on a hyperlink roller coaster as we start out on a Wikipedia page and go from link to link to link to link, careening through trivia, oddities, and unexpected connections until we collectively shout, how the hell did we get here? Follow WikiHole on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. So, soccer, that's the thing. What they're doing is amazing.

I can't do it. The stamina it takes is incredible and the skill it takes and the speed it takes. It's so much running. That's what it is. But it's hard to appreciate that when they're in the middle of the field kicking it up. He took it. Now he passes it over here. Now he runs 40 feet.

That's really hard to watch. And then he gets the ball stolen and they go back 40 yards the other way. And I get that if you grew up with soccer, you would see the play they're setting up and be like, okay, he's going here just like in basketball. And the Bulls would get in a half-court offense in the 90s in that triangle and you'd see it setting up. And, oh, here's Pippen on the cut. Boom, there's an easy layup. I think that's what they're doing.

But if you don't know the game, it doesn't quite register the same way. So it's our fault is what we're saying here so we're dumb sorry we're idiots what do you want from us sorry so uh and soccer's not like uh basketball or football where you can't just have a stationary camera watch it the camera fucking has to pivot to watch this whole fucking game it really does yeah it really does it's a it's everywhere it's all over the place and, and it's a big field, and the guys look little on the big field even though they're huge. On a basketball court, you can see how big the guys are

because also the fans are right on the side of the court, so you can see how much bigger they are than them. Football, there's pads. They look huge. They look like giant gladiators. These guys are in shorts running around on the grass, so it doesn't give you the same understanding of how

impressive it is of what they're doing. And if you zoom out to see the whole field, you can't even see the players. Oh no. Let alone the ball. No, it's just all little specks running around, little specks of dust people. Just, oh I see a little person. There's a little

red jersey running. There he goes. It just looks like a little person oh there's a little you know there's a little red jersey running there he goes and there's it just looks like a little you know like it's a fascinating sport though it really is it is i i i want i want to soccer highlights are amazing yeah it's like hockey highlights if you condense that seven hour game into fucking three minutes it's incredible and i really want to see what happened but i it's lightning yeah it's lightning but man that's a big bottle you know it's a big old fucking bottle it's hard for me to really shake it up and take a swig they're the they're the small clips that brad pitt of put of porn in movies uh in fight club that's what it is yeah the one frame so fast it's fast so the 82 world cup um argentina was beaten one to nothing by belgium uh apparently maradona had a free kick

and hit the bar hit the goals bar oh and um they really trashed him for that pretty good they made fun of him for For missing eight inches. Three inches down would have been amazing, and he's a hero, and we're having a parade. But, you know, hey, Scott Norwood, ask him what that's like. Yeah. You know, two feet wide right, you're the biggest piece of shit in the history of your sport. Two feet over, biggest hero ever. Most clutch he would have played until he was 60 if he wanted to.

He's clutch. to he's clutch the guy's clutch i mean or the opposite side justin tuck just broke the field goal record by literally fucking two inches if you missed if it's if he's got two inches less of power on that ball it doesn't hit the crossbar and go in but because he did and it goes in and now he's he's in the record books that's how it works man that's life life is a fucking game of inches everything it is i mean shit how many times have you heard i've heard this a million times like back in the day there'd be the just for laughs festival in montreal where people would be found comics and you know some producer walked out of the room missed this guy's

entire set because he had to go take a shit because they ate some weird lunch or something next guy up was this guy who the guy wasn't even there to see and oh well he had a big show and he made 10 million dollars and this guy was working cruise ships still the other guy who you know shit guy yeah so that's happened all the time it's a game of inches there's nothing to do with uh shit a lot of times so um later on in the tournament argentina went to face italy and um they i guess they were really beating the shit out of him through this whole tournament they were really beating maradona up he's only five five by the way yeah he's a little tiny guy so was he 17 at this point he's well at this point he's 22 but okay he's still a little guy and they're you know bigger teams beat the shit out of him.

And one of the players that would beat him up all the time said to the reporters, quote, football is not for ballerinas. That's true. So I think that's where Jim Ross got his wrestling. It's not ballet. Guys get hurt. That's what he always says. So I think that's where he got it from. He stole it from this guy.

So Maradona had been fouled 23 times over the course of this tournament. They fouled him a lot here. So anyway, in 82, he became one of the biggest sports stars going. He had all these endorsements by then. Puma sponsors him. He's still got a huge Coke deal in in more ways than one as we'll get into oh coca-cola cola for now uh he was earning about a million and a half dollars a year on top of his salary which was also very big oh boy in 1982 money a million and a half dollars so

there was 12 billion dollars today 12 gajillion dollars there was no i don't think there was an nfl player making a million and a half dollars in in 82 in 82 i really don't know and that's that's a fact so yeah that says a lot here um he was featured in a world cup commercial for coca-cola he did a japanese commercial for puma i mean he's doing a commercial in japan that's how well known he is awesome in the world uh late 1982 uh here he's got all sorts of shit going on he he's got he really starts to party a lot this this really comes out a lot here he's partying he's fucking doing all sorts of crazy shit he's because he's in a good. He's embracing his international superstar is what he's doing. Hell yeah.

He's having a good time with it. He's an adult. And we're talking international. He's going to every continent there is, partying it up with the most famous people because all the stars want to meet him. When he goes to a country, their biggest stars want to hang out with him and shit like that.

So he's making all sorts of friends. So this is when he was playing for barcelona here um in 82 83 for barcelona in 58 matches he has 38 goals unreal really really really good the in 83 they win the copa del rey with barcelona which is a giant it's a big deal it's a big spanish tournament thing i looked it up it actually it is a big deal over there they go crazy for that shit so it was a big deal i had never heard of it before like i should at least cross my lips i should at least google this and know what the fuck this is i guess uh all the different madrid these different teams so they've won the most of them and I believe, and it goes down from there. Real Madrid?

Yeah, yeah. So the new coach of this team, a new coach comes in to Argentina, and his name is Lou Manetti, Louie Manetti. And they call him El Flaco, the slim one. So he had to move the training sessions for the team to the afternoons and evenings. Why is that? Well, to the press, he cited the players' quote, bio rhythms. This is in 83. They sleep in late?

Well, it's actually Maradona parties till five in the morning. Yeah, of course. Basically, if we want Maradona to come to practice which we do because he's our best player we have to hold them in the afternoon and evenings otherwise he's not going to show up and uh that's that he wants to work second shift on practice so that he can party all night what do we need to come in early for what are we talking about here what's the difference we need coffee no stop it we'll ease ourselves and we'll get there about two we'll start kicking the ball around gently about 245 i'll hedge away around one whenever

i get there i get there it's it's one of those things so funny he's fucking partying his balls off he then gets in a full-on brawl including kneeing a downed man in the face and knocking him out cold during a game. Oh, boy. A melee takes place, a huge brawl in Spain here. Unfortunately, King Juan Carlos I happened to be in the stands, and he saw the whole thing and basically didn't want this guy in Spain anymore. You come at the king, you best not kick, Jimmy. That's the way it works. Were they deport him?

They just saw, basically, he was going to be gone from the team, from Spain. They're going to sell him off and be done with him from then on. You can't knock people out with your knees. No, he did that, and he was kicking people. He flew through the air with a kung fu kick. It was pretty crazy pretty crazy my friend what you do for a living is kick a ball you've probably got some really strong legs oh yeah yeah this this is a silly brawl too i mean when you see it it's like it looks like a movie like oh let's have a funny brawl in a soccer game where a guy

you know tries to kung fu and kick another guy through the fucking air you know it's really silly bicycle kicking everybody it's like basketball on a soccer field it's a real mess so yeah that was it you can't do that with the king in the stands you know this is no the king will have a problem with that that's a proof you're in a king country you really got to worry about shit like that so in in 1983, he's back in Argentina. He hurts himself here. Some guy breaks his left ankle and tears a ligament in his ankle, too. Oh, shit. He's hurt for a while.

in the papers and all the media that the reason why the team practices in the afternoon and evenings is because Maradona goes out all night drinks fuck starlets and does coke off their tits that's why literally so they're like we awesome we have gotta we can't have this so it's a big national embarrassment not Maradona they don't blame him they blame the coach they blame the team they blame the facilitators so yeah the silver-haired fucking middle-aged white men is what they're blaming here of crime and sports lore. And so they end up saying, we're done with you. They sell him. Oh. As in soccer, as you know, you can sell people.

They sell him to Napoli. So they sell him to Italy. They sell him to another continent. That's one thing. If you're in the NFL, they can sell you they sell him to another continent that's one thing if you're in the NFL they can sell you but not to another continent they can't say we sold you to you know North Vietnam we sold you across a

fucking ocean we sold you to Laos so you're gonna go there now what we are they own you so he's gonna go to to Napoli. He's going to play in Naples, Italy. And June 1984, he shows up. Now, when he shows up, they have 80,000 people in the stands, all paying money to see him.

They literally showed up, not to watch him play, just to have him come they literally showed up sold out not not to watch him play just to have him come out and wave the season hasn't even started yet it was the unveiling of him the unveiling of maradona drew 80 000 paid spectators to a stadium sold it out to watch him wave yeah sold it out to say hi hi yeah holy shit how. That's how insane they were. We got the best player in the world. Oh, my God. They were so happy. From now on, that's what we do at our live shows.

That's how you do it right there. 80,000. We come out. We wave. And the people are genuinely excited to see it. They're not even disappointed. You people better be so thrilled. They're not even disappointed.

That's the thing. They didn't leave and go, oh, that's all he's going to do is wave. They were like, I saw him. I saw him in person. They were excited to see him. I saw him wave. Jesus, Ken. He's fucking, stop being so easily impressed.

Yeah. So as we'll talk about Napoli, though, Naples is known for, okay, in the Italian, I don't know how well known this is throughout the world or whatever, but in the Italian community, we'll say, nobody likes Napolitan people. That's the thing. Because they don't like anybody else. Napolitan people, they hate fucking southern Italian people, number one. They hate them. So they're considered, you could be from anywhere else in the world, you're considered above

a southern Italian person. Like Sicilians, those ones? South me they're not me that meaning me south of them southern italian sicily sicily southern italy the whole southern italy anywhere where it's less blonde and you know blue-eyed and shit like that those are the trash people down there so okay that naples is kind of known for that It's known for being kind of an uppity. Back then, especially. I don't know about now, but back then it's known for that kind of shit. So you got to keep that in mind here.

He earned in Naples $7 million a year. Wow. Starting in 1984. Holy shit. No American athletes were making $7 million a year. $7 million? None. None.

Not even close to that. I mean, that's well above and beyond anything you can think of. $7 million a year. That's a very fuck anybody in my house kind of invitation, really. Pretty much, yeah. Do whatever you want here we don't care mikasa you know what i mean enter at will that's what the seven million is seven million and oh that's not it though that was just for playing that was his salary then on top of

that he made he had sponsorships for you know coke and puma hitachi another five million in sponsorships of dildos yeah yeah only built giant dildos they sell really well in south america you have no i south america italy very ahead of their time there in 84 he got dildos and coca-cola dildos and coke money that's pretty wild and puma diddling himself drinking a coke wearing some pumas so what did hitachi pay him it's five million the whole all of his sponsorships were another five million a year he was making 12 million a year in sponsorship and salary in 84 85 86 that's obscene he's making more money than michael j fox oh back then yeah absolutely he's making more money than Michael J. Fox. Oh, back then? Yeah, absolutely. He's making more money than most people.

Yeah. Wow. That's crazy shit. In 1984, there was a poll from IMG, which was whatever back then, a worldwide poll. He is named by them. They do this poll every year. They did it back then. The best known person in the world. In the world.

In the world. The best, the highest the world. In the world. In the world. Hitler, Jesus, Maradona. The highest Q rating in the world in 1984. What the hell? Think about that. That's fucking bonkers. Americans never heard of you. He could have walked down the street in any American city

and nobody would look twice at him. No. In New York, they'd have told me get the fuck out of the way no in america they'd be like oh it's a five five like uh you know dude speak in spanish and they'd be like do you work here do are you are you bringing me food in the 80s they wouldn't even have thought you know he must work here he doesn't speak english very well even a thought you know he must work here he doesn't speak english very well wow so yeah otherwise though that's amazing the most famous well-known person in the world so here comes the 1986 world cup okay this is the this is the thing he's most well known for in a career of things he's well known for here so it's in mexico and uh he's obviously playing

for argentina in 86 so it's from june 22nd to 29th he's in a game against england okay um here um and the there's a huge crazy play here here. Basically, they're down 1-0 to England at this point in the World Cup. And, you know, that's a big, it might be a tie. It's a big thing. They're running a play down toward England's goal, okay? And it goes, they're on, I guess, facing the goal. I don't know if it's like basketball. It probably is.

They're coming down the right side. They center kind of toward the middle. Ball gets kicked kind of up in the air in kind of like a jump ball situation. Oh, boy. Right at the line of to where like the goalie box is there. I don't know what that is. Is that the crease? We'll call it the crease like hockey.

So right as you enter the crease there, he goes up and he gets higher than the english guy next to him and i mean it looks like he heads the ball and it goes in and they score the goal and tie the game okay so he obviously goes bat shit the crowd goes bat shit i mean it's the most it's a header goal but it's awesome to tie a game it's exciting problem is all the english guys immediately are just holding their arm up tapping their arm going no no no no no no no no punch that in yeah there's a fucking english guy looking like he's going to murder a referee there's a referee walking backwards with this english guy in his face holding his arm going and he's fucking losing his shit like you just said i'm gonna finger the queen

i mean he went nuts how many times did he call him a cunt oh he lost you know like we always the english are known for their decorum or whatever he lost all sense of that he went italian like that and was like you motherfucker i'll fucking cut your balls off i'll shove them in your kids fucking eye sockets that's what i'm gonna do to do. And I'm going to take your kids' eyeballs and I'm going to sew them into your nutsack so you never forget what I fucking did to you. He's doing shit like that. Freaking out, right? So it's known as the hand of God goal later on.

