Excerpt From ‘The FIFA World Cup: A History Of The Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event’: ‘Hand of God’ Made Maradona An Idol

The following excerpt from “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event,” is republished with permission from Rowman & Littlefield. The book, by Religion Unplugged senior editor/contributor Clemente Lisi, who also teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York, chronicles the tournament from 1930 to today, including a preview of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

In this excerpt, Lisi recalls the epic quarterfinal matchup between Argentina and England. The game will forever be remembered for Diego Maradona’s two goals, the first a controversial one he later dubbed the “Hand of God” after invoking the Almighty. The game, a mix of political tension before kick off and religion after it, cemented Maradona’s place as one of soccer’s greatest players ever.

In one of the most politically charged games in the tournament’s history, Argentina and England met on June 22 at the Estadio Azteca. The game was the hottest ticket in Mexico City, and 115,000 fans piled into the grand stadium to see Maradona take on the English. The match was played four years after the Falklands War, referred to by Argentines by their Spanish name, Islas Malvinas. The 10-week conflict took place in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British territories in the South Atlantic Ocean. The conflict, which began on April 2, escalated when the British government dispatched a naval task force a few days later to engage the Argentine navy. In all, the war lasted 74 days and officially ended with Argentina’s surrender on June 14. The islands were returned to British control, but not before 649 Argentine soldiers were killed.

While both sides restored diplomatic relations in 1989, the quarterfinal matchup at Mexico ’86 exacerbated patriotic feelings on both sides. In Argentina, the political and cultural ramifications were felt for years. The outcome of the Argentina-England game, while not directly a part of the political conflict, went a long way in alleviating some of the national anguish in Argentina that had come with such a humiliating military defeat.

The days leading up to the match were tense — as any high-stakes quarterfinal would be — but it was compounded by talk of the conflict. Managers and players on both sides downplayed the military conflict. “Don’t waste time on questions like that,” England manager Bobby Robson told reporters on the eve of the match. “Don’t ask me anything regarding the diplomatic situation or the political situation. We’re here to play football. Don’t confuse the two issues. So don’t waste my time.”

Maradona, who rarely disappointed journalists when they asked for his take on controversial topics, didn’t play ball on this one. Asked whether the conflict was a motivating factor for Argentina heading into the game, Maradona replied, “It’s only soccer — period!”

The truth is that the tense history between the nations had spilled over to the World Cup. The Mexican authorities, fearing the worst, assembled 20,000 police officers in and around the stadium to diffuse any trouble that might arise from this explosive match. Several skirmishes took place in the stands before kickoff after Argentine fans tried to tear down a Union Jack flag. Police confiscated any politically charged banners, although some were able to get into the massive stadium. One banner summed up the match as “The Malvinas II.”

On the field, the midday sun was again too much for some of the players to handle. The Argentines appeared to fare better as a result of the noon kickoff, and Maradona maneuvered and dazzled in midfield as he had in previous matches. The Azteca was a cauldron, and the fans buzzed like bees, blowing horns, and chanting the entire game. Maradona was a marvel to watch. By the end of the game, Maradona would go down in history for two individual feats that are forever part of World Cup lore.

Maradona’s first goal, scored six minutes into the second half, was vehemently disputed by the English players, especially Shilton, but referee Ali Bennaceur of Tunisia let it stand. Television replays showed that Maradona had not headed the ball past Shilton. Instead, he had punched it with his fist. Maradona and his teammates celebrated the goal as if nothing nefarious had happened. Bilardo had forbidden his players to waste energy running to join goal celebrations, but Maradona encouraged them to run toward him as to give the illusion that they also had no doubts about the goal.

“The first goal was handed,” Robson told reporters after the game. “That cost us the result.”

Maradona, asked to explain the goal after the game, caused even more controversy when he told reporters: “That goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God and another bit by Maradona’s head.”

As a result, the play is now forever known as the “Hand of God” goal. It still brings smiles to the faces of Argentines and disdain among the English. In 2006, Lineker, working as a broadcaster for the BBC, traveled to Buenos Aires to interview Maradona. When they first met, Lineker couldn’t resist asking Maradona which hand he had used to score that first goal.

“Which hand was it? This one?” Lineker asked, pointing to Maradona’s right hand.

Maradona, with a laugh, lifted up his left arm, telling him while shaking his wrist, “No, it was this one!”

Throughout the years, Maradona was not shy about discussing the controversial goal. In fact, he reveled in it. “I started to celebrate the goal,” Maradona told Lineker, “then I looked back at the referee. Let’s go, it’s a goal.”

Lineker followed up with another question. “Was it your hand or the hand of God?

“It was me,” Maradona confessed.

If the first goal had been an act of cheating, the second in the 55th minute was pure genius. Maradona weaved the ball past England players as if it was attached to his left foot. His gliding run was too much for Robson’s team to handle. Picking up the ball near the midfield line, Maradona ran the length of the English half. He dribbled past defenders Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, and Terry Fenwick like they were traffic cones. Maradona finished his brilliant run by eluding Shilton with a low shot to the far post. The crowd erupted with joy, and Maradona ran over to the sidelines to celebrate.

“The second goal was fantastic,” Robson noted. “I didn’t like it, but I admired it.”

In Lineker’s BBC interview with Maradona, the England star said, “Personally, I blame the referee and the linesman (for the first goal), not you. The second goal may be the one and only time in my career that I felt like applauding the opposition scoring a goal. Your best goal?”

“It’s a dream goal,” Maradona said. “All players dream about scoring the greatest goal of all time. We dream about it and think about it, but to score such a goal — and in a World Cup — was fantastic. It was incredible.”

Maradona’s second goal was scored with such beauty and finesse that it is considered the best goal ever scored at a World Cup, if not ever. Maradona had been born and raised in Villa Fiorito, a slum outside Buenos Aires. It was as a child playing for his youth team on a dirt field that Maradona had dreams of scoring such a goal. He now had. In his 2000 book, Maradona: The Autobiography of Soccer’s Greatest and Most Controversial Star, he noted: “More than defeating a football team it was defeating a country. Of course, before the match, we said that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War but we knew a lot of Argentinian kids had died there, shot down like little birds. This was revenge.”

Maradona had always been a defender of the Global South. “Maradona’s iconic match against England should remind us that, while there are always efforts to ‘keep politics out of sports,’ it is just a stubborn fact that sports is life and life is political,” wrote Dave Zirin in a 2020 article for the Nation following Maradona’s death. “Maradona was a political icon not only because he stood with the voiceless of the Global South. He was political because in 1986 he put a nation on his back and, with that devilish left hand, wrote his own chapter in a history with a reach well beyond the world of sports.”

All England could do was pull a goal back in the 80th minute when Lineker’s header, his sixth goal of the tournament, found the back of the net past goalkeeper Nery Pumpido. Argentina won the game 2-1. Maradona had single-handedly taken his team to the semifinals, and they were now the odds-on favorites to win it all. “I believe that he demonstrated that he is the best player in the world,” Bilardo told reporters. “I think he is a true idol.”

This is an excerpt from Clemente Lisi’s new book, “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event,” available now on Amazon and wherever books are sold.