Maradona Helps A Sick Child To Get A Life Saving Operation -1984

Maradona Shows he has a big Heart. Barely six months into the contract, he was approached by a reserve team player who had been contacted by a desperate father in the nearby town of Acerra. The man’s son was sick, Maradona was told, and without an operation in France he might die.

Would Maradona play a charity match and raise money to save a young fan’s life?

The 23-year-old superstar, who himself grew up poor in a Buenos Aires shantytown, would never turn down such a request.

Napoli president Corrado Ferlaino was less enthusiastic, according to Corriere Della Serra, an Italian national newspaper, unwilling to risk having his star player kicked about a suburban playing field by amateurs.

Undeterred, Maradona reportedly paid the release clause in the club’s insurance contract himself, remarking “fuck the Lloyds of London. This game has to be played for that child”.

The pitch, Corriere reported, was more like a “potato field”. Footage shows the world’s most expensive footballer warming up in a wintry car park, posing for photos with children who are more coat than kid.

He played as he always did, bamboozling defenders and entertaining 10,000 fans packed into the tiny stadium. The match reportedly raised 20 million lire (about £8,000) for the operation and travel costs to France.

He never got to do it on a cold, wet night in Stoke, as the saying goes, but Maradona did go out to a freezing, muddy “potato field” in Acerra to raise money for a desperately sick child and score some wonder goals in the process. How many world class players would do that now?

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