I saw the replay a hundred times. I mean, it's 1986, so the footage isn't wonderful. But you can see it comes i went off his fucking hand i mean there's no he went up to head it saw he wasn't gonna head it so he like kind of went with his head and his fist all at the same time and he just kind of punched it in to where if the ref was behind him he might and they're at a lower angle because he's up you wouldn't have seen it you would have just saw his head and the ball fly. And that level of soccer, you imagine that guy knows what he's doing.

There's no way he just punched that. And he flails like that. You go, wow, what a play. That's the thing. And he's the best player in the world. So you're like, that must have been amazing. He wouldn't have done that with his hands. So that ties it 1-1, a paul over all the proceedings i mean english the english people to this day say i can't look at an

argentine jersey the guys on that team because i feel cheated still from that these guys weren't even there no no the guys on that team said i can't even look at that that country's jerseys because i feel cheated still you know 35 years later the thing is though apparently it's so funny he would never admit that he punched it either he would never admit it he would never admit it and uh despite they were show him the replays to show the frozen of his hand on the ball he insisted instead that quote the hand of god had guided the ball into the net that's why it's known as the hand of god play because he said the hand of god guided it not my fist the hand of god otherwise known as my fist yeah so does he mean that god reached down and intervened in this game

or is he in fact calling himself god i think he's yeah god came through him yeah and so you can't call a foul on god so if he's infallible so obviously if he punched it that means that god wanted that to happen so clearly it's a goal you know what i mean right you get it okay wow so it stood so um the thing it yeah, because they didn't reach it. I don't think there was instant replay back then. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. So at the same time during all of this, later on, a few minutes later with the score tied 1-1, he takes the ball from end to end, cuts through everybody, and scores a fucking goal anyway.

Wow. I mean, yeah. He scores a dominating goal where it's it's known as one of the best goals in world cup history like literally one way or another england wasn't winning that game yeah so at the very least that game was going to be a fucking one one at that point so you know they should have stopped him after that so that that that made it less shitty because they were showing that so it was like well you could have stopped him there and you know sometimes in football games that's how i feel too because when they're when somebody That made it less shitty because they were showing that. So it was like, well, you could have stopped him there.

And, you know, sometimes in football games that's how I feel too because when somebody ties up a game and you're like, well, that point shouldn't have counted or whatever, and then they come back down and score again anyway. It's like, I mean, one way or another, that team was not winning today. They were being dominated. It's not going well. Now, granted, I don't know what kind of mood that put the english team in sure yeah getting a ball punched in the goal on you yeah or what

kind of mood that puts diego in where he's like i'm fucking invincible the kind of mood where you feel like god is working through your body parts and extremities i think that's uh that's a pretty exalted state there. It's a nice place to be. It ain't bad. Yeah. So 1986, they end up beating, I believe, what is it, West Germany in the finals, 3-2, and they win the World Cup. Champions. Champions. On the hand of God.

From the hand of God has given them the World Cup, Jimmy. Wow. The hand of God. From the hand of God has given them the World Cup, Jimmy. Wow. The hand of God. He wins his second Olympia d'Oro as the best Argentine football player of the year. He is named Distinguished Citizen by the city of Buenos Aires as well. He's the best citizen and the best soccer player. He's a cheater. He's also, he's a cheater, but that's fine.

Now, this is silly because it should have been isotone or giving this award out he receives i don't know what happened to the golden ball but it's been set aside by the golden shoe he receives the golden shoe from adidas as the best footballer of the year he should have gotten a golden glove though i believe yeah for punching the ball and They should have given him an actual golden glove. There you go. That's one way to get Americans involved. Just start giving out American awards to these guys. The award that goes to the third baseman, give that to him.

Just like a silver slugger. Give it to some soccer player from Brazil. What? How do you win the gold glove at shortstop? I don't understand this. This is ridiculous. How does that happen? How does it happen?

I haven't seen him play. So, yeah, he wins the golden shoe. So he's got a golden ball, a golden shoe. And they call them slippers, too, I think. Don't they? They call them slippers too, I think. Don't they? They call them boots. Yeah, they are boots. They're boots. You're right.

They call them boots. I couldn't remember what it is. I wish they called them slippers. Slippers. Golden slippers. Given out for retired soccer players. Good job taking it easy this year, Chief. Here's a bunny bear. You got your blood pressure down pretty low. That's good. Good job taking it easy this year, Chief. Here's a bunny bear. You got your blood pressure down pretty low.

That's good. Good for you. He also, 86, gets the Golden Pen Award. God damn it. They gold everything. They just cake it in gold and hand it to you and tell you you're the best. As the best player in Europe. He's the best player in Europe.

The most golden shoes. He can kick his golden shoe with his golden ball and sign a golden autograph with his golden pen. He's got it all. He's doing it. He's got it all, Jimmy. What does that tell you? He's a world champion. They love him.

He's the hero of the country. He could win the fucking whatever prime minister tomorrow. He can finger everybody he that is grace grace my friends absolute grace it's as grace as it gets really hitler maradona that's the order that's yeah that's grace i would say when you're yeah when you're when you're hitler famous that's grace you know i mean hitler the worst obviously but pretty famous you know it was just in terms of raw fame. It doesn't, you know, the two most known people on the planet are Hitler and Jesus.

Well, probably Jesus isn't as well known in the rest of the world. Jimmy, in a in a in a poll, a worldwide poll. Those were the two most famous people. Most famous. OK, so Hitler and Jesus. When was this? Hitler and Jesus. Yeah, it was Jesus is first and Hitler is second. pole those were the two most uh famous people most famous okay so hitler and jesus when was this hitler and jesus yeah it was uh jesus is first and hitler is second uh that's what the most recognizable people in history in history okay okay okay yeah ever ever ever ever what

about what really today most famous people no no i'm not going to get into the historical. Never mind. Okay, moving on, because we could really start parsing semantics here. So, 1986. Does this qualify people out of the running? Who knows? So, 1986 here, right? This is Grace. We'll say it's Grace because he's in Pasadena, California at an all-star soccer game. Yikes. And he is caught on camera camera you can still find this footage today snorting cocaine after scoring a penalty oh what so yeah he scores um and then

he's on the side bench or just like pulls it out of his pocket i guess on the bench you see him snorting some coke so wow yeah so that that becomes a big fucking controversy, we'll say here. So a little bit more on his Napoli run here. So, like we said, 80,000 people there for his unveiling. Ridiculous, all this shit. He became the captain of the team very quickly and was embraced by the fans. They loved him, including the local mafia. They loved him as well, you know, because he's a famous guy.

They like hanging out with famous guys, as you know. Frank Sinatra's whole crew was a bunch of mobbed up guys, you know. They like that sort of thing. So, yeah, he would fucking, he hung out with them. So he had tons of access to drugs. He had access to women and all the parties. I mean, he was living like a king over there. Like a king.

He said, quote, they practically brought me drugs on a tray. That was his time in Napoli that he says here. He said he would party, and we'll give you a kind of a run of his schedule and compare it to another famous drug schedule that we know of from history. run of his schedule and compare it to another famous drug schedule that we know of from history he'd party sunday to wednesday and then cleanse up until a game on saturday and then do it all over again like ben cousins remember ben cousins doing that yeah yeah he would so busy load up and then you know kind of cleanse out his body for a couple days and then be ready to play so busy it's a lot to do man it's just a lot. Drug testers would never pick him, he said. Oh, I wonder why.

They never picked him. Yeah, isn't that weird? He said that if they ever did, even club officials admitted this later, that, quote, someone would pee for him. So if they did pick him, he didn't have to pee. So as long as he's winning, he's getting taken care of. As long as he's doing shit. Give me your pants, Chief. That's it.

He was basically just coked up the entire time he was in Italy. They do win a bunch over there, as we'll talk about. So that's a big deal. He was fined a lot, too. He was fined over $70,000 for missing practices and games. And he would also come in all scruffy looking after a coke binge night. He'd get fat and then lose weight. He'd swell up and slim down and shit like that.

So that wasn't helping either. Physically, he'd look terrible sometimes, but then he'd score three goals. And you'd be like, okay, well, I mean. Well, cocaine does amazing things for stamina. It's incredible, man. It's incredible. If you're if you're 10 times more talented than everybody else, what you can get away with. Right.

Yeah. You know exactly what you can get away with and still be amazing is incredible. It's also amazing what you what you're physically capable of doing when you're on drugs and also already better than everybody else. Yeah, that's it. Well, it's drugs. OK well it's drugs okay let's let's let's wrap this up recreation it's a joke to say oh you get all coked up and run around but recreational drugs really don't help you athletically running if it was just running but there's a lot more involved in that 90 of that game is but it's all strategy too it's the

same thing with basketball if you were all coked up you wouldn't have the patience you wouldn't have the certain there's patience there's a lot of nuance to soccer that you wouldn't probably be you could probably be better at if you had your mind together straight you know what i mean yeah yeah i could see that too yeah whether or not you're you're physically capable of running uh doesn't matter if you're if your brain is not firing on all cylinders. Yeah, exactly. Like if you're like in football that compared American football, Lawrence Taylor, you give him a couple of lines of coke because his job is kill that quarterback every fucking play.

If he hands it off to someone, chase his ass down and kill him. You can get someone coked up and tell him to do that, but you can't give the quarterback coke. You know what I'm saying? He's got to figure shit out. His timing has to be right. He has to not be paranoid about people running up from behind him, and it's a different game for him. You know what I mean?

He's like a deer. Yeah, his eyes got to be in specific spots for specific reasons at specific times. With coke, your eyes are just darting anyway. Yeah, and your rhythm is totally fucked up too. You not gonna have the same rhythm these receivers expect the ball in rhythm you've worked it out throw it to him a thousand times for that so in may 10th 87 he leads napoli to the first championship in history that they've had they've been around like 60 years and haven't won shit they've been a laughingstock of the league. And he takes them to being the best in the league. There was a street party that lasted

five days after that. Five days of partying for the soccer team. Italian style. One thing these fucking, all of my Guinea ancestors and current relatives can do is party. If there's a reason to party,

they're gonna party. Imagine how the food that was going around there oh man it must have been amazing by day five that's probably why they quit by day five they're like we're too tired to make any more meatballs i can't do it american italian thing but still I can't roll another noodle. I'm done. It's over. My fingers from the cavatelli. Oh, I can't do it no more.

I'm not going to do it no more. I'm out of here. Eat bread. I eat the bread. Please. One day, give me a break. Please. I've done so much cocaine. I've made so many cavatelli in the last few days.

Oh, please. Yes, there's no more pasta. What? Let's go days. Oh, please. You guys, there's no more pasta. What? Let's go home. Party's over. Relax and watch the Monday Night Soccer. Please. It might be a tie, you guys.

It's the Hank Williams Jr. He gets me so pumped up. He gets me going so much. So, yeah, hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, too. This is like a team's parade when they win a championship, except five days long. Imagine that. I can't. I can't either.

That sounds horrible. So he's at all these public functions, private banquets, fans, journalists. He's the most in-demand guy in the whole country. I mean, they love him. But they said that after a while, he stops kind of going out during the day. He said he only goes out during the day to, like, train and soccer and then comes home. And he said that it was because he felt very suffocated now by everybody. He said, quote, this is a great city, but I can hardly breathe. and he said that it was because he felt very suffocated now by everybody. Sure.

He said, quote, this is a great city, but I can hardly breathe. I want to be free to walk around. I'm a lad like any other. Oh, he's saying lad? Lad. That's the translation, so who knows what the fuck the Spanish word for that is. But either way, he feels a little suffocated by all the attention that he's getting in this city. Another one here, he ends up having a paternity suit filed against him here. Uh-oh.

That'll do it. It's a very small city when people are looking to serve you papers. Christina Sinatra. What? No relation. Christina Sinatra, who's a Napolitano woman here in napolitan she filed a paternity writ against him um she said she is he's the father of her child diego armando jr so there's a the third yeah so uh he's yours sir that's what she's saying that'll go on for a

little while so there's this not the first time this comes up either he's got paternity suits he's out part when you're that coked up at parties drinking fucking whoever's in your way you're gonna knock somebody up i mean that's what's gonna happen you're gonna slip one past the goalie if she can take it long enough because that's the thing about coke that's true you can't come it takes forever well maybe that's why he wins the golden ball jimmy he can come whenever he wants he's got gold balls that's why god put that star in the church for him so they win the italian series a championship napoli does uh he they win the italian cup the team as well and he's the top goal scorer in the whole league. Wow.

That's 87, 88. They said that he's driving around like a nice BMW because he's got shit loads of money. He's got like a sweet jacked up Beamer. And they said it's parked outside of all the big clubs at night. That's where you find him. Right out front, his car is there they said he would drink alone he'd just sit there he'd take his car out and he'd sit there in the bars and drink alone he drank whiskey and coke just kind of bang bang bang i don't know if that was because

it was a sponsorship yeah i can't be seen it's got to have coke in it it's just the way it is they said he would pound um he would drink sometimes, and then he would, well, he would drink all the time. Sometimes he would dance and get sociable after he had a few drinks. And they said when he did, the fucking girls would swarm to him, obviously. Yeah, he's the most famous athlete in the world. I mean, why not? Yeah, that's 12 million a year. 80,000 people come to see you when you show up that will get you sounds like six foot to me yeah that's what i'm saying yeah

that's a funny thing about like we read the personal ads on the bonus episodes and you'll have women go six foot or above he must be and all this stuff if you add rich and world famous these things start to decline a little bit well maybe five eight and as long as he's a nice guy you know i did see him on tv he was pretty yeah i mean tom cruise is married that's what i'm saying multiple times but of course he's you know he's that those are arranged marriages by his weird cult so that's a different thing but he would still get women he'd still get married oh he'd still get married. Oh, he'd still get. Yeah. Yeah.

It's five, five and a center tooth. He'll still do fine. It's fine. That's it. Fucking charisma, money and fame will do that for you every time. So they'll go. A friend of his said he thought he could own the world. He felt impregnable.

