Football great Gary Lineker’s touching tribute to after Diego Maradona’s death

Football legend Gary Lineker has delivered an incredible tribute to Diego Maradona including several tales that simply beggar belief.

Andrew McMurtry

@AndrewMcMurtry

3 min read

November 27, 2020 - 11:27AM

Diego Maradona was one of Argentina’s favourite sons.

The death of Diego Maradona at 60 years old has left the world stunned, with an incredible outpouring of grief from past and present players as well as fans across the globe pouring in.

A true global superstar on the pitch, Maradona is arguably as one of the greatest players ever to play the world game.

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Former England star turned commentator Gary Lineker delivered a heartfelt tribute to the legend, including one unheard of tale, which has gone viral.

Over 4.7m people have seen the tribute, at the time of writing, with Lineker blown away by Maradona’s passion and skill in the game.

While the rest of the world mourned, Boca Juniors, the club he won his only Argentinian league title with, illuminated his box at La Bombonera in a stunning tribute.

the lineker anecdote about maradona being held back by his daughter as he leant over the railing of his box roaring with unbridled passion at a boca game; an incendiary love for the game he helped perfect https://t.co/UyeEDPUUhm
— Evan Morgan Grahame (@Evan_M_G) November 26, 2020

The stadium holds plenty of Maradona stories, including one when Lineker remembered his unrivalled passion, when he thought the football legend was about to fall out of the box.

“He‘s so revered, he’s so worshipped in Argentina,” Lineker said on BT Sport. “He constantly had a huge entourage around him.

“I went to see Boca Juniors play. He had his own little box. I went with his family. The atmosphere was unbelievable at this game.

“One of his daughters was literally holding him as he was screaming over the balcony, holding him so he wouldn‘t fall off. He had such an incredible passion for the game.”

He was so passionate his daughter had to save him from himself.

Lineker went on to say he never thought he would see anyone come close to Maradona, although conceded Lionel Messi isn’t too far off, but he said Maradona was something else.

Reliving a time he played with Maradona in a Rest of the World side during an exhibition game, Lineker delivered a tale on a moment that left even the best players in the world in awe of the Argentinian legend.

“There were players like Platini on the pitch. Everyone was totally in awe of (Maradona),” said Lineker.

“The first thing he did was in the dressing room, he sat there; just a pair of shorts. And you know you roll your socks up? He did that and just juggled them on his left foot for about five minutes.

“Then we went out on the pitch and he did something incredible, one of the most unbelievable things I‘ve ever seen on a football pitch.

“He juggled the ball all the way out to the centre circle and then bang, he whacked it as hard he possibly could (up into the air) and waited. It came down and he did it again. He did it 13 times. The most he ever did was walk three paces to it.

“All of us were standing there going, ‘That’s impossible’. I remember going to training the next day at Barcelona. We all tried it and the best anyone did was three, and they were all running for the third one.

“I‘ve never seen anyone have such a beautiful affection for a football.”

Diego Maradona saluting crowd after his farewell game in November 2001.

Maradona’s legend was made at the 1986 World Cup Finals when he put Argentina on his back as the nation won its second title.

While most people want to remember the “Hand of God” goal against England in the quarterfinal, the other goal of Argentina’s 2-1 victory saw Maradona cut through the English defence and slotted a freakish goal that was named the goal of the century.

Lineker, who played for England that day, revealed just how special that moment was.

“You‘ve got to realise that the pitch at the Azteca was awful,” said Lineker.

“It had been relaid. Every time you put your foot on a piece of turf, it just disappeared under your foot.

“To do what he did, that little pivot and turn on the halfway line and then to go past the players like they weren‘t there was just the most remarkable thing.

“It was the closest in my life that I‘ve ever felt like I ought to applaud someone else scoring a goal. Obviously, I didn’t because you’d get destroyed back home.

“He was head and shoulders the best player of my generation.”

Social media was in awe of the tribute.

.@GaryLineker, your tribute to the genius of late #DiegoArmandoMaradona, speaks well of you, unlike some members of the Mexico â€˜86 team, like @Peter_Shilton, and the @Telegraph, who are still bitter, even after his death, over the â€œHand of Godâ€ incident. Itâ€™s very bad form.
— Osasu Obayiuwana (@osasuo) November 26, 2020

Super tribute by @GaryLineker https://t.co/K3QuMyZocq
— Parry Ravindranathan (@parryravi) November 26, 2020

Because of who he is and the fact that heâ€™s an ex footballer, I think there is a tendency to ignore the fact that Lineker is a world-class broadcaster

This was just great TV. And fair play for director for just letting it run... https://t.co/JrgtuNRaga
— Rob Draper (@draper_rob) November 26, 2020

Lineker also posted a video catching up with Maradona, and vision of his warm up, the one that left him awe-struck, as Maradona danced to music played over the PA shared by Piers Morgan.