I guess not. That's the world is impregnable. Yeah. Well, he should hope it is the way he's out there doing his business. He wishes it wasn't. Yeah. He can very, very impregnate everything. Yeah.

He wishes it was impregnable. That means you can't get in it impregnable. Is it? Yeah. Impregnable would be. Impregnable means there's a wall up, you can't get through it. Oh, you know what? It's an impregnable fortress.

I don't know what i'm doing i forgot about that part so because i was confused i'm like he hopes he can knock everybody up really does he want to plan everyone shall be named diego armando maradona all of everyone why does the english language have to be so hard i shall repopulate the earth so uh yeah but isn't impregnant isn't that the word no it's not you idiot what are you talking about who's ever said i'm impregnant oh i love it that's fucking hilarious. So he got involved apparently with the mafia pretty early in his in his his whole team does. Basically, they had a bunch of merchandise. They were doing Maradona merchandise.

So he had a company that did all this merchandising for him. Some hats and shit. And you're a world famous guy like that. So his manager was contacted by members of the mafia, telling him, hey, not a good idea for you to operate in Naples without talking to us first. You don't even give us the respect to sitting down and telling us what your plans are.

You can sit down. Maybe we can help you out. We can help each other out. We can work together. And next thing you know, they're in for 10%. That's how that works. Maybe we already have Maradona merchandise. You didn't ask.

Maybe we got some. Maybe I take you to it, and maybe you buy it all from me. How does that sound? Maybe you buy it all, and then you resell it. It's on you. You can do that. So they said that you should probably discuss this with us first so uh in 1986 in january two men arrived uh they were emissaries of the giuliano group here that's their little

family here and uh they told maradona quote the giulianos want to get to know you better which in that area if they want to get to know you you get to know them period that's just the way it is what'd you like to know that's it so he becomes within the next few months he's their family guest everywhere they go they invite him and he's like oh because he's big shot they like that um baptisms parties family events things like that he's in the mix of like oh he's just like one of us now he's in the mix here um later on they end up uh that year in 86 police end up busting a big heroin operation at the house of two women and they raided the uh the the place and they found carmine giuliano who was the fucking head of the family in this operation they busted him there

and they found there he had a photo album and it was 71 pictures of him posing with maradona in different places 71 of them 71 of them jesus that's wild when asked in court about it maradona said quote yes i've met these people but I have no idea why they do. No idea what they do. Somebody asked me to go to their house, and as often as I often do, I accept it. She's saying, I just, you invite me over for dinner, I show up with a bottle of wine. I mean, that's all there is to it. What are you going to do?

That's rude to say no. Anywhere he is, if someone goes, come to my house for dinner, he's like, fuck. What time? He has to like soften a crowd of people. What's fine? Jesus Christ. It's Italian law. You can't turn down a dinner invitation.

Did you? They said they made you cavatelli. It's against the law to turn it down. I'm sorry. It's against the fucking law. Somebody's fingers hurt. We have to go. So in 88, his physical conditioning regime was on Sunday, there'd be a Series A match.

So, you know, Major League Italian soccer match. Sunday night to Wednesday was an all day, all night, maybe we don't sleep the whole time cocaine bender. So just like a three day fucking four night absolute binge bender of who knows. Wow. Booze, women, coke, fucking parties. I can't imagine. Whatever he can get into. Usually with a bunch of gangsters, by the way, as well.

Yeah. And then Wednesday to Saturday morning would be, or Wednesday morning to Saturday would get into usually with a bunch of gangsters by the way as well and then wednesday to saturday morning would be our wednesday morning to saturday would be cleansing that would be he would be running and sweating it out it's the old uh rod beck told me in baseball the the old adage was drink a case sweat a case they used to say okay you saw someone in there really on that treadmill for a long time in the morning or the stair master drinking yeah you look at him they go drink a case sweat a case and they'd be hung over as fuck fucking doing it oh the worst get the toxins out so that's what they're trying to do there and then sunday he'd be all ready for his match again wow ready to start the cycle again um yeah he would be coked up on at all times here yeah uh he even

said later on in an interview quote i gave my opponents a big a big advantage due to my illness do you know the player i could have been if i hadn't taken drugs and that's what i'm talking about doing a line before the game might you know that might get you going a little bit but doing constant coke for three straight days a week takes a toll on your body and you're not going to be the same person it's an illness oh absolutely yeah he knew that he was he was fucked he's like fucking he hearing about his routines reminded me a lot of like he's like soccer hunter s thompson is what he is have we ever gone over the Hunter Thompson daily routine of drugs?

The amount that he would ingest? No. Oh, okay. Well, here's an old thing. It was written years ago, and it was it's Hunter Thompson's daily drug schedule. And daily, this is his daily schedule, and this reminded me of Maradona a lot. If you put in, kick a soccer ball in here.

This is every day. This is every day. Okay, Hunter Thompson's routine. 3 p.m he gets up okay yeah gets awakes up at 3 p.m 3 p.m 305 chivas regal with the morning papers and some dunhills chivas he's already drinking chivas into scotch five minutes after getting up but it's 305 so i mean it's mid-afternoon and dunhill cigarettes cigarettes he smokes. Okay. It's 5 o'clock somewhere. 3.45, cocaine. Okay. Yeah.

3.50, another glass of Chivas and some Dunhill. 4.05, first cup of coffee. So then we'll get into coffee. But two glasses of booze and some Coke before he even gets coffee going. Oh, God. Okay, and cigarettes, more cigarettes. 4.15, more cocaine. 4.16, orange juice and a cigarette. 4.30, more cocaine. 415, more cocaine. 416, orange juice and a cigarette.

430, more cocaine. 454, cocaine. This is somebody that was with him, you know, putting this all down. 505, cocaine. 511, coffee and some Dunhill's cigarettes. 530, more ice in the Chivas. It was melting, so, you know, get it colder. Just ice.

5.45, more cocaine. 6 o'clock, smoke a joint to take the edge off. He's done 12 lines of coke, and he's been awake for two hours. Two hours. Yeah, so by the time he's been up for three hours, he has to smoke a joint to take the edge off of all the booze and coke that he's been taking here. God damn it.

That's wild. 7.05 goes to the Woody Creek Tavern for lunch, his lunch, dinner time, which is a Heineken, two margaritas, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, and more Dunn Hills than another Heineken, and then cocaine as well. That sounds delicious, minus the cocaine. Minus the cocaine. For the ride home, he does a snow cone, which is a glass of shredded ice over which he pours a shitload of Chivas. So a Chivas snow cone.

It's a snow cone. That's a Chivas snow cone for the ride home booze flavored chip dice yep that's what he's got then it says 9 p.m starts snorting cocaine seriously now he's really into it before now he's doing double lines it was just to wake up earlier now it's to party now we're getting into the you know getting down on it seriously uh 10 p.m drops acid Seriously. 10 p.m., drops acid. Wow. 11 p.m., cocaine, more weed. 11.30, more cocaine.

12 midnight, that's when he's ready to write. So he's done all this. Now it's time to write. So he writes from 12.05 to about 6 a.m., so that's his work day, which that's the hours when I'm most productive. That's exactly how I do my shit. Not without the cocaine, though, minus that. Cocaine, more weed, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, more cigarettes. He'll eat like a grapefruit, smoke some more cigarettes, orange juice, gin.

It says here, here quote continuous pornographic movies playing while this is going on that is a funny thing to do 6 a.m hot tub with some champagne and dove bars and fettuccine alfredo that's his dinner that night um 8 a.m. Halcyon, 8.20 sleep. That's his day. He needs Halcyon to sleep. Yeah, well, he's been, he's done fucking an eight ball of coke that day. So, yeah, he's really flying probably. But that's a daily thing for him.

That was like his daily. And that man committed suicide. He didn't even. Yeah, he killed himself in his 60s, Jimmy. I mean, he lived to be in his 60s. Drugs couldn't do it. No. He did so much crazy shit in his life. Even the drugs wouldn't have killed him.

Other things would, and it didn't somehow. So it's pretty amazing. But that's what he reminds me of. Diego Maradona is like Michael Jordan and Hunter Thompson divided by Mike Tyson. And that's what you get. Kicking a soccer ball around. Michael Jordan plus Mike Tyson divided by Hunter tyson and that's what you get or kicking a soccer ball around michael jordan plus mike tyson divided by hunter thompson as you get fucking maradona here so he wins uh in 89 he wins the uefa which i think is the european whatevereration of assholes cup uh with napoli then might be a tie sorry

uh that's the first ever victory in international competition for napoli ever so okay very excited um that summer august to september 89 he spends two two months in Argentina and then doesn't make it back before the start of a tournament that's happening. Too busy. Argentina is probably wild. Well, especially for him. Famous as he is? Oh, God. Remember when we say don't go home?

I mean, imagine if you're the most famous guy ever. Don't go home because it'll be tough to leave. Saying goodbye to every person in the country. Oh, shit. go home because it'll be tough to leave saying goodbye to every person in the country oh shit he would uh he comes back late and once he comes back he would like show up for his matches at the last minute i think they were thinking he wasn't going to show up and he would pop up and then as soon as it was over he'd leave and go off alone he wouldn't even like that's hardcore coke right there hardcore um they said he would not show up at at practice all the time that's why he got fined

all that that we talked about earlier the club even issued a civil suit against him for breach of contract for his fucking not showing up and shit that's all in his contract so they sued him they sued him yeah for for fines that he's not paying uh during before during training before a match at pisa his teammates reported that he stopped playing for a minute and was just crying to himself on the field in the middle of a game oh that's fun he's stable whoa that's not good man um that's bad i would say yeah uh but 89 they win the uefa cup with napoli He's their 1990 Italian Series A champion with Napoli. Tears or not.

Tears or not here. He receives the Premio Conex de Brilliante for his sports skill. Yeah, that's the Premium Brilliant Award. Premium Brilliant. You're the most brilliant, my friend. This is the Golden Cup right here. Second place in the World Cup. They come in that year, Argentina.

So he does pretty well. The president of Argentina names him the ambassador of sport. Oh. This is what we have. For the whole country. That's it. And wins the Supercopa Italiana with Napoli as well. Yeah.

The Super Cup. Supercup of Italy with Napoli as well. So really, he's cooking even though he's crying on the field hanging out with gangsters and living like hunter thompson he's still somehow winning soccer that's amazing proves there's a chink in the armor though and it's gonna it's gonna collapse it's gonna come yeah well as soon as mike tyson got a little you know a little despondent after robin givens he got the shit beat out of him like yeah it's crazy that you're this much better than everybody that you can be

crying on the field and you know hung over with fucking you know crust on your cock from the night before and go out and win the whole thing that's that's impressive have a a legit depression breakdown on the field crying. And then scoring a goal. And then scoring a goal later. Sobbing down the field. It means nothing. Oh, God.

So. Means nothing. The sun will turn into a black hole anyway. Oh, God. black hole anyway oh god uh july 1990 leads argentina to the final of the world cup in rome and they lose one nothing to west germany so it's a very close one oh pre-berlin wall coming down yeah it's west germany still didn't come down till i think that year, 90, 91, something like that. So while he's in Napoli, from 84 to 91, 259 total matches and everything, and 115 goals in those games. So winning every award, doing everything terrific.

Then in 91, it really starts to fall apart. I mean hard. Starting out with a diagnosis of positive for hepatitis B. Yikes. Which, yeah, that's not good at all. No. That is associated in this area and with what he's doing. It's associated with drug use a lot of the times.

Yeah, intravenous. The B. So he's got the hep. And if you've watched any of these documentaries of people on drugs, it's hepatitis is the biggest thing. And it is crazy. It is insane. It's it liquefies your guts. It destroys all your energy. It's like through the eggs for you. Yes, it is. It is. It is. It is. It is my egg. Yes, it is his my eggs. Jesus Christ.

Makes him shit on the side of a highway in Pennsylvania. But he also has zero energy, and he can't do anything. It's really a debilitating thing, and he did it to himself. It's not good. That's fucking awful, man. So March 9th, people are like, well, it can't be drugs. He's Diego Maradona. He's the best.

How would the best athlete be doing drugs? Well, March 1991, okay, he's, I guess there was a, there's some problems here. I guess they lost a game or something that they wanted. They should have won, some shit like that. He says that this made him lose his protection from post-match drug tests. Because to this point, people were peeing for him or they would just skip him or whatever the fuck. But at this point, he said, no, no, this is why they did this to me. They drug tested me on purpose. And then he tests positive for cocaine on the drug test, obviously.

Clearly. They did this to me. To me. He's a victim. Yes, that's what I mean. They did it to me because they were mad at me, and now I can't do coke every day? Like, what the fuck? Later on, he said, later on, that one quote comes from do you know what kind of player i

would have been if i had not used cocaine what a player we've lost i have a sour taste in my mouth because i could have been a lot bigger i assure you of that i know who i was going to be what i didn't know was that i was going to take cocaine okay that's his deal here and it all kind of comes crumbling down he's suspended by the way for 15 months from soccer, international play. Over the positive drug test. Over the positive drug test. So April 26, 1991, there's some crazy shit going on here. This all comes out from this.

It's from a little earlier in the year. He's hanging out with all these different people, Okay. All these mob guys and shit like that. There is, he knows a guy who's the financier of a cocaine and call girl network. Why does he know that guy? Because he hangs this as the people he hangs out with. He's a co-cat who likes girls. That's why. I mean, what the fuck?

That's what he's doing. So they end up, the police did a big investigation, listened to over 10,000 hours of tapped phone calls. Oh, boy. And they said that on 11 of these calls, they either have Maradona's name mentioned or him talking. So they became interested in him, obviously. So apparently through his sister's husband, okay, his sister's husband was allegedly an underworld figure. Through this, Maradona met the owner of a club, the Chalet Park Club, which is one of the clubs he's always out at at night. And this guy is a nephew of another mob boss.

So basically they introduce him. They send him to Donna Carmela here. This is a woman here. And he asks this person for, quote, women and gear for Diego and me, one of his friends said, okay, which means women and coke is what you're looking for. Yeah. He would call all the time outside of a club and, you know, call this in,

and then Maradona would go to his fancy hotel and they would send girls over. Sometimes about 800, 900 bucks a night for this kind of a thing it sent some girls and some drugs and hey you're having a party yeah you're having a fucking party so anyway january 7th there's a uh some shitty house here in the spanish quarter of naples and a woman answers the call and uh a guy on the other end said, Diego gave me this number for two women. The woman says yes.

And the guy says, good women, mind you. We want to meet. And he gives the hotel, blah, blah, blah. There's a piano bar. So the woman says, is Diego there? And the guy says, you want to speak to him? You know, just make sure that this is all legit. And she says, I want to speak to Maradona.

So the guy tells her her you can ring him at vincenzo's and um so anyway she calls 3 38 a.m he answers by the way and the woman said do you know who they are uh they're the ones from yesterday he said yes i get it this is maradona's voice i get it yes i was up at italos this morning who is Italo Iovine, who is the manager of one of his nightclubs that he hangs out with, who, by the way, at this point is being arrested for his part in a major intercontinental cocaine and prostitution racket, by the way. Oh, no. Yeah. So the woman says, I'll give you the address. He says, look, I'm at the Arone.

I don't know if you know it. That's a bar, I think. They said, will four o'clock be OK? He said, OK, I'm at the Arone. I don't know if you know it. That's a bar, I think. They said, will 4 o'clock be okay? He said, okay, have you got two girls? And she says, yes. Then says, wait, I want you to say hello to my little boy. So the madam who's booking prostitutes and cocaine is like, okay, I have your order. Quickly, though, please talk to my son who's standing right next to me while I book this shit.

He is not going to believe who's looking for hookers and blow. So a kid called Cristino gets on the line saying, oh, you're my favorite football player, blah, blah, blah. And he says, oh, that's great, little guy. Keep playing hard and you can be one too. Now put your mom back on the phone. Make sure they got shaved pussies, okay? Shaved. I want them shaved. little guy keep playing hard and you can be one too now put your mom back on the phone make sure i got shaved pussies okay shaved i want them shaved how does he go through with it after talking to a child how does the child not make you go

you know what you're right i shouldn't be getting this. Many people have abandoned children for Coke in the past. This isn't even his kid. Fuck that kid. Tell your mom to make the Coke good. Tell your mom less baking stuff this time. Yeah, Jesus, she's stepping all over this shit. So the call was, of course, tapped on a tapped line, and the police intercepted it. The woman's name was carmela

uh chinkwa grana uh who is uh basically known as the the grand madame of yeah the whole area here the spanish corner and uh this is they're all arrested in the same ring as the italo guy who it's cocaine it's prostitution it's all of it we got cocaine we got gambling we got prostitution we got it all we got a fucking chocolate fountain we got everything he's cheats from dust till dawn that's it so from just till dawn so um yeah these guys here um they were running the organized crime in the city basically they were accused of organized crime in the city, basically. They were accused of importing cocaine from South America, refining it in Naples, and then selling it along the French Riviera. That's their international scheme.

The testimonies say that Maradona asked for more than women. He'd asked for coke too the police report said this quote the famous football the famous footballer diego maradona on a number of occasions accused senora chinkwagrana for gear in no small quantities by this we understand cocaine um uh italiano iaveen donna carmela and her husband mario falcone mario larusso and four others were charged in February as a result of the evidence assembled the judges also put out a separate warrant for the arrest

of Diego Armando Maradona on the charge of possession and distribution of cocaine it was the first in a series of a bunch of shit for him so he ends up there's all sorts of people outside his house somehow he slips out and leaves italy and goes back to argentina not on the run or anything he's not on the lam but he's he's going

from the madness it's loud here it's loud here um he says quote i'm going for my daughter's birthday has nothing to do with this other shit right he says i shall miss the italian match days the greatest fun i ever had but i'm tired of struggling i want to control my life so um yeah basically he's only coming back to go to court and that's it all right so um he goes home and um now this whole time too he said this is bullshit what the cops are saying even though they have his voice asking for this shit he's saying that it just you know yeah he he went out and he got some women i was calling to talk to the kid yeah that's all it was when i said gear i said bring me over like a you know a support bring your boots don't forget your supporter you know

bring me like another jersey uh you know they, they're my supplier of soccer stuff. I was going to run scrimmage with the boy. You know how it is. He denies the whole time this has anything to do with drugs. He has nothing to do with drugs, even though he has hepatitis and has had constant rumors and is on camera snorting cocaine. I don't know what you're talking about. Not me. He even denies that he fucking hit the ball with his hand, for Christ's sake.

You can see him clearly on video doing things. And he goes, nope, wasn't me. Wow, he took that song way too seriously. So he ends up, at this point, he's in an apartment in a working class section of Buenos Aires. And he's with two men who lives in the apartment. These are two of his childhood friends. Oh, really? He's hanging out with his old pals there.

So the police had the apartment under surveillance and waited about two hours and then moved in. And when they entered the apartment, they found all three of them in a state of serious coke intoxication and observed a man throwing a packet out of a window what was in that so they showed the packet on local tv reports it appeared to contain as uh several ounces of cocaine wow it wasn't a packet it was a big fucking it was a brick of coke it was a bunch of it yep white powder the police identify as cocaine

police kept the three men inside the apartment while they conducted a lengthy search word seeped out though and um hundreds of people were outside reporters and everything else they're gonna take maradona out in cuffs so they take him outside in a police car and people are like oh my god uh he does this weird thing when he walks out, too. He does like this weird smile like he's all coked out. I can't imagine where his head at, where his head is. Is it like that meth slither? No, no, no, no.

He's like coked as shit, doesn't know what's going on, didn't realize this was going to happen. Total shock. And now he's brought outside where hundreds of people are staring at him so he's trying to act like everything's fine he's like smiling moving his head around but it just makes him look more coked up it doesn't help like he doesn't understand what the right thing to do is in that situation and then by the time he uh by the time he uh gets to the the car gets to the police station, he's sobbing. He's just in tears. Like he's playing soccer?

Yeah, not so happy anymore. The coke haze is wearing off and reality is seeping in. Oh, God, I'm fucked. His friend here, who's also his spokesman, says, I'm still trying to find out what's going on. I don't know what stage Diego's life is at right now. Everything has changed so much. He's a fucking mess. So he's also very overweight at this point.

He's been suspended. So he's all overweight. He looks like a mess. It's not good. It's a federal sting operation. This isn't an accident. He didn't get pulled over with something. He is charged with distributing drugs free of charge and drug possession.

He's found with over a kilo of Coke. Oh, no. Yeah. That's a lot. That's a couple of pounds, man. That's not a little bit of Coke. That's a lot of Coke. I mean, as much as he does's not a little bit of coke. That's a lot of coke. I mean, as much as he does it, it's probably for him.

Right, but it looks like trafficking. But it doesn't look good for him. And then he's Piero Pugliese. He's his security guard who is now a witness against him, claiming that he has been Diego's cocaine courier from Argentina to Italy. Uh-oh. Oh, boy. Four girls then come forward, four women, three Brazilians and a German,

who said they spent a night with Maradona as two different pairs in April and December 1990, and that Maradona had offered them cocaine. in April and December 1990 and that Maradona had offered them cocaine. They said that they insisted they were not prostitutes, but just girls who were, quote, infatuated with Maradona. That's coming out of their mouth.

The morning after one of these, by the way, because they had the dates this happened, was one of the ones he failed to show up to practice. They fucked him so good he didn't show up to practice. That's great. He had a fun night. But now they're telling and they're corroborating dates with his piss poor behavior afterwards.

That sucks. Not good. And also hotel records that all line up and all that kind of thing. It's not good. It's not good. Shut up. Shut up. He says, these four women are fucking liars on an international scale.

They should be ashamed of themselves. And then a whole bunch more women come and say the exact same fucking thing. And he just has to shut the fuck up on that one. Shit. I mean, they're coming out of the woodwork saying, oh, yeah, no, that's what he does. He orders two women and then he does like coke off our tits and then bangs us. And then he doesn't show up for soccer the next day. Yeah, that's what he does. That awesome what a life it's not good it's

right in court saying all this shit what does he say about this oh i'd love to know everybody's got it in for me that's what he says it's it's not my fault i'm a nice young man yeah so um i should have been i should have been a cpa i why didn't i just become an accountant like the fucking star of god told me to jesus christ um at that point uh he says that he says the whole thing started when on the eve of the world cup semi-final between italy and argentina obviously he's playing for italy but his team is is naples it's in naples so his fans are there he he said this to the paper quote naples is not italy then he this is the fans of his team he berated quote decades of racism in this city which like i said it's known for that in naples but that's what he started saying um basically saying that he

telling the napalitan telling the napoli naples people to root for argentina instead this is the world cup they're not rooting for you they're rooting for italy it's you're fucking you know what are you crazy so he said that's what they should do and some did actually because they loved him so much um argentina won the match and uh he said that's what happened he beat he talked shit then beat italy and he said since then this has all been just a payback payback yeah for he said quote since then I've had no peace there's a campaign against me I repeat I am going that's what he's leaving Italy forever so he's protested in legal submissions about quote a vendetta on somebody's part of account of on account of matches i was not supposed to win and references

to football interests and things like that so that's his defense of all this none of it's true they're just mad at me because we beat italy in the world cup who does he think he is that's a really tough defense i don't know how you mount that defense and uh that's bad shit uh they said that uh 1986 the um they talked about this is from a police squad here the quote strange presence of maradona in the company of those convicted or under inquiry for association with the camara which is organized crime yeah but also a curious relationship of some kind with these convicted with the organization of underground football pools with the primary funds of the Camorra organization. Yeah, fucking gambling, obviously.

Interests are big in this. Fantasy soccer. Yeah, everything. It's a big gambling thing there. They said in 86, judges in Turin had began investigating, thing there they said in 86 judges and turin had began investigating uh looking into italy's black market football pools which were all you know mafia run basically i mean uh they said tax free they're fucking it's the numbers it's numbers it's gambling it's all that shit so uh they said They said the 89-90 season was bad for the organization because I guess the odds against Napoli winning the league were set at 4-1. And a lot of people from Napoli bet on Napoli still, and then they ended up winning.

So the fucking people who have to pay those off were fucked. They took a lot of bets at way too big of a of a deal there so they said now adonis said it's at that time that some you know some uh intimidation started which is ridiculous because he still hung out with these people for five more years they said they said that um uh it's at this time that and this is the time by the way when his name starts popping up on tapped phone calls and shit like that. The magistrate said it's not a theory we just want to ignore. In fact, we're not ignoring it at all. So Maradona, though, he says, quote, in some ways I bungled, like all men.

But my vices are the vices of industrialists and not a few presidents whom you leave alone. If someone has to pay for all of this, then I'll pay. But not Naples. Not this wonderful city. Okay. So my vices are that of big shots and presidents. You know, that's all. So the prosecution here, they prosecute him for this shitload of coke that he has. And he's charged in Italy and Argentina, by the way. Really? Yeah.

For smuggling between the two? Yeah. Yeah, for both. He ends up doing his deal in Argentina here. And his lawyer said, quote, he is the most extraordinary man who has had only one thing in his life since he was 15, football. Since he gave himself to the game, he simply stopped growing. My client has the mind of a 15-year-old. Since he gave himself.

That sounds hot. Mind of a 15-year-old. Yeah. Jesus. So the judge said, okay, sure. You, sir, may fuck off 14 months suspended sentence. Get out of here. So 14 months suspended sentence.

So he doesn't have to do any time. That's insane. That's what that means. Yeah. He had a shitload of coke. But I guess it was his first offense, and he's a god, and they didn't want to put him in jail. I guess that's what happens when you're a god and nobody wants to put you in jail. So he's still pretty fucked, though mean he's going around he's he's not going to stop doing what he's doing but now he's under this giant microscope

yeah now they're watching they're watching and he still wants to do coke and fuck girls though lots of them young girls older girls any women he can find yeah i mean that's to bang women society's built this that that's our you get to be great at things and you get to do whatever you want he's gotten to be great at something he gets to do whatever he want you can't take it from me i'm not gonna stop it that's not fair yeah what is that about no that is not is that what you're afraid of jimmy just don't just don't get into coke and fucking expensive women, and I think you'll be fine. You think I'll be able to keep my house? I think so.

I think you're going to be okay. Just fucking. God, it's so scary. Stay away from the coke and the women here. I worry so much, James. I get it. Believe me. so i worry so much james i get it believe me so diego is as i mean he he's got to really creep and crawl and he's got to go to people he really trusts now and um yeah it's a trust thing now he

can't trust people because if somebody could really make a name for themselves by turning him in anybody who's been busted for anything they'll be like you know diego maradona let's bust him i mean it's he's famous and now he's on the radar it's tough i heard he's a scumbag maybe you know right he just holes up in his house and i guess gets coke delivered and food and all that sort of thing and that's it and then uh one day he's in his house and there's a knock at the door and he just got some coke so he didn't know who it was he's like maybe it's yeah maybe it's the two chicks i ordered sweet this is gonna be great and he goes to the door and he swings it open and it's not two chicks he ordered it's just one chick and she doesn't have any cocaine because

she's vinnie pazienza's ma and she says she's had enough of this shit. She's had enough. And she says. How is it you've come to arrive here? What's wrong with you? Oh, my God. You were the most famous. The church, when we baptized you, your mother told me about it. Oh, my God. The star came down. That was the Lord telling you you're going to be an accountant.

I was so happy. And now you're doing to be an accountant. I was so happy. And now you're doing this. Oh, my God. Cocaine. And these women. Oh, they were skanks, Diego. I saw them. No, I saw them.

They were skanks. You can't be doing. Oh, no. Geez. Have you eaten today? You look fat, but I don't think you've eaten. Is that booze weight? I'm going to make you something.

Over here. No, come over here. I don't care. What do you have? I don't care if this prostitute's in the closet. Get him out of here. I'm going to make you something. Over here. No, come over here. I don't care. What do you have? I don't care if this prostitute's in the closet. Get him out of here. I'm not making them food, too. Vinny, what's wrong with you?

Vinny, come over here and talk to this guy. He's all fucked up, too. What's wrong with you? Diego, come here a minute. Oh, you son of a bitch bastard. And then she explodes. Poof, and an explosion. Italian rage.

Of Italian rage and marinara sauce sauce she just pops all over the walls and uh diego's very confused jesus well you know what this is how she lives every day that's the thing that's without that she would go down that's how it works that's how these ladies are so 1992 he refuses to come back after napoli uh back to napoli after the ban like he said i'm not coming back he's not coming back now i don't think he's welcome anymore so i must go they've told me um he asked for a transfer a transfer from napoli and joins seville basically plays for seville Seville, October 4th, 1992, he makes his debut with Seville, losing 2-1 against athletic Bilbao. He never went back to Naples. He went back to Spain.

Obviously, Seville's in Spain, so he went there. Their manager had been the manager of the 86 and 90 Argentinian World Cup teams. Oh. So that's why he went there. They had to pay $7 million for him, by the way, to Naples to get his contract. And he only plays 26 games for Seville and scores five goals. What happened? And for $7 million.

Yeah. Just never really gets there one point one point one one point five one point one five fucking for per goal per goal uh october 10th 1993 he leaves seville uh sevilla and joins newell's old boys. What the fuck that is in Argentina there. 1993, October 31st day after his birthday, he comes back to the national team and plays in Sydney, Australia against Australia and the playoffs to qualify for the 1994 world

cup. They draw one, one with, and the Argentine goal is due to Diego. He makes a great play and assists somebody. So November 17th 1993, Argentina

is captained by Maradona of course. They win 1-0 for Australia against Australia and qualify for the World Cup. It's coming back. 93 he is that's for the 94 World Cup, obviously. 93, he is awarded, I guess they hand this out only once, in Argentina, he's given the award as the, quote,

best Argentine footballer of all time. Of all time. Of all time. That's only one off award. You can't give that out more than once. I hope they didn't do that jump in the gun. You know what I mean? What do they know?

I guess he already is. It's over. That's it. It's done. Don't try anymore. So they could be displaced later, I guess. 1994, February 3rd, 1994, Argentine police raid his country home. Uh-oh. This is not for drugs though this is uh he comes

back to argentina there's a shitload of reporters a bunch of journalists and people outside of his place there i guess he's got it's in the city it's not like out in the middle of nowhere and he allegedly opens fucking fire on them with a fucking pellet gun an air rifle he starts like like i have he starts fucking shots off with people with the fucking pellet gun kind of funny a little dangerous i would say you definitely take a fucking eye out with that aim for the body i guess i suppose um can't really do that um no if you're imagine michael jordan was shooting reporters with a fucking pellet gun out I guess I suppose, um, can't really do that. Um, no,

if you're, imagine Michael Jordan was shooting reporters with a fucking pellet gun out the window. That would not go over well in 1995. Think about that. Mike, what the fuck? Yeah. I mean,

Jesus, remember what Vince Coleman, he got suspended for like ever for throwing a firecracker near some fans one time. Like that wasn't even Adam. Imagine he was going over stuffing them down their people's pants and lighting them. What the fuck? Is there a way to do it legally?

Do you have to have like signage? Shoot projectiles at people? No. On your own property? It's not his property. They're out on a city street. Oh, they're outside? Okay.

Yeah. They're not like in his house they're out on the city street and he goes out his window and fires fucking shots at them to scatter from the air rifle that's not okay yeah that's not that's not all right like an airsoft gun on your patio yeah except a pellet gun with not the rubber pellets of metal pellets those Those are fucked up. Yeah. Not good.

Yeah. So there was a bunch of reporters who filed charges with the police saying they were injured by these pellets. He was fingerprinted by police and the whole thing. They take him in. And basically, he's denying it, but he's seen on television crouched with two other men behind a Mercedes with a rifle in his hand, aiming it at the camera. Everything that they catch him do on camera, he just denies. Nope, not me. Didn't do it.

Trick photography. That's not me. It's all trick photography. Deep fakes. That's what it is. It's that, you know, 1993 deep fakes that's what it is it's that you know 1993 deep fakes then he screamed while pointing a rifle at them quote if you don't get out of here we're going to start shooting real bullets oh boy yeah um yeah then he said quote if you keep making noise it was before he went in the house if you you keep making noise, I'll come back and cause a tragedy.

Oh, that's what? You can't do that, man. You can't say that. I get you don't want reporters around your house. Well, guess what? You're a world famous guy that was making $12 million a year in 1985. And then you've done some of the dumbest shit humanly possible. You have to expect annoyance from that.

Sorry. And now you're threatening to murk reporters in the street on camera right by the way didn't take somebody aside and go hey come here oh yeah bob let me talk to you for a second if you come on my fucking property one more time i'm gonna cut you none of that shit he's aiming it at a camera saying i'm going to shoot you i'm sorry what i tell you i will pop a cap in your ass brian gumbel don't fucking think i won't see you lester holt get off this street where's brian williams where is he I will pop a cap in your ass, Brian Gumbel. Don't fucking think I won't. See you, Lester Holt. Get off this street.

Where's Brian Williams? Where is he? So, yeah, they're outside of his eight-foot walls. So it's not even like- Oh, Jesus. Yeah, he's got eight-foot walls. They're just outside the walls, and he doesn't want them to be outside the walls of his fucking, you know, trying to stay Charlie Rose. This is fucking crazy.

This is. Yeah, he was released by Newell's old boys team after he failed to show up for practice. That's why the reporters are here. Yeah, because he didn't show up for work. So he got released. So everyone's like, let's hear your side of it. And his side of it is i'll pop a cap in your ass we're we hear that you were fired but it's only because you clearly quit yeah no shit he uh he said before that that he uh was before this clash he had told reporters that he planned to continue playing and look forward to the World Cup in the United States this year.

The president of the club he plays for said he's suffering from depression. So you got to cut him some slack. That caused you to shoot at reporters from here. I've never done that. It's a common symptom. It's a common symptom. You shoot at anyone who comes over. You're just like fuck you

i'm gonna tell my therapist i'm cured because i've never been there it's all good everything's done a great job good job i'm good they fingerprinted him they did not find the air gun that he was filmed having and everyone all the witnesses said he had they couldn't find it who knows what he did here um so they uh he ended up he said he was pissed off that's all there is to it at least five reporters were injured when they were hit by these pellets and um that's how it goes so the world cup comes up argentina defeats australia 2-1 and qualifies for the game or for the cup like we said. He helps Argentina do well here. The first round, they beat Greece 4-0.

4-0, man, not bad. And next up is a big, big match against Bulgaria. Oh, man, you know how those Bulgarians are with their soccer. Boy, everybody does. They're so good. Apparently, they're good. So while he's doing that, you know, there's a bunch of, the World Cup does a ton of tests. He's kicked out of the World Cup for testing positive for drugs again.

Oh, you idiot. Gets himself a 15-month ban here for what they called a cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs. A cocktail. Wow. Nowhancing drugs. A cocktail. Wow. Now, what he says is this. He's got a different... He said, quote, What happened is...

It's a bad start. What happened was... It's a bad start to explanation of this. You see? You see? Let me explain. What happened is that to play against Australiaralia we were given a speedy coffee they put something in the coffee and that's why we ran more okay so he doesn't say who they

are we don't know if this is his the argentinian team gave him this or like some outside force like drugged his coffee i don't know what he's getting at here he he thinks that like death wish coffee will will give you a positive drug test that's a speedy it gives you a cocktail of a cocktail of performance enhancer and that's in your coffee so they just put it in there stirred it in that was very kind of them the a doctor and member of fifa's executive committee said maradona must have taken a cocktail of drugs because the five identified substances are not found in one medication like together so he must have taken or in coffee or definitely not in coffee the doctor said that he'd taken five substances. Among the banned stimulants were ephedrine, which you can't take, norphedrine, noraphedrine,

I guess that's another thing, pseudophedrine, which is just pseudophed, norsuphedrine, and methedephedrine. Is he taking meth? He's taking speed. He's taking speed he's taking speed pills that's all yeah speed shit he's taking greenies is what he's taking that's what baseball players would take back in the day here these are among 101 substances deemed illegal by fifa um there you go he said it's true this is the doctor it's true that some of these medications especially norafedrin are often used in weight reduction medications, diet pills, like I said, which is fucking speed.

That's exactly what it is. It would seem possible that Maradona may have taken these drugs in a bid to reduce weight leading up to the World Cup. He's taking a bunch of speedy diet drugs. Not allowed to take that when you're in there. He said, Maradona said quote i don't know maybe we were careless but i swear i did not drug myself to play with my abilities i don't need to drug myself i'm better than that he then said about fifa quote they have retired me from soccer i don't think i want another revenge my soul is broken i don't understand i would like to fly it hurts they cut my legs off when i had a

chance to recover well you don't need legs you're flying so don't worry about it the fuck you need legs for who walks when you can fly it's entirely different transportation dog chief don't worry about it so the head of fifa's world cup organizing committee said the argentine football association informed the fifa organizing committee that diego Maradona has been withdrawn from the world cup. In view of this decision, FIFA will make a ruling on the discipline disciplinary aspects of the case after the world cup until the case is finally settled. Diego Maradona remained suspended from all footballing activity.

So, uh, yeah, they decided Argentina, Argentina decided to remove him from the team on their own. They said to avoid further sanctions that could compromise the team. Yeah, they don't want to fuck everything up for everybody. He is only the third player to be kicked out of the World Cup for this. One was in one was Haiti's John Ernst Joseph in 1974 and Scotland's Willie Johnston in 1978. The guy from Haiti and a guy from Scotland. Scottish and Haitian and him.

So, yeah, it was a big deal. One of the guys who played with him in Italy said that it was terrible because the World Cup meant everything to him. His reputation was on the line. Apparently it's not doing well. Another teammate said, incidents like this damage soccer. I don't know if that's against him or the league for calling him out on it.

The one U.S. coach here said, I don't think any country in the world can rival the passion for soccer of Argentina, but he's a human being who has made a mistake and people should understand that. He's given a lot to the world of soccer and to soccer of Argentina, but he's a human being who has made a mistake and people should understand that. He's given a lot to the world of soccer and to soccer in Argentina. It's sad that a legend of the sport

may finish as he is now. That's right. He said, there is a contradiction. I think the team should also be punished because he's part of the team. And then he went on to say, yeah, but his team, we shouldn't have to play his team though.

That's the US coach that said that here. Yeah, anything to team, we shouldn't have to play his team, though. That's the U.S. coach that said that here. Yeah, anything to help us win. Other people are so much better at this than we are. Oh, my God. One guy here said, quote, he'll be remembered for leading Argentina to the world title, but 20 years down the road, Maradona won't be remembered like Pele. He had a beautiful story until the cocaine bust kind of ruined his storybook life.

Truth. Truth. 1994, he starts coaching a little bit here. Where? Deportivo Mendio of Corrientes. I think it's in Argentina. It's a Spanish place. Two months later, he resigns.

What did you get back by the name? It's a Spanish place? Yeah, it's a Spanish-speaking community. Pretty sure they speak Spanish there. May 6, 1995, he tries again as coach with a different team and resigns after four months this time. Resigns? He's just quitting.

He made it twice as long as the last time, two months and four months, so not bad. October 7, 1995, he can't stay away. He comes back to play again. Loves it. Coming back, playing for the Boca Juniors here, and they have a huge party with fireworks and celebrations in the stadium for his return. Announcing he's there.

Absolutely. 1995, he receives the Golden Ball for his return. Announcing he's there. Absolutely. 1995, he receives the golden ball for his whole career, not just for, he was the player of the moment for his first golden ball. Now he's getting a career ball. A big moment, yeah. Whole ball. And then he is awarded, I don't know,

this is a very vague, the criteria for this is very vague. He is awarded by the University of oxford by the way he is awarded the quote master inspirer of dreams award what the fuck is that that is whoever built it uh whoever made this award is very impressed with his prowess of banging and doing drugs. Absolutely. That is a hell of a dream, sir. You've achieved it.

Holy shit. By the way, I have to say here, because you're going to notice some stuff, we can't talk about all the TV shows that he was in in Argentina and all that shit just because it would be like an eight-parter and we can't do that. So it's going to be a one-parter. Not enough people give a shit. Yeah. So if you're a big Maradona person that's followed him his whole career, you're going to go, oh, you left that out, you left that out.

We can't help it. Sorry, there's not enough room. We had three parts and we left shit out of Tyson. Yeah. We had people actually tweeting at me going, I'm a little disappointed you didn't talk about this. I'm like, we did nine hours. I did, fuck, how many more parts could we do? How much more

tyson do you want i mean i appreciate them knowing that what we missed but it's like damn it i tried so 1996 he finally finally finally admits that he did drugs really finally in 96 okay he writes an article called quote how i fought my Fought My Drugs Hell. Now he's good now. Don't get it wrong. It's all over now. But yeah, he gave a big interview and he said, I was, am, and always will be a drug addict. There you go.

He said that cocaine never left me free to think and act. That's another thing he claimed here he said that many more footballers uh were also turning to drugs but nobody talks about it he said i am not the only one many do it yeah i believe it yeah international party lifestyle yeah in a game where you a lot you got to run a lot sure i was playing in countries a lot of countries that are dominated with the cocaine trade. I'm sure that's true. I'm sure it happens. He led Argentina to the World Cup, but they're saying now, you know, he wants to front a government campaign to stamp out drug use and the presidents behind him of Argentina. He admits that he took a lot of substances starting at age 22.

He said that when he started to make his name in europe with barcelona and then napoli so that's when the drugs got big but he said now quote you have to say today i'm going to turn around and fight the drugs hell it's the only way to escape listen i'm gonna dare to say no i'm gonna fight it today yeah i'm gonna just say just 96 he's gonna dare just say well yeah he said you just have to turn around and fight them like hell. I don't know what that means. But he said that he tells a story about it. He said 82 was the first time he did coke.

And he said that his daughter once, Giannina, asked him for a cup of water. But he was unable to get up and go to her after he collapsed in a fucking coke stupor and he said i couldn't get up my hands were trembling he said quote gianna asked asked him again for a drink of water but he couldn't go as he said quote the cocaine had put me in a complete haze couldn't do it man um he said he wants to ensure that no one else suffers the same fate of an incredibly good time. I want nobody else to suffer the fate of Lifetime of Party. I don't want anybody else to feel so happy and smiley. Yeah, it's terrible having all this sex.

You know what that does to you? yeah it's terrible getting all having all the sex you know what that does to you have to decide which woman to fuck oh god where do i put it who do i put it in first oh my god who do i put it in while snorting off the other one first it's a tough decision who do i put on my face versus who do i put on my lap? Then, this is the way I know he's half Italian right here. He says, and I quote, they said, why are you doing this anti-drugs campaign? Why don't you just, you know, don't do drugs yourself and stay out of the spotlight? And he says, quote, it's for the children. Of course it is.

It's for the children, Jimmy. He said, because I suffered a lot from drugs, much more than anyone can appreciate. So I'm doing it for the children, Jimmy. It's going to make it all better now. It's going to make it all better now. That's right. Anytime I hear it's for the children, I am very leery on what this is going to do. Oh, no, it'll be fine. Not going to hurt the kids, but it will. There is some aspect of it. There's some nefarious shit happening oh yeah yeah someone's pocketing some money so 1997 um here he a match he scores on a penalty kick in

boca juniors four to two victory over argentinos juniors he um apparently they pulled his number randomly for a drug test afterwards which which he says is not random. This is bullshit. You're only doing this because I won the game. And then he failed his drug test. Yeah. Every person that's about to fail screams, this ain't random at all. This is not right.

He said he tested positive for prohibited substances. That's all they would say. His agent said, I just found out about this and i'm completely surprised i saw diego this morning and he seemed fine i'm sure he too is amazed he's amazed all right um he does say his agent said that maradona was quote taking some medication to aid in his latest comeback but he wasn't sure what that medication was and uh he'll get to the bottom of it though it's probably cocaine maradona said it's quote rigged because of his past drug record so yeah he uh he said it was uh he was cold and then afterwards they told him oh yeah that bad substance was cocaine in your piss that's what it was yeah so um and you know every time i've

ever met anybody that well anytime that anybody's been in my life that's what it was yeah so um and you know every time i've ever met anybody that well anytime that anybody's been in my life that has gotten fired for drug use and they always say they know that i do drugs well yeah that's why they keep testing you man yeah so you get tested a lot that's the one there so fucking stupid so anyway he that's his um that's his deal there he says it's a it's a big plot to you know whatever and he says you know what october 30th 1997 i retire my 37th birthday done and done snort as much coke as i want yeah he uh doesn't play in the World Cup, but he does travel to France to comment on the match for an Argentine TV channel. Really? 1991, or 1999, he wins the Olympia di Platino, which I suppose this is from Argentina here, which is the best footballer of the century they give him.

They've already given him the golden ball for the best career. So now he's got the best one ever. And now we're doing it again. It's kind of redundant. He also receives from Argentina, the AFA award as the best sportsman of the century in Argentina. His goal of his goal in 1986 against England, the not, not the hand of God. One, the other one is chosen by, uh, FIFA in a worldwide poll as the best goal ever in the history of football and all of it, all of football.

And then finally in 2000, FIFA has a worldwide internet poll and he is named the player of the century in soccer the player of the century that's a lot to have on you man that's a lot that's a lot it's true that's why he got to be able to do everything he did that's the problem so uh pele said of this quote my main he's like first ofle said of this, what the fuck? Who the fuck am I? You forget about me. People in America know who I am. Five bank accounts, three ounces and two vehicles, bitch.

Do you understand that? This motherfucker's on coke. I'm doing great. I'm Pele, bitch. And he slaps her. Slaps the reporter across the face. They should do a song for God about Pele. Yeah, it's only a few motherfuckers thought you forgot about Pele.

I just picture him all angry rapping now. Oh, man. I want a duet between Pele and hank williams jr about monday night soccer so i'm singing the chorus absolutely pele said my main doubt is whether he has the sufficient greatness as a person to justify being honored by a worldwide audience yeah it's a bit of a scumbag i never got caught i mean look at me i'm a nice guy so that same year he proves pele right uh that same year he's on vacation in uruguay for some reason i don't know what's down there but something good i guess and he is hospitalized in intensive

care for what at the time is reported as high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat, but is actually a cocaine-induced heart attack that he's having. He is having an overdose of cocaine. Very weird. Super strange. It's either all the food I ate in Italy or all the coke I had everywhere. All over the place, especially here. They call it a ventricular arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that can be fatal

if not controlled. It's coke. He's on coke. That's all it was, they find out. He's all coked up. It was an overdose of coke. He spends like the next four years recovering in Cuba. What? He goes to Cuba where Fidel Castro loves him and he basically

convalesces in Cuba for like three to four years. Stunning. Hangs out in Cuba. Now, remember that air rifle incident? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he was fucking supposed to. He had a two-year prison sentence to him. But then after the appeal, the appeal has been going on for years.

And in 2002, they finally decide that he won't have to go to jail, even though the court upheld his two-year prison sentence for firing the air rifle at people. But they said that he'll only be jailed if he is sentenced to another crime in the next 10 years. Then this will come back. So there are reporters several of them say they plan to sue him and uh they said any money won they'll have a pool and they'll donate it to charity okay that's nice january 2004 he returns from argentina to cuba

on march 22nd and immediately people are like holy shit what happened to Diego? He's fat as fuck. Awesome. He's all sorts of fat. Which, when you've been doing coke for 20 years, if you go somewhere, stop doing coke, you're probably going to gain a bunch of weight. And you're somewhere where tacos are probably so prevalent. Well, those fucking Cuban sandwiches. Oh, God, Jesus.

So, I don't know if that's what they're eating in Cuba. But either way, it's good. It's good shit. Yeah. So, yeah, he's got I don't know if that's what they're eating in Cuba, but either way, it's good. It's good shit. Yeah. So, yeah, he's got all sorts of fucking problems now because that's what happens. He's been running around and doing coke. So you're going to stay thin when you run 20 miles a day and do coke. When you stop all of that, you're just going to blow up and get big.

So they said he's responding. You know, he comes back. And then as soon as pretty much as soon as he gets back to Buenos Aires, he's rushed to the hospital with heart problems and breathing difficulties again in 2004. His doctor said that his progress has been satisfactory, but that up until now, and now arterial pressure was normalizing, he fell ill after an overdose is what happened here. That's what was reported in the news. But then his doctor came out in the press and said it has nothing to do with drugs. Never. Nothing.

Yeah. He said that he, you know, nothing to do with drugs. He said, quote, it's not related to an overdose. Lately, Maradona was not consuming cocaine. He has a lung infection because of a chill. He's not quite stable and his progress is relatively good. So the odds are, here's what he's expecting us to believe, that a cokehead, a known cokehead for 25 years at this point,

who had a heart attack due to a cocaine overdose just a couple years earlier, he's saying it's not that, though. It's because of a chill in the air is why he's ill so he caught a breeze he caught a breeze you know how that goes and now that's what it is wow um yeah that's a little fucking amazing here um his doctor said oh i'm sorry this is his ex was this his ex-wife i don't know who the fuck this is some oh the the mother of one of his sons, Diego Armando Jr. You know how many Diego Armando? No, no, no.

This is somebody else. It's another one. It's another one. She said, quote, we expect him to heal as soon as possible. It's a tough moment, but we're confident that he'll get better. Another one said, another player that knows him said, the situation is more severe than four years ago. Not good. May 2004, he leaves the hospital and enters drug rehab so yeah he uh enters a drug rehab center in west

buenos aires checks himself in there several clinics refused to take him fearing he would resist treatment and cause a media circus that would fuck over their other patients too which makes sense um one of the hospitals said to accept a patient like him is not easy several clinics have refused because he's simply not like other patients he's not he's uh been kept under sedation in the intensive care unit while he fought symptoms of coming off drugs he's you know coming down detoxing him um he said said he didn't want to go here. He wanted to return to Cuba rather than come to this place. And Cuban leader Fidel Castro even put a plane at Maradona's disposal should he want to come back.

A private one? He set a fucking plane for him in case he wanted to come back. He said he wanted to go back instead of this drug rehab place to a luxurious residence at General Rodriguez, which is 50 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires. And that's where he went from the hospital. From there, he played golf. He kicked a soccer ball and walked around without a shirt on. And they said that's what caused him to be cold and come back to the hospital because he's been walking around without a shirt in the chilly air. That's what happens here.

So, you know, that's literally his goal. I walked around without a shirt. That's pretty fucking funny. So, yeah, he's in rehab. They said he's got all these breathing problems. His doctor said he's going to need two years to overcome his drug addiction and his health problems. Wow, like Doc Holliday. Going to take a cup health problems. Wow, like Doc Holliday. Going to take a cup.

Yeah, he's like Doc Holliday. He's a mess, a fucking mess. But he also told a local radio station that he is going to need to be committed to not doing cocaine anymore if he wants this to be a thing. So he can't be doing all this blow. August 2004, he's doing a television interview, Diego is, about his frustrations over his cocaine addiction and he like breaks down sobbing on the screen and

very much unlike him here, he is trying to obtain a judge's permission to leave Argentina and go back to Cuba. He says it's bullshit that he has to stay there. Quote, I'm old enough to have enough decision making power to know what to do with my life. You've been a bit of a mess here.

He said that he thought he was losing the battle with the judge as he was crying. He said that he first tried drugs in 82, and he said, once you're in, you can't get out. That's that. And at this point, he weighs 198 pounds and was trying to diet. So, yeah, 200 pounds, 5'5". Jesus. Yeah, but he did show the TV. Once he wiped the tears from his eyes, he balanced a soccer ball on his forehead to show a trick he can still do.

You're crying a second ago. 2005, he's going to get better. He's like a divorcee. He's going to get a real He's like a divorcee. He's going to get a real estate license probably down the line. But he is going to start out with a stomach stapling operation. He's like, I am going to get me feeling like me again. He loses about 66 pounds. Jesus.

And after that, he went on briefly to even host his own TV program from this. Finn Diego. He's doing great. I mean, Jesus, what a mess. He's had to do great. He's been a mess otherwise. I mean, Jesus Christ. There are so many people named after him in Italy and in Argentina named Diego Armando.

It's un-fucking-real. And some of them even have the whole name. I feel bad for a lot of people, but not nearly as bad as I feel for Diego Maradona, a cook in Canada at Forbes. Oh. That's all. Cook. Diego Maradona, senior advisor at Apple Inc. in Elk Grove, California. That's right.

Diego Maradona, engineer in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Okay. And finally, and always the people I feel the worst for, Diego Maradona, licensed realtor in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. No one wants to buy a house from a cokehead, do they? I'm surprised you didn't find a CPA. Oh, that would have been amazing. If there was one, that would have definitely been on there, but there I didn't find any. The only thing he's accounting now is calories, it sounds like.

So, 2006, he does a TV commercial for a Brazilian soda that portrayed him as a member of the Brazilian national team, including wearing the yellow jersey and singing with Ronaldo. And then later on in the commercial, he wakes up realizing he had a nightmare after drinking too much of the drink which doesn't seem like a good advertisement for it no it causes nightmares if you drink too much so that caused a bunch of controversy because they were like oh my god you had a brazil shirt on so people in argentina were all pissed off and who fucking cares jesus christ get over it people so um he uh 2007 more health problems he is taken to a buenos aires hospital in an ambulance after quote falling ill so um yeah he appeared uh overweight recently again as well he threw it not doing well um and they said that he was suffering from, he said that the hospitalization was not related to an addiction to dangerous

drugs. Okay. He said that the, his doctor said that he's fine, but he has some problems for some time with food, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco. Whatever he gets his hands on.

He said that he put on too much weight and smoked too many cigars. Oh. And that's why he's all fucked up like that. Now, the drinking here, he's drinking so much he's given sedatives to, he needs to be given drugs to detox from booze. That's how much he's drinking.

He's on the same schedule he was on with the Coke, basically. He's doing the basically he's doing the shaking probably oh yeah yeah he's got the fucking dts and shit he's saying that uh heavy drinking was to blame for his latest health crisis and also he's been smoking tons of cigars drinking a shitload and gaining weight his doctor or one of his doctors said he's out of danger and doing satisfactorily. All of his tests are routine. He's sedated due to alcohol abstinence. So, yeah, he's got a, they said, yeah, it's rough. Also here, they said that he's got hepatitis as well. Again, hepatitis brought on by excessive alcohol consumption, is what his doctor said.

He's fucking up his liver. Is that a thing that alcohol can do to you? I don't know. This is his doctor, Dr He's fucking up his liver. Is that a thing that alcohol can do to you? I don't know. This is his doctor, Dr. Alfredo Cahey. He says the acute type of hepatitis he has now is a case brought on by alcoholism. So I guess if you drink enough, you can kick your liver into fucking itself up.

He was suffering from a mix of many things. At first, I feared it was pancreatitis. I was constantly checking Diego, and I think this time we've nailed it. We it out he has chronic hepatitis since he contracted it in in 1991 and i guess he can kind of kick it back in wow what shit um so he had a two-week hospitalization for acute hepatitis brought on by alcohol abuse and then he's let out and released and he's jimmy what is he he's so good now he is fucking gold he's a gold ball holding gold shoe wearing he's golden now he's

gold now so 2008 he uh he he's named the argentina coach oh he's the coach of the team now seems like a reliable guy to fucking lead young men right why not i mean he's the coach of the team now? Seems like a reliable guy to fucking lead young men, right? Why not? I mean, he's recognizable as fuck now. Yeah, he's tapped to do that. In 2009, it comes out that the Italian government is suing

him. He owes the Italian government 37 million euros. Holy shit. Do you have any idea how much fucking money that is? That's like 60 million dollars. Holy shit. Do you have any idea how much fucking money that is? That's like $60 million. That's crazy. That's what he owes. Oh, euros.

Yeah. Euros. That's a lot. That and fucking in 2009 money, too. In taxes? In taxes. He's made $100 million over there. He didn't pay shit.

Wow. Neapolitan officials tell the world about this. Yeah, he played over there. He only paid 42,000 euros of what he owes. Oh, fuck. As well as he handed over two luxury watches to the Italian government as well. Around 23.5 million euros of his debt is accounted for by interest of his original tax debt. Millions of euros.

It's 14 million he owed and now he owes another 23 and a half in interest. Dear Lord. They have seized earrings from him at one point. to recover unpaid taxes. He also handed over earrings worth some 4,000 euros at a health clinic in northern Italy where the cops found out

he was in Italy and they went up and they were like, what do you got on you that's worth something and literally took the earrings out of his ears. I swear that's what happened.

The Italian news agency said he still got it out there. They said that he, what is this? Oh, the coach said that he's a regular visitor to the health clinic and he was being reportedly treated for weight and stress problems.

Three years ago, the police took two Rolex watches worth 10,000 euros each from him during a visit to Naples. That's not enough. At the time, the tax police said it was acting on judicial order, authorizing the seizure of anything of value within plain sight. order authorizing the seizure of anything of value within plain sight if he is seen and he has anything of value on him they can just fucking strip his ass and take it that is hilarious 2010 he appears in a commercial for louis vuitton yeah what the fuck is that all about? He can't afford it. It is a commercial for Louis Vuitton where he is playing a game of foosball, basically. He's playing foosball with Pele and Zinedine Zidane. That's pretty funny. Who's the guy who headbutted that one dude and fucking almost killed him back then.

So as a manager, Argentina is struggling to qualify for the World Cup here. So people are saying, you know, you better qualify for the fucking World Cup. What are you doing here? He said after they beat South Africa and they earn a trip or they beat Peru to earn a trip to South Africa for the World Cup. He says, and I quote, for those who didn't believe and criticized, you can suck it and keep on sucking it. You treated me like rubbish. You can suck it and keep on sucking it. You treated me like rubbish.

You can suck it and keep on sucking it. That's what he said. Okay, Shawn Michaels, that's terrific. What are we talking about? That's amazing. In the press, he told people to suck his dick. That's fucking amazing, man. And don't stop.

Oh, fuck. I loved it. He said that they end up losing to Germany 4-0 in the quarterfinals. I guess his team was getting knocked around a lot by physical play, and he was pissed off and said, quote, this is football, not kung fu fighting. Okay. Well, suck it suck it and keep on sucking it

2013 he has a big problem with his girlfriend here he kicked out his she's like 20 fucking she's 23 he's 53 30 years younger I guess he kicked her kicked her out of the house or some

shit they had a big fight he I guess he kicked her out of the house or some shit. They had a big fight. I guess he accused her of flirting with some soccer player at a training camp in Dubai. And he was really upset with jealousy. He claims that she tried to swap Twitter and Facebook details with him. They tried to follow him and all that. The Spanish goalkeeper, who's also 23. Yeah, that's what you're going to get. You're a fat old man, and he's not.

So they're both Argentinian there, and they were engaged, him and his fiancee, obviously. But then he left her in Dubai, and she came back alone to Argentina. Wow. Maradona, she threatened him that she would embarrass him by signing up for a reality TV show and doing all that. Some of those desperate shows. Desperate work money. Now, the goaltender in question said that he doesn't think he ever met the woman. He didn't even remember. He's like, I don't fucking know.

I meet a lot of chicks. What do I know? That's fucking wild. He's got two daughters with his ex-wife, plus a son and a daughter from affairs, they say. Just various outside interests. His second son arrived last year when his ex-girlfriend gave birth so now he's got had a new fiance holy shit um last month he denied her claim that the baby she was carrying now is also his i'm gonna say it probably is um then he gets back together

with this with this woman veronica ohada is her name this is the the problem oh no this is a different woman holy shit this is a different woman. Holy shit, this is a different woman. Veronica Ojeda is his ex-girlfriend. Okay, so he breaks up with this one, then gets back together with his ex-girlfriend, whom he denied impregnating, but then afterwards they're together again. So that's his fucking baby is what that says.

They're on a flight, okay? He grabs her by the neck during a flight. Uh oh. Oh yeah. Uh, according to passengers, uh, they said Maradona was on his way to visit his baby son by her. Um, he exchanged insults with his, wow. Okay.

So no, he is with her. I'm sorry. Scratch that. Okay. The baby he denied having. Yes. sorry. Scratch that. Okay, the baby he denied having. Yes. That woman had that baby, okay? He now says it is his and was on the way flying there to see the baby for the first time

while he was with this girlfriend who's 23 who he says flirted with a Spanish goaltender, okay? And the goaltender has no idea who she is. No idea who she is. This is awesome. They're on a plane. They exchange some insults, and then he gets violent. The goaltender has no idea who she is. No idea who she is. This is awesome. They're on a plane. They exchange some insults, and then he gets violent. The flight attendants and fellow business class travelers, including the wife of the governor of Argentina's Santa Fe province, had to step in to try to calm him down.

Wow. Yeah, the wife of the governor said she tried to talk to Maradona after he, quote, went into a crisis on the flight from Dubai where he works as a sports ambassador. He, another Argentine journalist who is in an economy in the economy class in the same same flight, said that he was told by some business class passengers that the scene between Maradona and Olivia was akin to a boxing match. Further report states that Maradona had told bodyguards to elbow photographers when he touched down in Buenos Aires and allegedly threw stones at cameramen on the road. That's his M.O. After this. Yeah. She, by the way. Oh, she's four and a half months pregnant.

This girl that he's beating up on a plane. She's pregnant, too. Yeah, she's pregnant with his baby and he's choking her. So because she's flirting with Spanish goaltenders. So now, October 2014, he is still going with this girl. They're still together. And he's been accused of beating her again, this time over a cell phone. over a cell phone apparently a video secretly filmed by her shows maradona shouting at her and repeatedly uh repeatedly using her mobile phone before striking her twice the uh they said

that uh once engaged this is from the report once engaged to 50 uh once engaged to the 53 year old can be heard pleading stop diego stop stop hitting me she's pleading um yeah this is fucking crazy uh he denied hitting her even though it's on camera again but admits did he knock the phone out of her hand he said quote i sent the phone flying but i swear by my children that i never raised a hand to a woman the story starts and finishes there that's what he says how did you knock a phone out of her hand that's raising a hand to her that's raising a hand uh then he says that his life has been crazy he says i am 53 going on 78 because my life hasn't been normal no i've lived no that's not why he said i've lived 80 years with the life i've gone through

that's true soccer gave me everything I have more than I ever imagined. If I hadn't had this addiction, I could have played a lot more. But today, that is the past. I am fine, and what I regret most is not having my parents. Because they're dead. They were old. They were born in the 20s as parents. They were fucking old.

He's a 54-year-old with a 78-year-old's heart. That's the fucking main issue there. I guess 2017, he was coaching in the United Arab Emirates. Really? And his team didn't get promotion to the next league, so he quit. That was that. That's enough of this shit.

2018, he is coaching a second division Mexican club. he is coaching a second division mexican club okay he says he's clean and sober and all good and coaching a mexican club here a second uh second uh division one he says that he's doing great and he says this is a healthy new beginning after a long sickness so he's feeling good. May 2019, he's in court with his girlfriend here, a 23-year-old. They broke up in December of 2018, and now she goes to family court to launch an action for economic compensation. She wants child support and all that shit. He's down there. While he's down there in Mexico, he is taken aside by authorities down there and detained while he served with the formal court proceedings. So he's like basically taken to the police station, kind of arrested down there for that.

He is rushed to the hospital the same year down there after suffering internal bleeding in his stomach. Oh, no. So, yes, I don't know if it's bleeding ulcers or what, or if he poked himself with something, but they said that he's going to make a speedy recovery, but he does step down as manager of the club. Now, 2019 is when the film came out. The,

uh, the Diego Maradona film, which it's, it's a big deal. It's out there. Um, the director, he made the Amy,

which is the Amy Winehouse one and the Senna, which is, uh, Art and Senna, the motor racer. He said the Amy, which is the Amy Winehouse one, and the Senna, which is Artin Senna, the motor racer. He said that, quote, Maradona is the third part of a trilogy about child geniuses and fame. I was fascinated by his journey. Wherever he went, there were moments of incredible, incredible brilliance and drama. He was a leader taking his teams to the very top, but also many lows in his career. He was always the little guy fighting against the system, and he was willing to do anything to use all of his cunning and intelligence to win. He, quote, he's a man who's trying to escape the fame

and lose himself in his addictions of sex, drugs, and alcohol. But in the middle of it, you've got a kid who jumps on the call to ask him about the last match. If you put that in an episode of The Sopranos, you'd think it was funny. But you'd think that would never happen. But it did. That's how Diego's life was. I think talking about the drug deal that the kid comes on and says, hey, great job, which would be funny in The Sopranos.

He's got your mom back on. I need to get Coke. Come on. My dick's getting real hard. It's not getting any softer. So get on over here. Hurry up with the who was and the Coke, please. back on i need to get coke come on uh my dick's getting real hard it's not getting any softer so uh you get on over here hurry up with the who was and the coke please yeah and there's a lot like that that's kind of um there's a lot of little things that are hard to put in here this documentary

there's a ton of shit so or in this exact in this uh episode i mean, November 20th, 2020, he is admitted to a hospital supposedly for psychological reasons. Yeah. A representative of his said his condition was not serious. Then a day later, he underwent emergency brain surgery to treat a subdural hematoma. Oh, no. Apparently serious. He's released on November 12th after successful surgery and was supervised by doctors as an outpatient. So that's good. That's November 12th. November 25th, 2020, he dies in his sleep. Oh, shit.

Yep. Has a heart attack in his sleep. It was not long for this world. Nope. It was a huge, his funeral was a giant thing thousands of people um tens of thousands of people uh the family uh his family took his coffin and relocated it from the rotunda of the presidential palace after the fans that's where they placed his body they did a state laid in state yeah he's Wow. That's what he is down there.

And fans took over an inner city courtyard and clashed with police over the whole thing. Holy shit. It got fucking messy over this shit. And the next day he was buried next to his parents there. His teammate, one of his former teammates said, At the time that Maradona retired from active football, he left Argentina traumatized. Maradona was more than just a great footballer. He was a special compensation factor for a country that in a few years lived through several military dictatorships and social frustrations of all kinds. He said Maradona offered to the Argentines a way out of their collective frustration, and that's why people there love him as a divine figure.

That's what it is. Another one, who is this here? Another guy wrote, quote, that Sunday in Mexico City, talking about the hand of God game, the world saw one man single-handedly in more than one sense of the phrase, lift the mood of a depressed downtrodden nation

into the stratosphere. With two goals in the space of four depressed downtrodden nation into the stratosphere with two goals in the space of four minutes he allowed them to dare to dream that they like him could be the best in the world he did it first by nefarious and then by spellbindingly brilliant means in those moments he went from star player to legend which is true um his brother, less than, or a little over a year later, his brother dies of a heart attack also. Wow. Same shit. Is he involved in the same parties maybe?

We don't know. I mean, maybe he was hanging out with him. He was a professional player too. A couple things about him that we didn't have time for a lot was like, he was very big politically,

very active politically. He loved Hugo Chavez. He liked like, communist shit. Like, He loved Hugo Chavez. He liked communist shit. Yeah, Hugo Chavez is a communist. I mean, he was a straight communist. That's what he likes. He likes Castro and Hugo Chavez and guys like that. Yeah, he hangs out with Hugo Chavez, or did when he was alive anyway, when they both were.

So May 2021, seven medical professionals are charged with homicide over his death. What? Oh, yeah. They did like a fucking Michael Jackson thing here. Oh, shit. Over like that surgery and all that. So they claim that these doctors violated their duties and they could face between eight and twenty five years in prison each if convicted. That's a lot.

Yeah. years in prison each if convicted that's a lot uh yeah on june 25th the psychiatrist augusta kazachov was summoned to the prosecutor's office and faced formal questioning where she accepted to answer more than 100 queries regarding the medical treatment given to maradona in that medical field after seven hours of questioning her lawyer addressed the press and denied that her prescription medication could have worsened maradona's heart condition and and this doctor denied any further responsibility in his death on june 28th multiple arrest warrants were issued by a lawyer against this person this uh vadim mizachanak or whatever the fuck it is. And Leopoldo Luke, who is a personal doctor, psychologist Carlos Diaz and Dr. Nancy Forlini in direct connection with his with the negligent death.

to ask a judge to issue the arrest warrants against all the professionals on the basis that they considered the request had been a mediatic stunt and added that the requester of the arrest warrants wanted a TV show stunt in consideration of the timing with personal doctors interrogation. So it's that they're fighting over it now. A watch was stolen from him, apparently, a while back here uh a watch it was a hubolt i don't i don't know real real expensive watches but apparently it's like a 25 000 watch wow this watch and uh apparently uh yes somebody was working as a security guard at a dubai-based firm where memorabilia relating to him was being kept and somebody stole the watch and uh the

guy ended up getting arrested and uh i believe he was in from india he was arrested in dubai so that's what ended up happening um yeah he also had apparently jerseys that he stole as well this watch had uh the number 10 jersey engraved on the back of it. Oh. You can't hide it. It's one of those. The government wants that. Yeah. November 2021, okay? He is, him and his entourage are being post-posturiously accused of rape here.

What? Yeah. Mavis Alvarez-Rigo, who is a Miami, Florida resident now, told the press in Buenos Aires how she met Maradona when she was 16 and he was in his 40s. Yeah. When she lived in Cuba, when he was there, where he was undergoing drug treatment. She said, I was dazzled. He won me over. But after two months, everything started to change. I was dazzled. He won me over. But after two months, everything started to change. She said that I loved him, but I hated him, too.

I even thought about suicide. She yeah, she goes on to say that this happened between four and five years that she was subjected to what she called the abuse of this. She said she'd been held for her against her will for several weeks in a hotel by Maradona's entourage in 2001, banned from going out alone and forced into a breast augmentation operation. Holy shit. Oh, my God. That's terrible. She also claimed that Maradona had raped her on one occasion in their at their home in Havana and mentioned several other episodes of physical violence. their at their home in Havana and mentioned several other episodes of physical violence.

She alleged that Maradona raped her in the clinic in Havana where he was being treated while her mother was in the next room. Yeah. She says, say again. Her mother was in the next room. She says, quote, he covers my mouth. He rapes me. I don't want to think about it too much. I stopped.

Yeah. I stopped being a girl. All my innocence was stolen from me it's hard you stop living the innocent things that a girl of that age has to experience um so she he had he has admitted to the relationship with her but it was a consensual relationship in his what he had said in the past she's admitted that he was fucking if he met her when she was 15 i guess he started fucking when she was 16 this is he was in his 40s um that is uh very very creepy here again says what the fuck that's the thing well her family allowed it because he was friends with castro and they were scared they said if you don't let castro's friend date your daughter what happens to you you know what i mean So they were like they were scared.

So anyway, she lives in Miami there. And she said it's hard to be in his country to see that he is everywhere. He's an idol at the same time. Everything I remember about him as a person feels ugly because she said she went back to Argentina at one point. And that's what she saw. And that's what she saw. She says she's not filing. She has not filed a complaint herself, but is giving evidence to Argentine prosecutor in connection with a complaint brought by a different Argentine woman.

Wow. Yeah. Getting me too. Well, the organization, the Foundation for Peace, filed a complaint after seeing her confessions in the American media. The complaint relates in particular to human trafficking, deprivation of liberty, forced servitude, assault and battery. She said she was speaking out after so many years of silence in order to balance some of the stories that were being told in a TV series about Maradona up to the run up of the first anniversary of his death.

She said that she would not be initiating any further proceedings. She said, i've done what i had to do i the rest i leave to the courts i've achieved my goal to say what happened here to prevent it from happening to others or at least so that other girls feel the strength and the courage to speak up um so five members of his entourage who've been implicated have all denied the uh the allegations so there's that yeah now can't get enough well if you were around a few weeks ago shit a few weeks ago fucking a few days ago if you were around on may 6th 2022 which was extremely recently yeah you could have uh you could have bought his Hand of God jersey. What?

The Hand of God jersey sold for over $9 million on May 6, 2022. The jersey he was wearing, making it the most expensive sports memorabilia ever sold in fucking history. $9 million for a shirt that he wore to punch a ball in the goal. Hand of God. And then ran the whole field to score a legitimate goal. Yeah. And win it. So it's nine million that thing went for that jersey. That's a pretty sweet jersey.

So yeah, you could have gotten it. You could have gotten it people. You were right there. So there you go. That's Diego Maradona. No doubt. He's had quite the life. That's the kind of guy, to do one episode on him, you kind of just have to give like, here's kind of an idea of what he did and a few details because there's no way to fill it all in. It would be like Tyson. It would be nine hours long.

Yeah. You have to do the highlights and it is fucking bananas though. You got to treat his career like a hockey game. Yeah. It's just glimpses. Like highlights of a soccer game. Yeah. And I have to apologize, by the way.

If we didn't bring up soccer moments that were big that he's known for, we don't fucking know what they are. So that's why. It's very hard. I knew Hand of God was a big deal. And I looked that up, and I knew World Cup stuff's a big deal. Other than that, I have no idea what people get excited about. What gets your dick hard for soccer is over my pay grade. I don't know.

So that said, thank you for listening to Diego Maradona. If you like to tell the world about it, it's a crazy story. Get on Apple Podcasts or whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars because it does help us out. If you want to help the show out, you can do that. You can also follow us on social media, at Crime and Sports on Twitter and Facebook, at Small Town Murder on Instagram.

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Damn it. At patreon.com slash crime and sports. Anybody $5 or above. You're going to get access to everything. Crime and sports bonus episodes, small town murder Murder bonus episodes, anything we put out. This week, what you're going to get, oh, the whole back catalog, too. All of it, Jim. Hundreds of episodes on there.

It's a lot. If you're like, I need more, there's over 100 episodes on there. Get into that. So do that. This week, we're going to talk about, first of all, for Crime and Sports, a crazy story of this dude named L.W. Wright who showed up at a NASCAR race in the late 70s with, like, faked qualifications, wasn't a race car driver, never raced before. Not once. Crashed, like, five times because he's not a race car driver. Then disappeared.

And everyone said, who the fuck was that guy? Disappeared for 40 years. And then, like, a month ago, he popped out and was like, I'll tell you the story. I'm here now. He's the D.B. Cooper of sports, this guy. It's fucking amazing. Just disappearing act.

So we got to hear about this L.W. Wright then for Small Town Murder, something extremely interesting. We're going to talk about times in history where pop culture is blamed for murder, whether it's in court. They're saying these kids listen to this music and then murdered someone or this movie caused someone to murder or these video games caused someone to murder or, you know, the whole West Memphis 3 thing and more and kind of branched out from there. It must have been the music. Yeah. So we'll talk about all that here. Pop culture allegedly causing murder.

We'll get into all of that. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get it all. And in addition to that, you're going to get a goddamn shout out. And I think I want to hear those shout outs right now after hearing a story of cocaine haze jimmy why don't you do me a favor hit me with them right now this week's executive producers are alicia elisha alicia alicia johnson

uh cindy phillips right out of the gate it's all fucked uh michelle hansen jordan bennett amber Michelle Hansen Jordan Bennett Amber Warsnack Allison Gaudi John Bloomfield you guys truly we can't do this without you and you really are amazing thank you so much other producers this week are Kaylin Bancroft, happy birthday James Marder, Peyton Meadows

Thomas DeMello and his friend Mike Oxmall are you happy? are you proud of yourself Thomas? yes I think he is Steve Schnell, Thomas Smith Yes, I think he is. Fuck him. Steve Schnell, Thomas Smith, Cody Leversey, Jennifer Ward, Janice Hill, Regina Bierholz, I think. Stacey Nielsen, happy birthday. D'Andra Bobo, happy birthday and anniversary.

And Ryan Bobo, her husband's in Space Force, James. He's a Space Force man. What does that mean? He's one of those Space Forces. You know how we have the army in the space? Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, but they're not in space, though. No, not yet.

They're just training for it, for the interstellar space fights. Congratulations on that. Ryan, you're an amazing guy, the interstellar space fighter. Come fight them off, please. Thank you. Heidi Browning, the Jakestellar space fighter. When the aliens come, fight them off, please. Thank you. Heidi Browning, the Jake 207. Martha with no last name. Heather Holmgren. Annie Hamill, I think.

Puck Wookie. Alvin Katabay. Kevin Layer. Like Layer Cake, I guess. Brian Cloud. Rebecca Yates or Yeats. Jonah Komu. Christopher Adcock.

SF Niners. That's the San Francisco Niners, Jim. I would think so, yeah. Jay Guthier, Jerry Martinez, Max Peterson, Karen Polusik. Something Polish. Hugh Duffy, Caleb with no last name, Whitney with no last name, Guthier Hoare, James. George Nicholas, Aaron McDowell, Jill Captain, Shirts with no last name. Goothier Whore, James. George Nicholas. Aaron McDowell. Jill Captain. Shirts, with no last name. Carrie Woolley.

Jay and Dubs. Libby Farrell. Sam Barron. Kathy Long. Nicole Bentley. Justin Sherman. Rye Rye the Muffin Guy. Molly Fletcher.

Leslie, with no last name. Ashley Longstreet. Christina Jensen-Nessie. Morgan, oh boy, Gravenmeyer. Under there, James. Oh, God, it's coming, Andrew Day, Roe with no last name, Chonky Fruitbat, Kathleen Churchrand, Connor Watson, Brittany Doner, Rachel Scholten, Ann Scott, Angia Lennon. Angi. It's probably just Angie. It's Angie. What's up, Angie? Jamie Slater. Cameron P. Bruce Clark.

Caleb Overby. Lori Stachowicz. And Joe Stachowicz. That's sandwich in the probably the correct spelling. Brother and sister. Lori and Joe. Or you know what? We don't fucking know.

How am I supposed to know? Matthew Brewer. Alexandra Posse. Patricio Favilla. Heather with no last name apnawacki i don't know that's there's never i'm never gonna pronounce that charlene littleton elsa williams d d woods bailey with no last name leanne muller uh kelly manjang uh alan hofensberger sean hagan one cent andrew gracie amma amma doyle leslie clip adaldo clip adaldo yeah alexia for later it's a good way to carry it right on your pocket doesn't fit in the pocket well so you gotta clip it to your belt you gotta clip it right there

like a flashlight oh poor leslie alexia clock no cox uh katie with no last name joseph parker jake dressel jennifer hansen jason campbell stone ray makers joan uh mallette dusty wilson will burton edwards joe joan o'brien sydney franco m roswell anders smwell, Anders Smilniks, Smilniks, Anders Smilniks, Nitz. Fuck it. Anders, God damn it. Kyra Spikes, Mark Bowling, Tiana Aversa, Betsy Schaub-Robinson, Liz with no last name, Rihanna Warstall, Warstall, Dozel, Nicole Stottle, Stodel, I don't know. Stodel. Jesus Christ.

Tiffany Beams. Jen Langen. Bachrath. Kat Plowski. Nicole Sonsberger. Sarah Ellis. Mary. Oh, Mary.

She's a Catholic in the South, James. Beatrice Sintermain. Polly Beals. Christina with no last name. Margie Patterson. Christy. Oh, boy. Wedham.

Kale G. Trish Katz-Collins. Mary. Margie Patterson. Christy, oh boy, Wedham. KLG. Trish Katz Collins. Mary 5C4L Mariscal. Is that what that is? Danielle Abercrombie. Nick Porter. Sean Martin. Brianna Barrett.

Oh boy. Brianna. Tyler Simonton. Emma Rader. Sophie Hayungs. Chris Nayum. Shaitana. I don't know. Cheryl Walton, Craven Bowes, Blue Moon, Jason Forbes, Angie Ball, William Raymond, Joe Yu, Julia Johnson, Blair Scott, Daniel Sepulveda, Kelly Gillingham, Adam Metzger, probably, Timothy Everett, Joe Mendoza, Teagan, Alex, and three-month-old Heath. All three of them. Jesus.

Wow. Christopher Reyes, Mohamed Mafariz Sultan, Emily Main, Allie Fanjoy, Samuel Gucciardo, Nate Nussbaum, Jenny Ferguson, Stephanie Baker, Ashley Blake, Richard Roberts, Laura Guerrero, Andrew Brown, Christopher, just Chris Noonan, Zachary Kinovsky, Dalton Gilmore, Sienna Johnson, Brett Davis, Trent Orr, Gilliam Odom, Elena Bradenberger, Nicholas Oliver, Darius Thompson. I'm doing fantastic. Glory Douglas, Old Man Groobies, Marcus Arellano, Shonda Edgerly, Jane Doe, Mike Peace, Jenitalia. What? Okay, that's a decent one.

I've never heard that one before. Well done. I'm impressed with that one uh christy christy matthews mathis uh shannon russell holly coleman shelby pike trisha cow go go loogie list karen smith brandon baxter samantha hall tina jenkins marisha bow bowden bow do in uh brenna seag, Grace with no last name, Richard. Richard Cruz Blanco, most people called him Richard. Amber Harmon.

It's all about the Mets, James. Love the Mets. All right, Mets, let's get a home run, baby. That's what somebody wanted me to say. Laura Correa, he still hasn't asked. Laura's boyfriend, fucking figure it out. Lisa Ann. Get it together. Joe and boyfriend. Fucking figure it out. Lisa Ann. Get it together.

Joe and Alice Mullen. Megan Rodriguez, The One. Susan LaFiere. LaFiere. Gavin Meyer. Eric Bernard. Martha Shackalaka. Shackalaka.

Tal Jard. Cheyenne Thomas. Amanda Frazee. Daniel Diaz. Diaz. Vernell Parker. C. Trott, Megan Rivers, Alyssa Sampson, Adam Papano, Bailey Schultz, Daniel Peters, Mark Poirier, James Largen, Casey Yazdani, Ayesha Eilish, Lynch. You all right? I don't know. Brian would know last name. Andy, Ray,

Josh, Elder, Allison would know last name. Beth Jones, Mandy, Oglesby, Dana Owens, Jimmy Dykus, probably. I think that's right. Kat, Patarat, Denise Darsh, Kristen Mittelstadt,

Tara Guthrie, Michelle Jett, Colby Barnes, Tyrell Howard, Sean Pickledonion, Skern Erskine, Joel is a dingus whore. I don't know if you know that, James, but he is. I do now. Joel, maybe. Emily Kirby, happy birthday. And Maeve got engaged. Congratulations.

I think it's Maeve. It could be Maeve. Mae maybe congratulations maybe maybe maybe and all of our patrons you guys are fantastic thank you thank you so much everybody for always being there for us and always coming through for us and that we hope we come through for you that's all we can do thank for everything. If you want to get a hold of us, very easy to do with us individually, that is. You can look up the show. That's easy. Small Town Murder podcast host. That's it.

Or go to shutupandgimmemurder.com. There's links to it. It's even easier. Links right there. Get your coloring book while you're there, too. Holy shit. We've had a crazy time. Finally got Diego going and out of the way very requested for six

years and now it's there listen i don't have time for this shit anymore we're done with you diego that says live from the crime and sports studios we will see you next week Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. Taylor Swift is soaring high, her every move captured in the news cycle and devoured by her devoted fans. She's broken billboard records and made Grammys history, not to mention becoming a billionaire in the process. But along the way, Taylor has had to wage war, first by taking on a very powerful, very famous manager, Scooter Braun, and then by going up

against the biggest live events company, Ticketmaster. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery Show Business Wars. We go deep into some of the biggest corporate rivalries of all time, and in our latest season, Taylor Swift will shake up not only the music business, but Hollywood and the NFL. Follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.